Tea production and types
Tea is produced from the leaves of one specific plant: Camellia sinensis:
The finest quality tea is made from leaves harvested by hand. Only the top 2-3 leaves are picked to ensure the freshness of the plant
There are 6 main tea families of tea:
- Green Tea: unoxidized
- Black Tea: completely oxidized
- Oolong Tea: partially oxidized
- White Tea: slightly oxidized
- Yellow Tea: slightly oxidized
- Dark Tea: post-fermented
Oxidation process begins when the cell walls within tea leaves are damaged. To do that the tea producers crush or roll the tea leaves. Oxidation can be stopped at any moment in time by controlling temperature and humidity.
Depending on the region and processing type we get different types of final tea product. The most common tea types in the world:
- Chinese green tea - the most popular tea in China
- Ceylon black tea
- Assam black tea
- Pu'er tea cake - fermented tea leaves formed in a shape of cake
- Scented tea - adding different flavors to the tea leaves
- Matcha - tea leaves grown in the shade, without direct sunlight, after drying and rolling, the leaves are stone-grounded to the bright green powder