The Healing Wonders of Tea

Tea is the world's most consumed beverage next to water. It is good for the body with many health benefits.

Tea was originally served as a medicine before it became a largely consumed beverage. It can be traced from the early Chinese medicine and botany. The tea plant was originally grown in southern China.

Tea can relieve fatigue, delight the soul, strengthen the will, and repair the eyesight. It was not only applied as an internal drug but also administered externally in the form of paste used in alleviating pains caused by rheumatism. The Buddhists extensively consumed tea in keeping them alert during long hours of deep meditation. The Taoists regarded tea as a substantial component
of immortality.

Tea was adverted to in the classics with different names such as Tou, Chung, Tseh, Kha and Ming. This beverage became a favorite among the dwellers in the valley of the Yangtse-Kiang on the fourth and fifth century. It was during this era that the new ideogram Cha was made up. The southern dynasties' poets imparted some pieces of their fervid idolization of the tea.

The emperors of the Chinese empire used the "froth of the liquid jade" in bestowing some rare preparation of the tea leaves on their senior ministers as a pay back for their high services. Even so, the way of drinking tea at this period in time was extremely primitive. The leaves of the tea were steamed, beaten in a mortal, formed into a cake, and then boiled with salt, rice, ginger, orange peel, milk, spices and sometimes together with onions also.

The customs among the different Mongolian tribes and Tibetans who make peculiar syrup of these ingredients was obtained and remain until now. The survival of the ancient procedure of drinking tea points to the use of slices of lemon by the Russians who learned to get tea from the Chinese caravan inn.

A hand of a master is necessary to bring the noblest quality of tea. The Tang dynasty's Luwuh helped in emancipating tea from its primitive state to its ultimate idealization. Luwuh developed the Code of Tea in his famous work the "Chaking" (The Holy Scripture of Tea). The culmination of tea-ideals was shown in the Japanese tea ceremony.

Tea is the dried and treated leaves of one species of plant known as Camellia sinensis or Thea sinensis. Herbal infusions or herbal teas are not really teas rather dried herbs or flowers. Though tea plant has only one species, its major variety is classified into three.

The first is China. It generally flourishes at high altitudes and has small leaves. The second is India (or Assam, with larger leaves thrives at low altitudes. The third is Hybrid with characteristics of both Indian and Chinese tea.

Processing tea has four main methods, produces four different tea types: white tea, green tea, black tea and oolong tea.

White tea simply is the leaves of the processed camellia sinensis. It is the least common type of tea. It does not undergo any oxidation process. White teas are instantly steamed or fired after drying them for a certain period of time. There are no bruising, breaking or rolling needed.

Green tea is processed using similar method with that of white tea. The leaves are sometimes let to wither for 8 to 24 hours after they are plucked. It allows most water to evaporate. Then, the leaves are pan fried or steamed to neutralize the enzymes. The leaves are then rolled up in different ways and tightness. Next, a final drying completes the process. The tea has a green color since no oxidation happened.

Processing black tea involves full oxidation. The leaves are plucked, laid out for 8 to 24 hours, and then rolled to crack the leaves' surface up to begin the oxidation process. The leaves are allowed to oxidize completely making the leaves' color turn deep black.

In processing oolong tea, the dried tea leaves are tossed in baskets until bruises appear in the edges of the leaves. The bruising makes the leaves oxidize partially because only some of the enzymes are exposed to the atmosphere. The leaves are then finally dried, sorted, graded and carefully packaged.