Find Out About Different Types of Tea
Wondering about the different types of tea?
Here are some basic facts about the types of green tea for you, so that if you want to buy online you will know a bit more about the types to choose.
There are 4 broad categories of tea - white tea, green tea, oolong tea and black tea. All tea comes from the leaves of the Camellia Sinensis plant.
The differences between the 4 categories has mainly to do with the ways in which the leaves are processed or fermented.
The leaves undergo an oxidisation process which ranges from being lightly steamed to being heavily fermented.
The lightest fermentation is given to leaves for producing white tea. Green tea leaves are steamed and dried and black tea is fully fermented and oxidized.
White tea
White tea comes from the youngest tips of the new growth at the top of the plant. The leaves are dried and because of the minimal fermentation, they retain the full benefit of the very rich catechins and polyphenols that are found in the tea leaf.
These catechins are the antioxidants that are so beneficial to our general good health.
Because it takes more effort to produce white tea, it is also the most expensive of the different types of tea.
Green tea
Leaves used to produce types of green tea are picked and preserved by mildly steaming or baking to keep them from becoming over exposed to air (oxidized).
So little oxidation makes green tea good for your health too, although the potency of the antioxidants may have been compromised a little more than in white tea.
Oolong and Black tea
The leaves used for these teas are picked and exposed to the air for much longer periods of time. Oolong tea is exposed to the sun and allowed to partially ferment while black tea is fully fermented.
The polyphenols are not quite as concentrated as in the other types of tea.
Green tea is shown to have approximately 3 times the quantity of catechins found in black tea. Black tea also has a higher caffeine content than green tea.
In China these teas are referred to as 'red teas'.
Within these 4 categories are many varieties of tea grown in different soils, countries and climatic conditions.
This means that there are distinct variations in taste.
Today, over 2.5 million tons of tea are cultivated annually in more than 30 countries throughout the world.
The major tea growing countries are in Africa, Central Asia, the Far East and South America.
Would you like to discuss green tea matters with other green tea devotees?
Click on this link.
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