Interesting facts about tea, history of origin, useful properties

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Tea is a drink loved by the whole world: each country has its favorite type of drink and its own culture. Where is the birthplace of tea? How is it grown? What types of tea are there? We will learn all these and other interesting facts about tea in this article.

History of tea

If you look into the history of the drink, you can learn some new interesting facts about tea.

The birthplace of tea is China. Hence the name of the drink, which is called differently in different parts of the country. Russia traded with the province of Hankou, where tea is called "cha". Europeans moored ships in the southeast at the ports of Sanmen, Guangzhou and Fuzhou, whose inhabitants called tea "chii" or "tiea". Hence the differences in the name between European and Slavic countries. For example, the English pronounce "tee" and the Russians say "tea". The history of the origin of the drink is the merit of the Chinese, and it fell in love in many countries thanks to the British - after them Europeans, Americans and Indians began to drink tea. By the way, there are interesting facts about tea growing in India - tea bushes have been growing there for a long time, but only monks drank the drink, and therefore tea cultureoriginated only in the 19th century.

Today, tea is grown in 30 countries. 4 of them produce a premium drink: Yunnan, Fujian (China), Wuji (Japan), Darjeeling (India) and South Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Tea in Russia

In our country, tea is one of the favorite drinks. When and where did tea appear in Russia? It was brought to Russia in the 17th century and immediately fell in love with the people, despite the high price due to the lack of its own production. How did Russian tea appear? The history of its origin is quite interesting: the first bush and seeds were planted by P. E. Kirillov, who grew tea at home, since it was quite expensive to bring it from China. But before the October Revolution, the government did not grow tea.

The situation changed with the advent of the USSR, where tea production reached the highest level, and important tasks of the state were not only to grow classic varieties in Krasnodar, Azerbaijan and Georgia, but also to obtain new varieties for cultivation in cold regions. Own production of tea in the USSR not only met the needs of citizens, but also made it possible to export the product to other countries. After the collapse of the USSR, factories remained in sovereign countries.

Today, 95% of tea in Russia is imported, and China, India and Turkey occupy the main place among the producing countries.

Benefits of tea

During the French Revolution, a doctor decided to conduct an experiment to find out which drink - coffee or tea - is harmful to humans. Two prisoners sentenced to deathbegan to drink daily 4 large cups of coffee and tea. The one who drank the tea lived to be 76 years old. And the second - up to 82. The doctor who observed them lived to be 62 years old. He didn't drink coffee or tea. The benefits and harms of the drink are not familiar to everyone. Therefore, it is worth considering its pros and cons in more detail. Let's start with the benefits:

1. Gives vigor and strength, stimulates metabolism, normalizes the activity of the heart, blood vessels, digestive and nervous systems.

2. Contains trace elements such as copper, iron, fluorine, manganese, calcium, zinc.

3. Inhibits the growth of malignant tumors and reduces the risk of cell transformation into cancer.
4. The tannin contained in the drink kills some bacteria and prevents the appearance of stomatitis, tonsillitis and intestinal infections.
5. Promotes weight loss and improves skin condition.
6. Regular consumption of tea reduces the occurrence of cerebral clots, sclerosis and hypertension. This is achieved due to the ability of the drink to slow down the formation of fatty deposits inside the blood vessels.
7. Despite the heat, this is the best drink in summer, as after hot tea, the skin temperature drops by 1-2 degrees.

Drink harm

The benefits of tea are obvious. But what about the harm?

1. Today, most commercial teas contain a large amount of dyes and flavors, which is not very good for the body.

2. Many drink hot tea, which burns the internalorgans and leads to their painful changes.
3. Fresh tea leaves should be consumed within 20 minutes, because after this time, the flavors, lipoids, phenol and essential oils contained in it begin to oxidize.
4. Strong tea contains a large amount of theine and caffeine, which leads to insomnia and headaches after drinking. In addition, strong tea negatively affects the functioning of the heart.
5. People suffering from constipation should stop drinking green tea as it has a fixative effect. In addition, prolonged use of this type of drink leads to the destruction of tooth enamel.
6. Hypotonic patients should not drink green tea, as it lowers blood pressure.

How ambiguous tea is! Benefits and harms go hand in hand. But if you follow the technology of proper brewing and drink in moderation, then the drink will bring only pleasure and benefit.

Types of tea

Tea, depending on the type of processing, is divided into 4 types:

• black;
• green;
• red;
• white.

There are also such types of teas as blue, orange, brown - they all occupy an intermediate position between the above.

Black and green teas can be loose, pressed and extracted.

In addition, tea is divided into types according to the country of production and the region of growth. Each region producescertain kind.

Trading tea - the one that is sold in the store. It is a blend (mixture) of different species and varieties and can contain from 10 to 25 varieties of plants that grew not only in different areas, but also in different parts of the world. Tea-testers are engaged in blending. The quality of the blend depends on the place of growth, the time and method of harvesting, the nature of the primary and final processing.

Types of processing affect the chemical composition, taste and aroma of tea. There are 6 types of processing in total: withering, curling, fermentation, drying, sorting, packaging.

When withering, the tea is dried with hot air for about 8 hours. This procedure helps to get rid of excess moisture.

When twisting tea leaves are squeezed and twisted in special machines - rollers. At this stage, essential oils are formed in the future drink, affecting its taste. After that, the tea is sent to a sieve, on which, with the help of vibration, small leaves are separated from large ones.

During fermentation, the cell sap is oxidized and fermented. The process lasts 4 hours at a temperature of 35-40 degrees. As a result, the tea changes color, caffeine is activated and the amount of tannins decreases.

During drying, tea leaves are dried in machines for about 20 minutes at 110-120 degrees. This procedure allows you to reduce moisture to 6-7% and increase the shelf life of the finished product.

When sorting, tea is sifted through a sieve with different mesh sizes. The resulting product is transported to tea factories.

During packaging, tea is blended andthe packaging indicates which leaves the collection consists of.

How to make tea correctly?

The taste of the drink depends on important steps. What?

• Water should be soft, without foreign odors. You can buy it in the store or take it filtered. You need to boil it 1 time.
• The water temperature for brewing black and red teas should exceed 95 degrees, for white and green teas - 60-85 degrees.
• In no case should you brew tea in a metal bowl. Clay, porcelain, faience teapots and a French press are ideal for this purpose.
• If the tea is large leaf, then take 150 ml of water. If small - then 250 ml.
• Be sure to rinse the kettle with hot water before brewing.
• Infuse tea for 5-7 minutes.

To improve the taste, you can add to tea, in addition to the usual lemon and sugar, spices, dried mint leaves, thyme, dried fruits, fresh fruit slices.

What interesting facts about tea do you know?