What's Your Cup of Tea?
By Laurence Civil
Popular belief is that tea was first discovered in China by Emperor Shen Nung in 2737 BC pure by chance when a few leaves fell from a tree into a pan of water he was boiling. The Emperor decided to taste it and discovered that tea was both delicious and refreshing.
While there are many different varieties of tea they all come from leaves of an evergreen plant from the camellia family Camellia sinensis, and there are three major varieties, China type, the India (Assam region) type, and the Hybrid type (a cross breed of the China and India types).
Tea is the brew made from the infusion of water and the leaves of an evergreen plant of the Camellia family and comes in four types, White, Green, Oolong and Black. What distinguishes each category is the method used when processing the tealeaves. If the leaves are immediately dried and then heated (steamed) or fired, the tea leaves remain green. If left to wither, the leaves are transformed through a process known as oxidation into black tea, of which there are hundreds of varieties.
The foremost tea regions are in China, Japan, Taiwan, India and Sri Lanka. China and Japan produce some of the finest green tea in the world. Taiwan has some of the best oolongs. India and Sri Lanka are the home of some of the best black tea found anywhere.
China is well known and respected for its long-standing history of tea production. Up until the Second World War and the advent of communism in China, the Chinese exported more than half the world's tea and this is where the expression "...for all the tea in China" originates; today they export about 6 percent. When the black tea is infused it creates a burgundy colour liquid that most of us regard as tea. The Chinese primarily drink green tea, but export mainly black tea.
Tea production in India expanded when the English first made it a major crop in the early part of the nineteenth century. Today, the country ranks as one of the largest producers of tea in the world - if not the largest - with annual harvest exceeding 800,000 tons. Half of India's tea is produced in Assam alone.
Taiwan has been producing some of the finest oolong teas for over three hundred years with a subtly flavour that's achieved by light fermentation and is served with meals in some of Bangkok's finest Chinese restaurants.
Some of the best green tea in the world comes from Japan. There are recently been a sudden rise in the consumption of Green Tea based beverages in Bangkok with many bottled varieties, easy to digest and having a soothing aroma.
The weather and landscape in Sri Lanka is ideal for growing tea and has some of the best Tea Estates in the world, With independence in 1972 the country re-named itself Sri Lanka but the tea is still called Ceylon.
Dilmah, the major exporter of Ceylon Tea have recently become a major player in the tea market in Bangkok. The company was founded by Merrill J. Fernando who has devoted a lifetime to tea. He had his early tea training in Ceylon and then in the Mecca of tea, Mincing Lane, London, where the tea was then packed. Merrill wanted to change that system and package the tea at source in Sri Lanka to ensure a fresher product for his customers. That took him almost 25 years and in 1974 he established his own company MJF Exports Ltd. Today they are the 7th largest tea packer in the world, and Sri Lanka's leading exporter of value added tea with turnover of approximately Rs. 4 billion in 2003, for tea.
Dilmah's Tea are sourced only in one country – Sri Lanka. They believed in Real Tea, produced in the orthodox or traditional manner developed and perfected over centuries, preserves the exquisite appearance and taste of a variety of grades and characters of tea. As a family company with a commitment to honesty, and tradition, Dilmah remains with traditional tea. They protect the heritage and authenticity of tea by relying traditional, orthodox tea, regardless of its high cost.
"Tea is one of nature's greatest gifts," says Merrill J. Fernando, Founder of Dilmah Tea, "healthy, refreshing and full of flavour. Tea did also once bring together families and friends in that wonderful tradition of partaking in the ceremony of tea. One important facet of my mission is bringing back that family tradition and ceremony, for tea unites people in this way, strengthening families and bonds of friendship."
Dilmah Tea's are available in four categories, Premium and Gourmet Selections, Special Green Tea and Exotic Flavours.
So how to make the perfect cup of tea?
The water used will effect taste so ideally use the purest available either filtered or bottled. Tea loves oxygen that's why the water should be fresh, re-boiled water has less oxygen and won't taste as good. The four different types of tea each require a different water temperature and brewing time to achieve the perfect infusion.
Water Temperature / Brewing Time
White 80°C 4-15 Mins
Green 80°C 1-2 Mins
Oolong 107°C 1-9 Mins
Black 107°C 3-5 Mins
Loose Tea or A Tea Bag?
The issue is convenience versus excellence. Tealeaves contain chemicals and essential oils the source of the delightful flavour of tea. When the leaves are broken up, those oils can evaporate, leaving a dull and tasteless tea. Typical tea bags are filled with the tiniest pieces of broken leaves, called fannings. Loose teas are typically whole leaves or at least large pieces of leaves. Tea leaves need space to swell, expand and unfurl. Good water circulation around the leaves is important, which doesn't typically happen in a cramped little tea bag. To address this issue Dilmah created the pyramid tea bag that provides the essential space to infuse the full flavour of their teas.
How to Serve Tea
Arabs drink tea in little glasses, the size and shape of the glass varying from region to region. Iraq and Jordan for example have glasses in an hourglass shape with gold or crystal highlights, whilst in Egypt the tea glasses are more regular and rounded in shape. If drinking tea without milk, its ideal to serve in glass as you can appreciate the colour much as you would if drinking wine. The cup or mug you drink tea from effects the taste experience in the same way the choice of glass does when drinking wine. For tea bone china is to be recommended to optimize the taste. Adding milk or cream before or after the tea is a matter of personal preference, originally it was put into bone china cups first to stop them from being cracked by boiling hot tea.
Tea has that unique restorative effect when taken at that point in the afternoon when the body starts to feel a touch sluggish.
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