My Cup of Tea: a review on Tea & Teapot

History:
Chinese Emperor Shen Nung did not realize that in 2737 B.C., when dried leaves blew into his cup of hot water, the beverage he discovered would cause sensations around the world. During this time, water was always boiled for hygienic reasons. The pleasant aroma and refreshing taste enchanted him and soon everyone in the realm was drinking tea.

Japan was introduced to tea by Yensei, a returning Buddhist priest residing in China at the time of the discovery. Tea was immediately embraced by Japanese society and resulted in the creation of the intricate Japanese
Tea Ceremony, elevating tea to an art form.

Tea continued to travel throughout the Orient and it was during the time of the European explorers tea made its cultural broad jump.

The East India Tea Company brought tea into Holland but its prohibitive cost of $100 per pound kept tea as a rich man's beverage until so much was imported that tea prices fell and was sold in small food shops. In 1650, Peter Stuyvesant brought tea to the American colonists in New Amsterdam, later called New York.

Soon the colonists were drinking more tea than all England. In England, tea gardens, ornate outdoor events with fancy food and tea, fireworks and gambling, seemed to sprout up overnight as entertainment centers of the day and many British enjoyed the festivities offered there. Russia discovered tea when ornate chests of the dried leaves were sent to Czar Alexis by the Chinese Embassy in Moscow in 1618.

It became Russian custom to sip heavily sweetened tea from a glass in a silver holder. Russians also enjoyed honey or strawberry jam stirred into tea as their ethnic contribution. Even today, Vodka and tea are the national beverages of Russia. To recover extensive expenses from the French and Indian War, England levied a huge tax on tea imported to the colonies, mistakenly believing the colonists were so hooked on it they'd pay anything to keep their supply coming in. One night the men of Boston dressed as Indians, reminiscent of the French and Indian War, stole aboard the ships docked in the Boston harbor and threw the expensive tea cargo overboard and into the harbor. England reacted by having a raging fit, closing Boston's port and sending Royal troops into occupation of Boston. Because of this, colonists met to discuss these events and declared a revolution.

At one point, England even gave the John Company the power to not only import tea but to coin its own money, make peace, declare war and other privileges previously only held by countries. In the 1880's, America came to the forefront as the biggest importer of tea due to faster clipper ships and the ability to pay its debts in gold.

Preparation:
The traditional method of making a cup of tea is with loose tea placed either directly, or in a tea infuser, into a tea pot and pouring boiling (or very hot depending on the type of tea) water over the tea. In the second half of the 20th century the use of teabags has largely supplanted the use of loose tea in the Western world; this has enabled brewing directly in a cup or mug.

The amount of tea to be used per amount of water is obviously of critical importance, yet is the subject of some confusion. One reason is to do with knowledge in popular culture (one spoon per person and one for the pot etc), another to do with the varying nature and quality amongst different teas and within the same garden from season to season.

One basic recipe may be one slightly heaped teaspoon of tea (about 5 ml) for each 200 ml of water prepared as above.

This may be varied according to tea and taste, with a stronger Assam to be drunk with milk prepared with more leaf, and a more delicate high grown tea such as a Darjeeling prepared with a little less.
Another way to taste a tea, throughout its entire process, is to add hot water to a cup containing the leaves and after about 30 seconds to taste the tea. As the tea leaves unfold ("the Agony of the Leaves") they give up various parts of themselves to the water and thus the taste evolves. Continuing this from the very first flavors to the time beyond which the tea is quite stewed will allow an appreciation of the tea throughout its entire length.

Type and Classification of Tea:
Tea is traditionally classified based on the degree or period of "fermentation" the leaves have undergone:

White tea:
Young leaves (new growth buds) that have undergone almost no oxidation; the buds may be shielded from sunlight to prevent formation of chlorophyll.
White tea is produced in lesser quantities than most other styles, and can be correspondingly more expensive than tea from the same plant processed by other methods. It is less well known in countries outside of China, though this is changing with increased western interest in organic or premium teas.
Green tea:
The oxidation process is stopped after a minimal amount of oxidation by application of heat, either with steam, a traditional Japanese method, or by dry cooking in hot pans, the traditional Chinese method. Tea leaves may be left to dry as separate leaves or they may be rolled into small pellets to make gun-powder tea. This process is time consuming and is typically done with pekoes of higher quality. The tea is processed within one to two days of harvesting. Water for green tea, according to most accounts, should be around 80 °C to 85 °C (176 °F to 185 °F); the higher the quality of the leaves, the lower the temperature. Hotter water will burn green-tea leaves, producing a bitter taste. Preferably, the container in which the tea is steeped, the mug, or teapot should also be warmed beforehand so that the tea does not immediately cool down.

Oolong:
Oxidation is stopped somewhere between the standards for green tea and black tea. The oxidation process takes two to three days. In Chinese, semi-oxidized teas are collectively grouped as blue tea (青茶, literally: blue-green tea), while the term "oolong" is used specifically as names for certain semi-oxidized teas.
Oolong teas should be brewed around 90 °C to 100 °C (194 °F to 212 °F), and again the brewing vessel should be warmed before pouring in the water. Yixing purple clay teapots are the ideal brewing vessel for oolong tea. For best results use spring water, as the minerals in spring water tend to bring out more flavor in the tea.

Black tea/Red tea:
The tea leaves are allowed to completely oxidize. Black tea is the most common form of tea in southern Asia (Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc.) and in the last century many African countries including Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi and Zimbabwe. The literal translation of the Chinese word is red tea, which is used by some tea lovers. The Chinese call it red tea because the actual tea liquid is red. Westerners call it black tea because the tea leaves used to brew it are usually black. However, red tea may also refer to rooibos, an increasingly popular South African tisane. The oxidation process will take between two weeks and one month. Black tea is further classified as either orthodox or as CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl, a production method developed about 1932). Unblended black teas are also identified by the estate they come from, their year and the flush (first, second or autumn). Orthodox processed black teas are further graded according to the post-production leaf quality by the Orange Pekoe system, while CTC teas use a different grading system.

The water for black teas should be added at the boiling point (100 °C or 212 °F). Many of the active substances in black tea don't develop at temperatures lower than 90 °C. For some more delicate teas lower temperatures are recommended. The temperature will have as large an effect on the final flavor as the type of tea used. The most common fault when making black tea is to use water at too low a temperature. Black teas are usually brewed for about 4 minutes and should not be allowed to steep for less than 30 seconds or more than about five minutes. When the tea has brewed long enough to suit the tastes of the drinker, it should be strained while serving

Post-fermented tea:
Teas that undergo a second oxidation, such as Pu-erh, Liu'an, and Liubao, are collectively referred to as secondary or post-fermentation teas in English. In Chinese they are categorized as Dark tea or black tea. This is not to be confused with the English term Black tea, known in Chinese as red tea. Pu-erh, also known as Póu léi (Polee) in Cantonese is the most common type of post-fermentation tea in the market.
Pu-erh teas require boiling water for infusion. Some prefer to quickly rinse pu-erh for several seconds with boiling water to remove tea dust which accumulates from the aging process. Infuse pu-erh at the boiling point (100 °C or 212 °F), and allow to steep for 30 seconds or up to five minutes

Yellow tea:
Either used as a name of high-quality tea served at the Imperial court, or of special tea processed similarly to green tea, but with a slower drying phase.




Kukicha:
Also called winter tea, kukicha is made from twigs and old leaves pruned from the tea plant during its dormant season and dry-roasted over a fire. It is popular as a health food in Japan and in macrobiotic diets.

Serving:
In order to preserve the pre-tannin tea without requiring it all to be poured into cups, a second teapot is employed. The steeping pot is best unglazed earthenware; Yixing pots are the best known of these, famed for the high quality clay from which they are made. The serving pot is generally porcelain, which retains the heat better. Larger teapots are a post-19th century invention, as tea before this time was very rare and very expensive.


Experienced tea-drinkers often insist that the tea should not be stirred around while it is steeping (sometimes called winding in the UK). This, they say, will do little to strengthen the tea, but is likely to bring the tannins out in the same way that brewing too long will do. For the same reason one should not squeeze the last drops out of a teabag; if stronger tea is desired, more tea leaves should be used

Adding milk to tea:
The addition of milk to tea was first mentioned in 1680 by the epistolist Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, the Marquise de Sévigné. Many teas are traditionally drunk with milk. These include Indian chai, and British tea blends. These teas tend to be very hearty varieties which can be tasted through the milk, such as Assams, or the East Friesian blend. Milk is thought to neutralise remaining tannins and reduce acidity.
The order in which to make a cup of tea is a much-debated area. Some say that it is preferable to add the milk before the tea, as the high temperature of freshly brewed tea can denature the proteins found in fresh milk, similar to the change in taste of UHT milk, resulting in an inferior testing beverage. Others insist that it is better to add the milk after brewing the tea, as most teas need to be brewed as close to boiling as possible. The addition of milk chills the beverage during the crucial brewing phase, meaning that the delicate flavour of a good tea cannot be fully appreciated. By adding the milk afterwards, it is easier to dissolve sugar in the tea and also to ensure that the desired amount of milk is added, as the colour of the tea can be observed.

In Britain and some Commonwealth countries, the order in which the milk and the tea enter the cup is often considered an indicator of social class. Persons of working class background are supposedly more likely to add the milk first and pour the tea in afterwards, whereas persons of middle and upper class backgrounds are more likely to pour the tea in first and then add milk. This is said to be a continuing practice from a time when porcelain (the only ceramic which could withstand boiling water) was only within the purchasing range of the rich - the less wealthy had access only to poor quality earthenware, which would crack unless milk was added first in order to lower the temperature of the tea as it was poured in.

Sugar, Honey and Lemon:
Other popular additives to tea include sugar or honey, lemon, and fruit jams. In colder regions such as Mongolia,
Tibet and Nepal, butter is added to provide necessary calories. Tibetan butter tea contains rock salt and dre (yak) butter, which is then churned vigorously in a cylindrical vessel closely resembling a butter churn.

The flavour of this beverage is more akin to a rich broth than to tea, and may be described as a very acquired taste to those unused to drinking it. The same may be said for salt tea, which is consumed in some cultures in the Hindu-Kush region of northern Pakistan, and probably in other areas as well.

Teapots:
The teapot probably derived originally from the ceramic kettles and wine pots which were made in bronze and other metals and were a feature of Chinese cultural life for thousands of years.

The earliest example of a teapot that has survived to this day seems to be the one in the Flagstaff House Museum of Teaware. This teapot is made from Yixing clay, attributed to Gongchun and dated 1513. Gongchun is considered the father of the Yixing clay teapot




From the end of the 17th century tea was shipped from China to Europe as part of the export of exotic spices and luxury goods. The ships that brought the tea also carried porcelain teapots. The majority of these teapots were painted in blue and white underglaze. Porcelain being completely vitrified will withstand sea water without damage, so the teapots were packed below deck whilst the tea stayed on top in the dry.

Tea drinking in Europe was initially the preserve of the upper classes since it was very expensive. Porcelain teapots were particularly desirable because porcelain could not be made in Europe at that time. It wasn't until 1765 that William Cookworthy devised a way of making porcelain and founded a works at Plymouth UK for the production of a porcelain similar to the Chinese. When European potteries began to make their own tea wares they were naturally inspired by the Chinese designs.

Samovars come in different body shapes: urn- or krater-shaped, barrel, cylindric, spherical. A traditional samovar consists of a large metal container with a faucet near the bottom and a metal pipe running vertically through the middle. The pipe is filled with solid fuel to heat the water in the surrounding container. A small (6 to 8 inches) smoke-stack is put on the top to ensure draft.

After the fire is off a teapot could be placed on top to be kept heated with the passing hot air. The teapot is used to brew the заварка (zavarka), a strong concentrate of tea.

The tea is served by diluting this concentrate with (кипяток) kipyatok (boiled water) from the main container, usually at a ratio of about 10 parts water to one part tea concentrate, although tastes vary.

It is particularly well-suited to tea-drinking in a communal setting over a protracted period. The Russian expression "to have a sit by samovar" means to have a leisurely talk while drinking tea from samovar.