What Is Tea, Anyway?

Answer 1

Tea is a relaxing brew that can pack some powerful antioxidant benefits. If you've seen the advertising hype, it can be made from almost anything, which can get confusing if you don't understand a few basics.

The Facts About Tea

Take a quick look on your grocery store's shelves and you'll see: green tea, kiwi tea, blueberry tea and alfalfa tea among many, many others. Instead of touting one tasty ingredient, some teas cut to the chase and just advertise what they do. You'll see: "sleepy" teas, "healthy" teas, "weight loss" teas, "relaxation" teas and on and on. Let's get past the florid advertising prose and take a look at what you get in a nice cup of tea.

China Teas

Historically, tea was made in the Far East, usually from the leaves of the tea camellia (Camellia sinensis) plant. By some estimates, this variety of tea has been in cultivation in places like China for over 5,000 years. We'll call this China tea. China tea comes in a number of different permutations depending on how the camellia leaves are harvested and processed. Some teas are rolled, heated and fermented to extract flavor. For example, the least processed teas are the white teas. They're made from young leaves and buds. China teas are sometimes blended with other plants to create complex flavors, too.

With the most expensive teas selling for around $50 per brewed cup, China tea is big business. You may have some well-known varieties of camellia based tea in your cupboard right now, like: Oolong, Darjeeling, Earl Grey and English Breakfast.

Herbal Teas

Camellia teas aren't the only teas around, although they may have been the first. Tea - the drink not the plant - is actually made through a process called infusion in which elements of a mixture are released into a liquid - in this case water. This is also called "steeping." Sometimes the process involves heat, and sometimes it doesn't. Infusion can be used to flavor water with lots of different ingredients, either alone or in combination. Teas made from other than traditional China tea ingredients are sometimes called herbal teas. That's why you'll see mint tea on a shelf next to a spice tea containing a dozen ingredients advertised as a holiday treat for the whole family.

Plants are little manufacturing factories for chemical compounds that can be used for medicinal as well as culinary applications. The tea camellia and lots of other plants can be used to make tea, and tea can be used as a refreshing beverage as well as a medicinal aid. Teas have even been used as spice rubs for meat. When it comes to tea, it's all good.

[video=]