From Field to Cup: How Tea Is Made

The tea bush belongs to the Camellia family, hence its Latin name Camellia Sinensis or Chinese shrub. The tea bush is a hardy evergreen and its leaves are shiny and pointed with a wonderfully fragrant aroma. The flowers of the tea bush resemble white buttercups. All the tea requires to flourish is acid soil and a warm wet climate with at least fifty inches of rainfall every year. Left to grow wild, the tea bush would blossom into a tree. However on commercial tea gardens the bushes are pruned to waist height for easy plucking. This is still performed by hand and is an extremely skilled process as only the bud and top two leaves from every branch are picked.

Tea is grown in around fifty countries worldwide from Russia to Argentina, Brazil to Mozambique. The tea bush thrives in mountainous regions bordering the tropics and can grow at heights of up to 7,000 feet above sea level.

India is the world’s largest producer and exporter of tea. Assam is a major growing area covering the Brahmaputra Valley, from the Himalayas down to the Bay of Bengal.

• Darjeeling, with tea gardens up to 7,000 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Himalayas, produces smaller crops of excellent quality. Darjeeling is often referred to as “the champagne of teas” because of its quality and unique “Muscatel” winey flavor.

• Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, produces tea still referred to as Ceylon. The best quality teas are “high grown” on slopes above 4,000 feet. The most famous Ceylon teas come from the Dimbula Valley. Ceylon teas are strong but delicate, with a slight bitterness.

• Kenya now grows some of the very best teas in the world. Taylors Kenyan High Mountain, grown nearly 7,000 feet above sea level, produces an intensely bright color and delicious aroma.

• China. Although most of its production is consumed at home, China is still famous for distinctive black, green and oolong teas. Lapsang Souchong has a distinct smokey and tarry taste, acquired through drying over pine wood fires. Keemun, the traditional tea of old Imperial China, is renowned for its orchid aroma and brilliant red liquor.

Once the tea is gathered, it is transported to the tea factory where the fresh green shoots are transformed into the black tea that we drink. The methods employed in different factories vary very little. Yet the teas are seldom the same. Most of the characteristics in a tea arise from the properties in the green leaf. Hence we have the familiar expression “tea is made in the field.”

Tea leaves are processed into three main types:

• Green tea: If the leaves are dried quickly without fermentation, they become green tea. Green teas are highly favored by the Chinese and Japanese, and increasingly popular in the West because of their health benefits. 

• Oolong Tea is semi-fermented, falling between black and green. The most famous, Formosa Oolong, originates from Taiwan (formerly Formosa Island). It has a unique peachy flavor.

• Black tea: If the leaves undergo the full fermentation process, they become black tea. Black tea is most popular form worldwide, accounting for 77% of the world’s production. Green teas represent 21% and oolong teas account for 2%.

Tea leaves plucked in the morning are normally produced and graded as black tea by the following early afternoon.

• The tea is withered by spreading the tea leaves out on racks in a very warm room, thus removing much of the natural moisture from the leaves.

• The leaves are rolled and cut by machines which crush and tear the tea. The orthodox process uses a conventional tea rolling machine which results in the larger leaf grades used in many loose teas. The CTC (cut-tear-curl) process results in smaller leaf grades which provide the faster infusions required for tea bags.

• The leaves are fermented. This process begins naturally as soon as the leaves have been rolled or cut. At this stage the green tea turns a rich coppery color as the oxygen circulates around the crushed leaves, similar to the way a bitten apple turns brown when left for a while.

• The tea is fired in very hot ovens. This stops the fermentation process and turns the leaves black, producing a tea with good keeping qualities.

The dried black tea is sorted into a number of grades of uniform particle size. The teas are divided into “leaf” grades and “broken” grades. The largest-sized leaf grade is Orange Pekoe (OP). (The term pekoe is derived from a Chinese word used in reference to the tips of young tea buds.) The same grade in India is known as Flowery Orange Pekoe. A smaller leaf grade is called Pekoe. Leaf grade Formosa Oolong is called Souchong. Broken Orange is smaller than leaf grade and is sought after for popular blends such as English Breakfast. Very small broken grades are graded as Fannings or Dust, both are popular for tea bags or instant teas because they infuse immediately.

The tea is finally packed into chests and shipped all over the world. Teas are sold by grade in the tea auctions or privately to traders or packers. Tea buyers value teas based on the basis of their black leaf appearance, infusion and liquoring properties. Buyers judge the infusions based on actual tastings, which allow for the description and evaluation of the various characteristics of an individual tea’s liquor: briskness, strength, color, body, quality, aroma and flavor.