Chinese Tea

         It is impossible to go anywhere in China without encountering people drinking tea. Teas is drunk all day -at work, at home, before and after (but not usually during) meals, alone or in company. The absence of tea is an exception indeed rather than the rule in Chinese culture. China has an estimated 4 million acres given over to the growing of tea!

Tea drinking was invented by the Chinese, around the time of the Han dynasty (220 BC-200 AD), and many early Chinese tea customs gave rise to the elaborate tea ceremonies of other countries such as Japan. Drinking steeped leaf tea, however, emerged in concert with fine white china during the Ming (1368-1644 AD) dynasty.

For all the myriad kinds of tea one can buy, there is only one tea plant (Thea sinensis or Camellia sinensis for the botanically minded). Variations in tea are accounted for by differences in the time of picking, rolling, fermentation and roasting. Broadly, there are three types of tea: unfermented green tea (prepared from fresh leaves and buds which are pan-fried then rolled and dried), semi-fermented tea such as Oolong (made by wilting the fresh leaves in the sun, then bruising them slightly and partially fermenting them) and fermented or ‘black’ tea (made by fermenting the slightly wilted leaves). The latter is the kind most often encountered in the West and India. In North China, green tea is often mixed with jasmine flowers to make a delicious and popular summertime drink.

Tea is usually brewed in a cup or a pot, though it is not uncommon to see other receptacles such as glass jars reused for tea in China! Connoisseurs of tea will often make a first, brief steeping which is then discarded. This is seen as cleaning the leaves and preparing them for the second, considered best, steeping. Tea can be steeped up to ten times or more.

 Medicinal uses of tea

In herbal medicine the different types of tea have certain medicinal properties.

Green tea has attracted the most interest for its antioxidant activities which may help in a variety of diseases. In addition in contains a high amount of fluoride which may help reduce tooth decay. Green tea can also be used externally to stop or slow bleeding from cuts and scrapes and to relieve itchy insect bites.

Some varieties of oolong tea have cholesterol-lowering properties which are especially effective if the tea is drunk after a fatty meal. Oolong tea may also reduce blood pressure and arterial disease possibly by decreasing the clotting tendecy of blood. Black tea is rich in chemicals called tannins which are astringent. For herbalists these are useful in treating diarrhoea. Cooled, damp black tea bags may also be placed over tired, red eyes or on insect bites to relieve itching and redness.