Achieving Quality Tea
Specialty coffees are booming today because people appreciate the high quality taste. The same is true for tea. When selecting tea, pay attention to how it was picked and under what conditions. As one can imagine, the difference in taste between commercially grown, machine picked tea and specialty handpicked tea is amazing.
The tea plant is scientifically known as Camellia Sinensis and is a flowering evergreen shrub. The climate in the countries where tea is grown is a good indication that tea needs to be grown in a warm, humid environment with a lot of rainfall. However, despite the need for regular rain and warm temperatures, tea amiably grows in both open fields and mountain landscapes. The better grades of tea typically are grown at the higher elevations of at least 5,000 ft. above sea level.
Even though tea needs warmth and humidity, tea grows best under shade, as the sun can kill the leaves. If the tea bush not pruned, it will become a tree. Constant plucking and pruning allows the tea bushes to produce for up to 60 years.
Ideally, tea would always be harvested by hand, picking the two tiny leaves and the bud from the ends of each twig. This is called the “orthodox” method. With twentieth century haste, however, harvesting machines have been brought in to harvest tea. The machines are indiscriminate, snatching not only the traditional two leaves and a bud, but often the entire branch, twigs and all. This is known in industry as “Cut-Torn-Crushed” or CTC method.