Everyone I want some tea

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

Information about the origin of tea dates back to ancient times. In ancient legends it is said that the Chinese knew the tea bush about 5 thousand years ago. An ancient legend says that when the Hindu prince Darm was wandering in 515 AD. NS. in southern China, he spent most of his time in prayer and vigils. One day, from fatigue and exhaustion, his eyes closed and he fell asleep. In order not to anger the deity, he cut off his eyelids and threw them on the ground. As if by magic, an unprecedented bush grew out of them with beautiful, fragrant white flowers and green leaves that looked like eyelids. Dharma tasted these leaves and felt that vigor and good mood were arising in him.

The Chinese are also credited with the priority in making a drink from tea leaves. According to legend dating back to the first centuries of our era, tea - an invigorating, sleep-repelling drink - was prepared only for religious midnight ceremonies. And the amazing properties of the plant were discovered by Chinese shepherds, who noticed that the animals, having eaten away the bushes, became unusually playful and mobile.

The first information about tea reached Europe in 1584. Before tea, various drinks were consumed in Russia. Pickles (cucumber, cabbage), fruit drinks, lingonberry and cherry water, honey, kvass and oat jelly were originally Russian. During the Mongol-Tatar yoke, Russians got acquainted with buza - a cold Arabian drink made from millet. The most widespread in Russia was sbiten - a hot honey drink with St. John's wort, sage, bay leaves, valerian root, ginger and other plants.

The first people in Russia to learn about tea were the inhabitants of Siberia, and long before its appearance in Europe. Trade on an exchange basis was very beneficial for China. Russia sent cloth, leather, furs, iron products and much more to China. For two packets of tea they gave sable each. Since then, tea in our country began to be drunk a lot and often, to this day without changing this tradition.

As a coffee lover, I risk the next point to re-educate my own and others' tastes. Well, let's see. Tea for its medicinal properties is called "the fire of life". The chemical composition directly depends on the variety, methods of processing, storage, cultivation and much more. The tonic effect is associated with the content of caffeine in tea, and no less than in coffee. The difference is undoubtedly huge. Tea caffeine (theine) does not cause palpitations (not in shock doses), does not cause insomnia, again due to the smaller amount of product needed to obtain a drink. Tea caffeine has another important property: it does not linger or accumulate in the body, which eliminates the danger of caffeine intoxication, which is observed with excessive consumption of coffee. In practice, more than 75-80% of the total amount of caffeine is never extracted from a tea drink.

In recent years, new observations have been made in connection with the beneficial effects of tea. Japanese scientists T. Ugai and E. Hayashi found that many victims of the atomic explosion in Hiroshima, who returned and lived in the Uji region (producing high-grade tea) and began to constantly consume tea, had a noticeable improvement in their general condition and they survived everyone else, not consuming tea regularly. It was experimentally established that one of the most dangerous radioactive waste, strontium-90, which has the property of being fixed mainly in the bones, was absorbed by the tannin substances of tea and could not penetrate into the body.

We pass, as they say, to water procedures - tea brewing. Tea should be like a kiss - hot, strong, sweet. For brewing, an empty porcelain (!) Teapot must be well warmed. This is done in order to enhance the extraction of tea. The usual way to keep warm is to rinse the kettle 3-4 times with boiling water. After the water has boiled for 20 seconds, you need to put a portion of dry tea into the kettle and immediately pour boiling water - up to half or, depending on the type and type of tea, up to one third (a mixture of green and black tea), or even up to one fourth and less (green tea) capacity.

The kettle should be quickly closed with a lid and covered with a linen napkin so that it covers the holes in the lid and spout. This is done not so much for insulation as for the tissue of the napkin to absorb water vapor coming out of the kettle and at the same time not to let in volatile aromatic essential oils. To this end, it is even better to cover the teapot with a linen bag filled with dry tea leaves. In no case should the kettle be covered with various insulation materials - pillows, nesting dolls on cotton wool, etc. In this case, the tea melts and becomes tasteless.

The infusion time, depending on the hardness of the water and the type of tea, lasts from 3 to 15 minutes. The best time for good black teas in soft water is 3-5 minutes. During this time, the delicate aroma does not have time to evaporate, and at the same time, the tea mostly has time to be extracted.

Brewing rates naturally depend on tastes, preferences and container size. In Russian public catering, the dosage is adopted - 4 grams of tea per 1 liter of water, in Japanese, Chinese and English - 25-30 grams, in Swedish - 12 grams, Indian - 45 grams per liter.

Among other things, you need to know that tea is prone to aging, as it lends itself to oxidative processes when humid air is available. And this leads to a loss of its aroma and a change in taste. Therefore, they try to make containers for storing tea tight. When this condition is reached, the tea can be stored for years. A sign of aging is, first of all, the appearance of a "papery" taste. Fine tea undergoes this process most quickly.

And finally … tea lovers should remember that tea is a drink that requires special attention and caution in its use. It is not easy to remove tea stains, first of all: immediately, by washing the thing in soapy water; you can remove stains with a diluted solution of ammonia.

Well, to all who do not like the soul in tea I wish only one thing: hot, strong, sweet, before, after or instead of kisses.