What Is Tea by teazonline.com
Tea Info Links
What is Tea
Tea Brewing Guide
Brewing Hot
Tea
Make Iced Tea
Cold Brewing Guide
Make Chai
Tea Recipes
Matcha Brewing
Tea Plant
The scientific name for tea is Camellia sinensis. Usually the beverage of tea is made by steeping processed leaves, buds or twigs of the tea leaves in hot water for a few minutes.
Legend has it that tea was first discovered by the Chinese Emperor Shennong in 2737 BC. While historically the origin of tea as a medicinal herb useful for staying awake is unclear, China is considered to have the earliest records of tea drinking, with recorded tea use in its history dating back to the first millennium BC. The Han Dynasty used tea as medicine. The use of tea as a beverage drunk for pleasure on social occasions dates from the Tang Dynasty or earlier.
Tang Dynasty writer and poet Lu Yu's "Claasics of Tea" is an early work on the subject. According to his book, around 760AD, tea drinking was widespread. The book describes how tea plants were grown, the leaves processed, and tea prepared as a beverage. It also describes how tea was evaluated. The book also discusses where the best tea leaves were produced.
During that time In Tang Dynasty(618-907AD) the style of tea preparation and production was very different from the today's tea making. Tea leaves were processed into compressed cakes form. The dried teacake, generally called brick tea was ground in a stone mortar. Hot water was added to the powdered teacake, or the powdered teacake was boiled in earthenware kettles then consumed as a hot beverage.
For more info about tea production, 4 main types of tea and tea brewing, please click on the links in the right column.
