Types of tea - Green

Distinctive features of green tea

History

Green tea in China has been consumed since ancient times — there is written evidence that even 3000 years ago in China, the tea Bush was cultivated and made drinks from tea leaves. The "Book of Tea" (К К) of the Tang dynasty (618-907) States that initially fresh tea tree leaves were used for food, later they learned to cook "soup" from tea leaves and finally learned to fry fresh tea leaves over a fire, then brew them with hot water.

Production technology

Green tea is unfermented tea or, in other words, tea that has not undergone the oxidation process. Usually, the raw material for green tea is tea tips (unopened buds) and young leaves of the tea Bush (kit. 茶树, lat. Camellia sinensis), which grows on the slopes of hills and mountains of Eastern, Central, southern and South-Western China. Tea leaves and tips are collected manually, after which the raw material is subjected to high-temperature processing (mainly roasting), which stops the activity of enzymes (enzymes) contained in tea leaves, which does not allow polyphenols and other antioxidants to react with oxygen, i.e. oxidize (in Chinese, the process of high-temperature processing is called "Sha Qing" — kit. 杀青), then the tea is given the necessary shape — the tea is twisted or pressed in a special way (depending on the variety) and dried, getting rid of the moisture contained in the leaves and acquiring a permanent shape. Thus, the green tea production process consists of four main stages — raw material collection, high-temperature processing, twisting (shaping) and drying.

Useful properties

Due to the fact that green tea leaves do not undergo fermentation, it contains the maximum amount of antioxidants possible for all types of tea, which can be preserved in the tea leaf due to timely high-temperature processing. The use of green tea helps to reduce the "internal fire" of the body, helps to reduce the temperature in the heat, fight inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract and helps to detoxify the liver. According to traditional Chinese medicine, these useful properties are characteristic of green teas.

Classification of green teas

In China, there are more than 50 varieties of green teas, among them the most famous are: sihu Longjing, Taiping Houkui, Bilochun, Luan Guapian, Anji Baicha, Huangshan Maofeng and others. Green tea can be divided into groups according to two main characteristics:

• place of production
• Method of processing and drying

By place of production

Modern China is divided into 22 provinces, 5 Autonomous regions, 4 cities of Central subordination and 2 special administrative regions, among them there are 14 provinces that produce most of the green tea in China. Below is a table that shows which varieties of green tea are produced in which provinces.

• hot steam treatment
• frying pan
• roasting over an open fire
• sun dryin

Hot steam treatment of tea leaves is not very common in China, mainly this method is used in Japan. A distinctive feature of this method is that the tea leaf remains fresh green after processing, while the tea leaf will also be fresh green when brewed. Among the green teas produced in China, hot steam is processed for example, Enshi Yulu tea from Hubei province.

Frying in a pan as a method of processing green tea is widely used in China. Tea leaves are placed in a special pan in the form of a hemisphere, or in a special roasting machine, where the leaves are heated for a certain time. It is believed that when frying in a pan, the tea leaf turns out beautiful, the aroma is "high", and the taste is rich. The best varieties of green tea processed in this way may have the aroma of Mature chestnut. Sihu Longjing and Bilochun - the most famous Chinese green teas processed by frying in a pan.

Roasting on fire is another method of processing tea leaves in the production of green tea in China. The tea leaf is placed in a special "honglong" sieve (kit. 烘笼) and placed on burning coals, or placed in special drying chambers that simulate processing on fire. When roasting on an open fire, the tea leaf is practically not damaged and retains its whole shape, in a large volume, the processed tea looks light and airy. This type of tea processing is characterized by a light transparent brew, rich taste and aroma. In China, the following varieties of green tea are roasted over fire: Huangshan Maofeng, Gaoqiao Infeng, etc.

Sun-Drying is the oldest method of processing green tea. The tea leaf is laid out in an open place on a Sunny day and dried for the necessary time. Currently, green tea processing is very difficult to find on sale even in China due to the fact that this drying requires a lot of time, space and good weather conditions. However, you can still find green tea processed by drying in the sun in Yunnan province (Dianqing tea), Shaanxi province (Shaanqing tea), Sichuan province (Chuanqing tea) and some other areas, but it is not produced much and is mainly for local consumption.

Thus, of the four types of green tea processing listed above, only pan-frying and open-fire roasting are currently widely used. In addition, in the era of industrialization, special equipment for roasting tea leaves was widely used in China, which allows to minimize production costs, however, the aesthetic and taste qualities of tea produced by "machine" method differ from tea prepared by hand not for the better — this is one of the reasons for the presence on the market of cheap tea "machine" production, more expensive tea of manual or mixed production, and even more expensive tea prepared using special technologies in compliance with many technological stages.

In order to truly learn to appreciate high-quality green tea, you need to understand many of the subtleties of tea production that affect its quality, and the criteria for evaluating the quality of tea themselves, have experience and an idea of the reference tastes of green teas of a particular variety. This article and the entire project are dedicated to this goal.