Types and varieties of tea

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Pressed teas are produced from substandard raw materials (stalks, old leaves, tea dust) arising from the processing of tea leaves at any tea factory. Larger residues are pressed into tiles and bricks, smaller ones are tableted. Small teas are also used in sachets.

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The tradition of mixing teas of different origins has a long history in Russia. Centuries ago, when there were no railways yet, tea from Asia was transported by camel caravans. The journey was long and dangerous, the supply was fickle. Not wanting to lose a single gram of the precious cargo, traders mixed various arriving tea cargoes and sold the mixtures even more willingly than their individual components. This is how the Caravan tea appeared, which had excellent taste and was in great demand.

Mixing, or blending, is a complex, delicate process that requires hard work of people of a rare profession who taste tea - titesters. They must have an unusually delicate sense of taste and smell, and be constantly able to do a lot of work.

Tea companies usually have their own mixing recipes. For foreign titters, the main thing is the taste of tea and the color of the boiled leaf. Our experts distinguish five indicators: appearance, intensity of infusion, aroma, taste and color of the boiled leaf. You can mix teas from one country and teas grown in different countries.

If you see "Made in China" on the box, then this mixture is made up of different varieties grown in China. Likewise, in India, Sri Lanka, etc. Blends made from teas from different countries have special names, for example, "Jubilee", "No. 36", "No. 300", "Kupecheskiy" and others.

Flavored teas can be obtained from all types of long tea. Aromatization does not affect the biochemical composition of the tea. As a result, tea acquires some kind of additional, distinct aroma. Most often, they are aromatized with medium quality teas and only sometimes with high ones.

There are two ways to flavor. One, handmade, has been known since ancient times. Various fragrant flowers, roots, plant seeds, such as jasmine, anise seeds, iris and kururma roots, are added to the finished tea. Tea, still warm after drying, is scattered in layers, alternating with layers of flavorings, and thoroughly mixed. After a certain time, the flavor is manually selected from the tea. Then the tea is dried again and sometimes dry flavors are added - about 2.5 kg per 50 kg of tea. This is an expensive way. The second way is cheaper. This is aromatization with the help of synthetic essences that repeat the formula of their natural counterparts. The presence of flavors is indicated on the packaging.

Russian consumers are skeptical about artificial flavors. But experts from the Institute of Nutrition argue that essences are not harmful to health, and in terms of quality and taste they are often superior to natural products. Internationally, the quality of tea is rated on a 10-point scale, from "rarest" to "lowest". Among them - the varieties "highest", "high", "good average", "average", "below average". On the territory of the CIS, mainly "medium" and "below average" varieties are sold.

Trade designations of varieties - "superior", "first", "second", "third". Typically, tea-producing countries and firms specialize in certain types and varieties of tea. Perhaps only China produces everything, and red and yellow teas are generally made only here. Japan specializes mainly in green long tea, while Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Russia produce only black ones. Laos has blue tea, which is a kind of green tea. Large firms that sell tea usually include the name of the firm and the variety in the name of the tea. In Russia, the name is given according to the area where the tea grows, and the grade is indicated: "Krasnodar", "Georgian, extra", etc.