"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea."
LU T'UNG, eighth-century poet and tea master

After water, tea is the most consumed beverage in the world. It's drunk hot, cold, plain, with sugar, with milk, and in the Himalayas with yak butter. It's stimulating in the morning, reviving in the afternoon, and relaxing at bedtime.

With thousands of teas from which to choose, there's a tea for every taste and every occasion. Black or green, strong or weak, sweet or bitter, dark or light, they all come from one plant, Camellia sinensis.

THE TEA BUSH

Camellia sinensis, a shrublike evergreen plant, is grown in tropical climates that provide a combination of hot and cool temperatures and heavy rainfall. Tea plants can be grown at sea level, but the best teas are cultivated at altitudes between 3000 and 7000 feet. Wild tea bushes grow to 50 feet or more; commercially grown tea plants are pruned to about four or five feet high so that pickers can reach the top leaves.

Like fine wine, the quality, flavor, and aroma of tea is influenced by its surroundings. Soil, climate, temperature, rainfall, and altitude all contribute to the unique characteristics of each plant and leaf. Although tea is now grown in about fifty countries, the finest teas are grown on tea estates or plantations, called gardens, in China, Taiwan (Formosa), Japan, India, and Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Cameroon, Kenya, and Nepal also produce high-quality teas.

TYPES OF TEA

There are five categories of tea: black, oolong, green, white, and pu'erh, which all come from the Camellia sinensis plant. Each tea category is determined by the type of processing tea leaves undergo once harvested. Tea is also classified, and often named, by the country and region in which it grows.

More than 2000 varietals, or subspecies, of the tea plant exist in the various growing regions, resulting in thousands of teas, each with unique characteristics. Teas are sold as "single estate" when the tea comes from only one source, or as a blend when two or more types of tea leaves from different estates, regions, or even countries are combined to make a new tea. Flavored teas are black or green teas combined with natural or artificial flavors like mint, spices, honey, mangoes, peaches, and kiwi. Earl Grey is an example of a flavored tea; it's made from black tea and bergamot oil.

THE HARVEST

Tea is still harvested the same way it was thousands of years ago--by hand. Pickers, usually women wearing large baskets on their backs, work their way along rows of tea plants, picking leaves according to a "plucking" system. Most tea is gathered by a "coarse plucking," in which the bud and top three or four leaves of a branch are picked. Higher-quality tea requires a "fine plucking," in which just the bud and top two leaves, still young and fresh, are removed. Premium teas are made from only the downy bud and first leaf of a branch. The gathering method for these teas is called an "imperial plucking."

In ancient China white tea, the purest tea, in which only the downy bud is plucked, was served only to emperors. Today it remains a rare and very expensive type of tea known almost exclusively to connoisseurs.

After the harvest, leaves are processed to produce the five main categories of tea.

MAKING BLACK TEA

Fresh from picking, leaves undergo five stages of very careful processing to become black tea. During withering, the first stage, leaves are spread on a rack or mesh screen and allowed to dry for up to twenty-four hours. Some companies use a machine to speed this process by several hours. This step reduces the moisture content of the leaves by one half, softening the leaves so that they can be rolled. Next, leaves are rolled by hand or machines to release essential oils. Only hand rolling allows the leaf tips to remain intact. Rolled leaves are then placed on mats and sorted into different grades according to size and types (whole or broken). (For a complete breakdown of the different classes of black tea, see chapter 6, page 134.)

In the fourth stage, fermentation (the term "fermentation" actually refers to oxidation, since the process does not yield alcohol), the rolled leaves are placed on tiled floors and tables in a humid, temperature-controlled room for one to three hours. The temperature is kept between 72? and 82? F so that the tea can heat up, then cool. If the air is too warm, the tea will have a burnt flavor, and if it's too cold, it halts the oxidation process. It takes a skilled tea maker to know how to time and judge when to stop this stage.

Next, the leaves are dried or fired in large, hot pans or in drying machines to stop fermentation (i.e., oxidation). Again, timing and skill determine the outcome of the leaves. Finally, the tea is packed and shipped to tea companies.

Generally, black tea produces a dark red or brown liquid and has a smooth, strong taste. Depending on how tea is brewed and on the amount of tea used per cup, black teas generally contain about half the caffeine of coffee. A six-ounce cup of tea contains about 40 to 50 mg of caffeine.

DRINKING BLACK TEAS

Tea characteristics can vary from harvest to harvest, region to region, and even between tea estates within a region. The following chart, which lists general descriptions of common appearance, taste, and aroma characteristics, will help you become more familiar with some of the most common black teas. Similar charts will follow the descriptions of oolong, green, white, and pu'erh teas.

As you review these charts, please keep in mind that taste is a subjective experience and that the descriptions here are very brief. There's a whole world of tea out there. Sampling many teas is the best way to find your favorites.