White, black, red … Chinese, Ceylon, English … And all this is tea. The modern market offers a huge number of its varieties under various brands and brands. But the main thing in all this diversity is the tea leaf itself.
One bush - many varieties
The variety of tea varieties is provided by a small variety of the plant itself. The whole secret is in the processing of the sheet itself. After harvesting, the leaves are usually dried. This is done so that they soften and lose some of the moisture. Then they are rolled, fermented and dried. The two final stages predominantly determine whether the tea is black, green, yellow or red.
The tea harvesting process is still done mainly by hand to keep the leaves intact and, thus, to make the drink the most delicious and rich.
Large leaf is a characteristic of mostly black tea. And it is he who is considered the best in comparison with other species. However, its quality is not ensured by the size of the sheet. And it would be more correct to call it whole leaf. Indeed, the composition of the tea, which is habitually called large-leaved, contains far from the largest leaves of the tea bush. Quite the opposite. The difference between large leaf and small leaf tea lies in the technology.
Large sheet - good quality
At the final stage of processing, ready-made dry leaves are passed through sieves, and the result is large or loose tea, medium or broken, and tea dust or crumbs. Most often, it is the crumb that is used in tea bags.
Large leaf tea contains only whole, intact leaves, which means that the drink from them will be better. Of course, this tea will take longer to brew. But the aroma and taste will be more subtle and refined than from tea crumbs or cut leaves. That is why large-leaf tea is often preferred.
The main suppliers of tea to the world market are China, India and Sri Lanka. Moreover, if in India and Sri Lanka mainly cut teas or in granules are produced, then China is famous precisely for varieties from whole sheets.
Each leaf has its own letter
The younger the tea leaf, the closer it is to the flower or to the bud, the better the quality of the drink itself it provides. For the convenience of marking tea varieties and designating leaves, Latin letters were chosen in its composition. For those who love good leaf teas, look for the letters FP (leaves growing next to the bud), OP (young, whole, twisted leaves), or P (shorter and rougher leaves) on the packaging. If the leaves were cut, then B is added to the above letters. when you see BOP on the package, you can understand that there are cut young twisted tea leaves.
More refined teas may also contain the letters T, S and G. T means they contain unblown buds. G represents a blend of the best varieties, while S speaks of the tea's being exclusive.
