-
2025-06-03
Different teas from the process, not the plant
There are so many types of tea, it can be difficult to get an overview. Traditionally, there are 6 different types of tea, all of which come from the tea shrub camellia sinensis:
-
black tea
-
green tea
-
white tea
-
oolong
-
pu'er
-
yellow tea
Oxidation - a chemical process
When you grow a tea, you have already decided in advance which variety to produce, and you choose the plants that give the best taste, the best harvest, resistance to diseases, etc. But it is not the choice of plant that determines the variety, but the process afterwards. The most important step is the oxidation. Here's how: If you cut an apple into two pieces, the cut surfaces darken quite quickly and
-
-
2025-06-03
Is it ok to use tea bags?
Why is it that tea bags are so common? Is it really the dust that you sweep up when you make real tea? Why are the same varieties always available as bagged tea?
The tea bag is invented and rediscovered
In 1901, the first tea bag, or tea leaf holder, as the two inventors called it, was invented. Roberta C. Lawson and Mary McLaren of Milwaukee, Wisconsin had identified an important problem that arises when brewing tea: you want to be able to stop the brewing process without the tea steeping too long. Their design is strongly reminiscent of modern-day tea bags. The leaves are enclosed in a fabric that is dense enough to hold the leaves, but thin enough to let the water through. It was never a real success, and the patent fell into oblivion.When New York tea wholesaler Thomas Sullivan sent out samples to his customers in 1908, they misunderstood,
-
2025-06-02
The history of tea - a timeline
Here we have selected some of the milestones in the amazing history of tea....
-
2025-06-02
All these strange abbreviations
Tea leaf grading is a method of classifying and identifying tea leaves. It is used for black tea, especially from India (such as Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiri) and Sri Lanka (sometimes referred to as Ceylon in tea circles).
These classifications help to understand how the tea leaves have been processed after harvesting, but do not say much about the flavor quality itself. In very simple terms, the smaller the leaves, the more letters there are. And since an earlier harvest means more work (per kilo of tea leaves), it usually leads to a higher price.
Orthodox or CTC?
- Orthodox Traditional method in which the leaves are rolled, preserving the whole leaf structure.
- CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) Mechanical method that crushes, tears and rolls the leaves, resulting in small,