Classification of tea according to various parameters. Types, characteristics and producers of tea

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

Tea is one of those indispensable products that is always in any home. The drink is loved by children, and their parents, and grandparents. There is no variety of tea on the modern market. There are varieties that many have only heard about on TV: they are very expensive, and therefore not available to every buyer. But there are also quite affordable offers. In a word, the current tea assortment is simply eye-opening. But in order to purchase a quality product, many criteria must be taken into account. There is the most diverse classification of tea, and therefore it is necessary to understand a little how to determine the quality of the product. And, of course, you should be guided by your wishes and tastes.

To get the harvest

Before moving on to the classification and types of tea, you need to get a little familiar with the process of growing it. After all, growing tea is an incredible job that takes a lot of time and effort. In order for a beautiful bush to grow, it is necessary to plant cuttings in the ground, although one- or two-year-old seedlings are sometimes used. The first crop of leaves can be removed only after four to five yearsafter they landed. Tea bushes are constantly pruned so that they do not grow in height, but so that many side shoots grow.

As a rule, a tea plantation consists of a row of shrubs, the height of which reaches one to one and a half meters. The aisles are the same width.

Organization by type of tea leaves

Classification of tea according to the type of tea leaves is one of the parameters for systematizing the product. So, the classification of dry tea leaves according to the type of leaves is as follows:

• OR (Orange Pekoe) - a special designation, which is the main degree of quality. This product is truly worthy of the kings themselves. As a rule, it is made from the top two young leaves of the tea bush. Such leaves are still covered with young fluff. Such a tea leaf should be whole and twisted. It has a high content of natural aromatic oils. If the product packaging has the OP mark, it means that the finished tea will be strong, with an incredibly pleasant aroma.
• P (Pekoe) - tea, for the manufacture of which they take very young, only blossoming leaves, twisted into balls. Belongs to large-leaved varieties. The brew will not be very strong, but with a subtle amber and delicate taste.
• F (Flowery) - tips are present in tea with a similar marking. These are the buds of a plant that have just blossomed. They give the infusion an excellent taste and delicate smell.
• B (Broken) - a product in which the tea leaf during the machinecutting or twisting moderately crushed, but not to the state of crumbs.
• D (Dust) - a variety of tea dust with tannic acid in the composition. It is usually used to produce cheap tea bags.

Degree of fermentation

There is also a classification of tea according to the level of fermentation. Fermentation is a process of irreversible transformation of substances that accumulate in tea leaves during growth. This process begins at the moment when the leaf is removed from the branch, and it ends only when all substances have been transformed into more stable compounds. According to the degree of fermentation, tea is divided into five basic groups:

1. Bai cha (white tea). To prepare white tea, it is necessary to keep the collected raw materials in the sun. In this case, a process called "slow fermentation" occurs. The buds and leaves do not curl in any way, but retain their natural shape, which is one of the important characteristics of white teas.
2. Lu cha (green tea). The least fermented teas belong to this group. To obtain green leaf tea, it is necessary to subject the plucked leaves to heat treatment, as a result of which bitterness is eliminated and fermentation stops. Then the leaves are rolled and finally dried and sorted. The tea is now ready to be consumed.
3. Oolong cha (Oolong tea). These are blue-green or partially fermented teas. The peculiarity of the variety is that the leaves ferment differently, zoned. For example, the middle of the leaflet may be less fermented, andborder - more.
4. Hong cha (red tea). Chinese red tea is the drink that we usually call black. For him, the leaves are harvested in hot summer weather. Fast (active) fermentation is a feature of the production of tea in this category. The product is almost completely fermented.
5. Hei cha (black tea). This is a post-fermented tea aged for years. Over time, this product group only gets better.

What is your origin

Classification of tea by origin also takes place:

Chinese - China is the largest tea producer (more than a quarter of the world's total). The country produces white, black, yellow, oolong, pu-erh, red and green loose teas.

Indian - India is the second largest tea producer. The Assam variety of the plant is used as raw material. Mostly black varieties of the drink are made in the country.

Ceylon - Sri Lanka produces about a tenth of the world's tea. To get the product, they take the same raw materials as in India. India specializes in green and black varieties.

Japanese - As a rule, only a few varieties of tea are produced in Japan, which are exported. Everything else is made for domestic consumption.

Indochina (Vietnam and Indonesia) - black and green varieties of the drink are made.

African - except Kenya, all other producers are considered small.

Typeplants

Tea can also be classified by type of plant. So, the Chinese variety grows in the form of a bush. Often, a tea bush is planted on gentle slopes, since it always needs moisture, but stagnation of fluid under the root is detrimental to the plant. The youngest shoots are considered the most valuable. New stems are harvested exclusively by hand. True, at one time several attempts were made to mechanize the process, but this only made the quality of raw materials worse.

The Assam variety is a tree that reaches a height of 26 meters. The Cambodian variety is a hybrid of the above two varieties and is native to Indo-China.

Leaf treatment type

Classification and assortment of tea may vary depending on the type of leaf processing. High-grade loose leaf teas are the drinks that were described in the first paragraph of the article. Medium-grade offers are teas that are made from cut or broken leaves that appeared in the process of making whole-leaf varieties. But sometimes the leaves are crushed and on purpose. The drink will be strong and brew very quickly, but its taste and aroma will not be the most pleasant.

Low grade ground teas are about the same products as medium grades, but their quality is much worse.

The granulated version is obtained by passing sheets through toothed rotating rolls. The drink will have a viscous taste and a bright color and a slight aroma.

Bag tea consists of tea dust and crumbs. Although its quality andis low, but due to its ease of use, it has a huge popularity.

Brick made almost entirely from tea litter by pressing. It brews well, but to say it tastes bad is an understatement.

To create an instant drink, manufacturers use low-quality raw materials, which are a dry extract of a natural product.

Tea from Sri Lanka

One of the most popular on the planet is Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka. The local population uses tea instead of water to quench their thirst. After all, if you drink one mug of such a drink, then for three hours you will no longer want to drink. A total of six varieties of Ceylon teas are grown in Sri Lanka. Product characteristics are largely dependent on the height of the plantations. They can be low, medium and high. The best Ceylon tea grows near a city called Nuwara Eliya.

But tea leaves are also harvested in such areas of Sri Lanka as Dimbula, Ruhuna, Uva and Uda Pussellawa. Due to the cool climate and monsoons in Dimbula, tea acquires a delicate taste, the strength of which varies from rich to medium. Tea harvested from plantations in Ruhuna will have a tart taste. The exotic taste of the drink can be felt if you try to make it from the leaves growing in Uva. Well, in Uda Pessellawe, they make mild-tasting tea of medium strength.

Ceylon tea varieties

The best Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka is produced bycompanies: Hyson, Mlesna Tea, GILBERT'S PREMIUM TEA and Basilur. For commercial purposes, these corporations produce the following main types of tea:

• PF1 - small granules. This is a strong infusion that is unbeatable for sachets.
• FBOPF Ex. – a whole leaf with a lot of tips, an impeccable mild taste, characterized by a caramel aroma.
• FBOPF 1 is a plain medium leaf tea with a sweetish and strong taste.
• Silver Tips are high quality leaf buds that dry to a velvety silver color. This is a refined aromatic drink with mystically healing properties.
• Gun Powder is a green tea made according to a special technology of roasting in a Chinese pan.

Green Classification

There is also a separate classification of green tea, which looks like this:

• YH - tea plants are harvested at the beginning of the season.
• FYH is a Chinese green tea variety.
• H - Chinese broken green tea made from differently twisted leaves.
• FH is Chinese sliced tea, the leaves of which are twisted differently.
• SOUMME - seeding. Tea from heterogeneous petals with a medium infusion.

Tea from other countries

Besides the states described above, there are other tea-producing countries. So, tea bushes are grown in Taiwan. First seedlingsPlants were brought here in the 17th century. To date, the total area of tea plantations exceeds 20 thousand hectares. The main fields are located near Taipei, the capital of the state.

Turkey is the largest tea producer in the Middle East. More than a hundred tons of product are produced here throughout the year. On the world tea market, Turkish tea products are not in great demand, since they are many times inferior to successful Chinese, Ceylon and Indian products.

For more than one century, teas have been grown in the Caspian and northern regions of Iran. Approximately 60 thousand tons of the product is grown every year.

Not to be overlooked is Georgia, where the first tea bushes were planted in the 19th century. After several decades, mass production of tea was established here. It was possible to obtain a high-quality drink from Georgian tea only with scrupulous manual processing. But the quality of the product on an industrial scale is not distinguished by excellent characteristics.

Tea is also cultivated and produced in Brazil, but it is consumed only within the state.

Result

From all of the above, we can conclude that before tea hits the store shelves, it must go a long way. First you need to plant and grow a tea bush, then make sure that the leaves on it grow beautiful. Then they are collected, processed for a long time and only after that they get tea leaves. In the tea business, there are manyclassifications that allow you to choose the tea that the consumer will like more than other varieties.