China: Considered the birthplace of tea. Producing all varieties of tea, China grows tea mostly in the southeast regions of the country. Fujian province produces a wide array of tea types, including black tea, oolong tea, green tea and white tea. One famous Fujian tea is Lapsang Souchong. While Ti Kuan Yin is also widely produced in Fujian province.
India: The largest producer and consumer of tea. India produces teas from three major tea growing regions: Darjeeling,Assam and Nilgiri.
Sri Lanka: Third largest tea producer and largest exporter. Modern day Sri Lankan is still referred to as, Ceylon, the original island name, in the tea world. Ceylon teas became famous, for the most part, by Sir Thomas Lipton. The black leaf still produces many of our favored standard black iced teas found in the marketplace.
Taiwan: Taiwan, is still referred to as, Formosa, in the tea world and is known for the fine Formosa Oolong tea. A small percent of the teas produced in Taiwan is green and an even smaller percent produced is black.
Japan: Primarily produces green tea, including Sencha and Gen Mai Cha. Most teas produced in Japan tend to lend a bit of difficulty for many Westerners to drink, as they tend to be more vegative, with grassy notes. The tetsubin, Japanese cast iron teapot was introduced to the world thanks to the Japanese
The
first step in tea production is the harvest. Most harvesting is still done by hand, which as you can imagine is very labor intensive. Some growers have had success using a machine that acts much like a vacuum cleaner, sucking the leaves off the branch.
The latter method is used for the cheaper varieties of tea, as it is not capable of discriminating between the high quality tip leaves and the coarser leaves toward the bottom of the branch.
The harvested leaves can be processed in two ways: CTC or orthodox.
CTC, which stands for “crush, tear, curl”, is used primarily for lower-quality leaves. CTC processing is done by machine; its name is actually fairly descriptive. The machines rapidly compress withered tea leaves, forcing out most of their sap; they then tear the leaves and curl them tightly into balls that look something like instant coffee crystals. The leaves are then “fired” or dehydrated.
Most tea connoisseurs are not very interested in CTC tea, since this process does not allow for the careful treatment that high quality leaves merit. But CTC has an important and legitimate role in the tea industry: since it is a mechanized process, it allows for the rapid processing of a high volume of leaves which otherwise would go to waste. It is also good for producing strong, robust flavor from leaves of middling quality; in fact, for many varieties of leaf, CTC is the preferred processing method.
The
orthodox method is a bit more complex, and is usually done mostly by hand. The process differs for black, green and oolong teas. The basic steps in the production of black tea are withering, rolling, oxidation and firing.
First, the leaves are spread out in the open (preferably in the shade) until they wither and become limp. This is so that they can be rolled without breaking.
Rolling is the next step. This is rarely done by hand anymore; it is more often done by machine. Rolling helps mix together a variety of chemicals found naturally within leaves, enhancing oxidation. After rolling, the clumped leaves are broken up and set to oxidize.
Oxidation, which starts during the rolling, is allowed to proceed for an amount of time that depends on the variety of the leaf. Longer oxidation usually produces a less flavorful but more pungent tea. Many texts refer to the oxidation process by the misleading term “fermentation”. However, traditional and evocative the term may be, I think it is best avoided. Oxidation of the tea leaves is a purely natural chemical process and has nothing to do with the yeast based fermentation that produces bread and beer.
Finally, the leaves are heated, or “fired”, to end the oxidation process and dehydrate them so that they can be stored.
Simplicitea.com offers many tea varieties of Black, Oolong, Green, Herbal and Rooibos from all of these tea producing counrties from around the world.
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