My favourite drink - Tea

Singapore - Tea is recognized as the 2nd most consumed beverage behind water.  Tea was first discovered by the Chinese in 2737 BC and has always been recognised for its purifying and fortifying qualities.  It also clears the mind.   I try to drink this everyday and everytime a request is made 'what would you like to drink?' - it will always be tea. 

Strangely though there are many types of tea, it is basically the drying and processing of only ONE species of plant called camellia sinensis.  Herbal teas or herbal infusions are not really tea, but simply dried leaves and flowers of various other plants and herbs.

Even though all teas come from only one species, there are 3 major variety: 
The China (small leaves and generally thrives at higher altitudes);
the India or Assam (small leaves and generally thrives at lower altitudes) and
the Hybrid (in-between the Chinese and Indian).

Tea making is an art - the processing of camellia's leaves into tea.  It is where many of the subtleties in taste, body, and overall character are created.  In its most basic form, it is taking the raw green leaves and deciding whether or not, and how much oxidation (or fermentation) should take place before drying them out.  Tea leaves have enzymes in their veins.  When the leaf is broken, bruised or crushed, the enzymes are exposed to the air resulting in oxidation.  The amount of oxidation depends upon how much of the enzymes are exposed and for how long.

There are four methods of processing and each produces a different type of tea.  These are White tea, Green Tea, Black Tea and Oolong Tea.

White Tea is nothing more than the leaves of the camellia sinensis that have been processed a certain way.  It is the least common of the four types of teas.  White teas are the least processed of any tea and therefore taste the most like fresh leaves or grass.  They also have the lowest amount of caffeine and most likely the highest antioxidant properties.

Green Tea, like white tea is closer to tasting like fresh leaves or grass hand the black or oolong.  They are also lower in caffeine and have higher antioxidant properties.  The processing of green tea is similiar to white tea in that it does not oxidize.  After the leaves are plucked, they are laid out to wither for about 8-24 hrs.  This lets most of the water evaporates.  Then to neutralize the enxymes thus preventing oxidation, the leaves are steamed or pan fried.  Next, the leaves are rolled up in various ways and a final drying takes place.  Since no oxidation took place, the tea has more of a green appearance.

Black Tea, are the most consumed of the  4 types of teas.  They are the highest in caffeine but still have antioxidant properties, the lowest of the four.  After the tea leaves are laid out to wither for about 8-24 hrs,  this lets most of the water evaporate.  Then, the difference is that the leaves are rolled in order to cracked up the surface so that oxygen will react with the enzymes and begin the oxidation process.  The leaves are left to completely oxidize, thus turning the leaves to a deep black colour.  After that, a final drying takes place.

Oolong Teas are the most difficult of the 4 types to process.  The best way to describe oolong tea is that they are somewhere in between green and black tea.  This is because they are only partially oxidized during the processing.  The processing of oolong tea requires only a partial oxidation of the leaves.  After the leaves are plucked, they are laid out to wither for about 8 to 24 hrs.  This lets most of the water evaporate.  Then the leaves are tossed in baskets in order to bruise the edges of the leaves.  This bruising only cause the leaves to partially oxidize because only a portion of the enzymes are exposed to air.  Next, the leaves are steamed in order to neutralize the enzymes and stop any oxidization.   After that, a final drying takes place and then to to be sorted, graded and packaged.