Richmond RLP
What is tea?
Tea is the second most popular drink in the world. We only drink
water in bigger quantities.
To make tea you need water and the dried leaves of the Camellia
sinensis plant (see picture). We often use the word ‘tea’ for any drink
made with leaves or other parts of a plant.
In certain parts of Britain ‘tea’ is a light meal you eat in the evening.
This book is about tea as a drink, and much more!
There are three main types of tea: black, green and oolong. They all
come from the same plant but different things happen to the leaves
in the to make different types of tea.
OOLONG TEA looks similar to black tea. It smells a little like fruit.
Nearly all oolong tea comes from China and Formosa (Taiwan).
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BLACK TEA is the most common type of tea. English Breakfast and
Earl Grey are mixtures of black teas.
GREEN TEA is the most natural type of tea and tastes most similar to
the plant.
Where does tea come from?
The Camellia sinensis plant grows best in the high areas of
countries with hot weather and a lot of rain. People first found
wild tea bushes growing in the hills near the Himalayas.
Today tea grows in more than forty countries. India is the largest
producer of tea in the world, with China in second place and Sri
Lanka in third place. Each year around 2,750,000,000 kilos of
tea are produced. You can make about two cups of tea with that
amount!
China has the longest tradition of growing tea in the world.
Some of the world’s best and most expensive teas comes
from this country.
Nearly 30% of the world’s tea grows in just three areas of
north-east India. Well-known teas, such as Assam and
Darjeeling, come from here.
Sri Lanka is a small island but it’s one of the world’s most
important tea-growing countries. We call tea from here
'Ceylon tea’ because for a long time Ceylon was the name of
Sri Lanka.
Kenya is the oldest tea-growing country in Africa. A lot of
Britain’s tea comes from Kenya, as well as from India and Sri
Lanka.
↓ Look at the map below to see some of the main tea-growing
countries.
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