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History of Tea in Taiwan

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Map of Taiwan relative to China

Taiwan is home to many of the best world’s best oolong teas.

Being an island 90 miles off of the Chinese southern coast, Taiwan was destined to grow tea and be a strategic trading and military port for several different countries. The tea trade in this country reflects centuries of constant change in rulers and customs. It is believed that there were Camilla sinensis plants growing natively on Taiwan, but they produced very thin leaves that were brittle and bitter (Kevin Gascoyne, 2011). Tea plants where brought onto the island in the mid-1600s from the Fujian province of China when Taiwan was controlled by the Chinese Qing Dynasty. As more Chinese immigrants came to Taiwan, the plants where moved to several locations throughout the island. It wasn’t until the end of the 1800’s, with European intervention, that a commercial tea trade was developed.

European Influence on Taiwan Tea Trade

The Europeans were looking for other ports to trade tea given the Opium Wars with mainland China in the mid-1800’s. The need to diversify tea ports away from mainland China, led John Dodd to start offering financing to Taiwanese peasants. This enabled local Taiwanese start tea plantations as well as build factories in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, to process the tea. Prior to those factories, all the tea leaves in Taiwan where sent to Anxi or Fuzhou China for the final processing. By bringing the final processing to the island, Mr. Dodd put Taiwan on the US and European tea maps with Taiwan producing mostly black teas for those markets. The name “Formosa” was put on most of these teas, as Portugal was the first European country to stumble across Taiwan and that is the name they gave the island. It means beautiful, so it worked well for a marketing name at the time (Kevin Gascoyne, 2011).

Taiwan Tea Industry From 1895 to Present

Close up of Fanciest Formosa Oolong

Fanciest Formosa Oolong from Taiwan

Japan took control of Taiwan in 1895 and proceeded to invest heavily in tea production in the country, introducing new tea cultivars, fertilizer and mechanization of the processing of the tea. Very skillfully, the Japanese kept the focus on black tea so the island would not compete with the Japanese green teas. The Chinese took back control from Japan at the end of the Second World War. This shifted tea production from black to green as trade with Europe and the US was dramatically cut. Competition with Japan and China forced Taiwan to shift again in the 1970’s to the oolong production they are well known for now. Even today, most of the tea in Taiwan is consumed locally even though they are considered among the finest of available teas worldwide (Richardson, 2008). The tea industry in Taiwan is still dominated by small family owned farmers giving them control over both the growth and the manufacturing of the tea. This is a unique arrangement and is credited with creating the proper atmosphere for the creation of their diverse and superior oolongs. Below is a quick chart describing some of the better known oolongs which are exported from Taiwan. If you get your hands on one of these, drink them over multiple infusions to enjoy the full complexity of these wonderful teas.

Dong Ding (Tong Ting) Produced in the Dong Ding region (while most people refer to Dong Ding Mountain, most of the tea is not grown on the mountain side). This is a tightly balled oolong that should be brewed with boiling water. It produces a greenish golden liquor with heavy floral notes with a buttery cream finish.
Bao Zhong (Jade Pouchong) This 18-20% oxidized green tea – almost an oolong  but mostly a green tea (called Pouchong) is a full twisted leaf green that produces an amber green liquid that is delicate floral and sweet.
Oriental Beauty This open twist oolong is famous for the green-leaf hoppers that munch on the leaves just before harvesting. Their biting causes the plants to release L-Theanine producing a complex flavor in this tea. It makes an orange-brown liquor with woody, floral notes followed by a creamy finish. This oolong is traditionally enjoyed with a Gong Fu set that allows for multiple small steepings of this tea to enjoy all the different flavors.
Fanciest Formosa This higher oxidized oolong is produced in the traditional Chinese method with twisted leaves instead of balled. It produces an amber to dark brown liquor with honey and peach flavors. It is the typical “first” oolong for someone wanting to experience oolong for the first time.
Ali Shan This high altitude oolong  is a tightly balled oolong that produces a yellow liquor with a sweet intense creamy flavor with some toasted nut notes. It is less oxidized oolong, so brew more like a green than black tea (not at boiling).

Your Caffeine Assumptions About Tea Are Wrong! (Sorry)

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Two leaves and a bud of camellia sinensis (tea) plant contain the most caffeine of any part of the plant.

Bud and Two Leaf – Desired Pluck and Highest in Caffeine – By Mandeep Singh, CC-BY-SA-3.0

We recently wrote about the caffeine in tea, specifically looking into claims that caffeine in tea was somehow different than caffeine found in coffee, soda, or other products. We found that the jury was still out on the topic, with some studies showing that the combination of L-theanine and caffeine was less jolting. However, these studies used much greater quantities of L-theanine than is normally found in tea. This brings us to the next topic around how much caffeine is in tea. A search of web pages reveals a wide variety of information with many charts showing black tea as having the most caffeine followed by oolong, green, and white in descending order. We went searching to learn more about what things impact the amount of caffeine in tea and what ends up in your cup.

The Role of Caffeine in Tea

First lets set the stage a bit. Caffeine is found in true tea from the camellia sinensis plant. It is not found in herbals and tisanes like products featuring rooibos, honeybush, or other herbs. Many plants including both coffee and tea naturally produce caffeine as a way to protect themselves. Caffeine, like other compounds including nicotine and morphine, is a bitter tasting alkeloid, a feature which helps ward off many insects that would otherwise feast on plant leaves. It also tends to inhibit the growth of fungus thereby further protecting the plant. (Freeman and Beattie)

Recent research also suggests that there may also be another reason for caffeine in plants; to attract honeybees. Specifically, researchers have suggested that in low doses, having caffeine in pollen helps honeybees better identify the scent of a given flower providing a bit of reproductive advantage. (Wright, Baker, et all).

Caffeine and Types of Tea

Understanding that the presence of caffeine in tea is a self defense mechanism and that new growth is most vulnerable to insect attack, it should come as no surprise that the most desired part of the tea plant also has the highest caffeine. Specifically the bud and newest leaves, which are highly regarded for many types of tea, provide more caffeine than older growth. However, this isn’t the end of the story. The tea plant, c. Sinensis has evolved naturally over time into many varieties to suit the area in which they are grown. The sinensis and assamica varieties are the most notable but not the only varieties. Additionally, many countries including Japan, China, India, and Kenya actively work on producing specialized clones more suited to specific growing conditions, desired tastes, and leaf appearance. Each variety of plant differs in the amount of caffeine it produces and even the specific season of growth and available nutrients all impact caffeine production.

All types of tea, including green, black, white, and oolong, come from the same plant. The drying, rolling, and oxidization to achieve finished product does vary from type to type but the varieties still come from the same basic plant. Nothing in the standard production process extracts or otherwise removes caffeine from the leaves.

So what does this mean? Unless producers and retailers are sampling large volumes of leaf, for each and every product they offer, its really impossible to make specific claims about the amount of caffeine in any type of tea. It will fluctuate wildly within a very wide range; white, black, green, or otherwise. One might be able to avoid high amounts of caffeine by avoiding teas that are all tips but even this is no guarantee.

Decaffeinated Tea

An alternative for many is to look for decaffeinated tea which theoretically allows enjoyment of tea without the caffeine. There are two general methods used in the decaffeination process of tea today; ethyl acetate (also known as “naturally decaffeinated”) and CO2. In the first case, ethyl acetate, which occurs naturally in the tea plant, is used to wash the tea leaves removing caffeine (as well as many other beneficial substances and flavor compounds) from the product. The washed tea leaves are then dried and repackaged. In the case of CO2, the leaves are also washed. This is done under more than 60 lbs of pressure per square inch (psi) at which point CO2 becomes a liquid. After washing the tea in liquid CO2 the leaves return to normal pressure at which point the remaining liquid CO2 simply evaporates. Both decaffeination processes are expensive, time consuming, and remove more than just the caffeine resulting in some compromise in taste and other compunds found in tea.

Aside from the impact on taste and other compounds, the process of decaffeination does remove most of the caffeine found in tea. If you live in the European Union and you buy decaf tea then you are in great shape. To meet EU standards a decaf product must have 99.9% of the caffeine removed. In the United States we aren’t quite as exacting, requiring only 97% removal. So if we assume that the amount of caffeine in any given tea sample may vary widely then so too might the amount of caffeine in your decaf tea.

Rooibos, Honeybush, and Tisanes naturally are caffeine free.

Adirondack Berries – A Rooibos Based Tisane

Its worth noting that there is a myth floating about that you can eliminate most of the caffeine in tea by doing a quick initial steep, tossing the liquor, and re-steeping. Unfortunately the data under controlled conditions doesn’t support this myth at all. To eliminate the caffeine you would need to steep for 10-15 minutes, toss the liquor, and then steep again but who would want to drink that? For a much more in-depth look at caffeine and tea have a look at Caffeine and Tea:  Myth and Reality by Nigel Melican which is one of the best reviews we have seen to date on the subject.

In summary, while the amount of caffeine in any given sample can be measured by a lab, as far as we can tell its really impossible to make sweeping claims about the amount of caffeine in any specific type of tea, much less one specific tea product. When we want to skip the caffeine we’ll have a a tisane or herbal tea.

Sources Cited

Freeman, B.C. and G.A. Beattie. 2008. An Overview of Plant Defenses against Pathogens and Herbivores. The Plant Health Instructor. DOI: 10.1094/PHI-I-2008-0226-01, http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp/topics/Pages/OverviewOfPlantDiseases.aspx

G.A. Wright, D.D. Baker, M.J.Palmer, J.A. Mustard, E. F. Power, A. M Borland, P.C. Stevenson. Caffeine in floral nectar enhances a pollinator’s memory of reward. Science. Doi 10.1126. Science., http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/item/bees-get-a-buzz-from-caffeine

Gyokuro – Japanese Shade Tea

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Gyokuro Loose Leaf Tea and Liquor

Gyokuro – Japanese Shade Grown Tea

Gyokuro is considered the best of the best of Japanese green teas, due to its sweet full-mouth feel.   The name Gyokuro translates into English as “precious dew”.  A rather fitting name for this special tea.

Flavor aside, what really makes this tea unique is how man intervenes in the tea’s growing process to assist in amplifying the flavor.  As written about in an earlier blog, Japan has been breeding specific tea cultivars for decades and the cultivar most used in Gyokuro is the Yutakamidori.  The cultivars used to produce Gyokuro do have a generally sweeter taste, but they also react better to shade.

Gyokuro – An Accidental Discovery

Gyokuro was supposedly created in 1835 in Uji province Japan, by a farmer that put hay on his tea plants to protect them from a late spring frost and did not remove the hay until harvest time.  The farmer discovered that the tea, when harvested and dried, had a much sweeter flavor than the usual Sencha.  By shading the tea plant, the farmer caused the plant to increase its theanine production, which makes it taste sweeter.  Today, most tea farms use shade cloth instead of hay, but some still use the hay.  The tea stays under shade around 21 days.  There may be some variation on the length because the farmers are waiting for the tea buds to get to ¾ inch in length before harvesting, and depending on the weather it could take the plants longer to get to the desired length (Kevin Gascoyne, 2011).  Unlike the rest of the teas in Japan, Gyokuro is harvested by hand.  Gyokuro is also only produced in one harvest each year.  The tea plant then goes on to grow leaves for Sencha or Bancha, in a later harvest.

Finished Gyokuro and Steeping Instructions

Once the tea leaves are plucked, the leaves are separated from the stem and then steamed in much the same fashion as Sencha.  The steaming processes will cause the leaf to fall apart, so the finished product has lots of different leaf sizes.

In making a cup of Gyokuro, the water should be well below boiling, somewhere between 149-170 degrees Farenhait.  To get this, pour boiling water into a ceramic cup and wait about 5 minutes before putting in the tea leaves.  Gyokuro being juried in a tea competitions in Japan are brewed even cooler, at 104 degrees Farenhait.  When steeping at this temperature the tea pot and cup are preheated and the water does not get to boil.  The tea is typically steeped for 90 seconds.

If you are even remotely interested in green tea, Gyokuro is a wonderful tea to try and nice change to typical vegetal and seaweed flavors of Sencha.

Gyokuro Japanese Tea

Works Cited
Kevin Gascoyne, F. M. (2011). Tea: History Terroirs Varieties. In K. Gascoyne, F. Marchand, J. Desharnais, & H. Americi, Tea: History Terroirs Varieties (pp. 98-99). Firefly Books Ltd.

Is caffeine from tea less jolting?

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Caffeine Chemical Makeup

Chemical Makeup of Caffeine

We love tea as much as the next person (okay perhaps a bit more). We are also a bit geeky by nature so we are fascinated to learn more about tannins, polyphenols, terrior, and other science related topics in the world of tea. We have also learned to be a bit skeptical as well. There are loads of claims attributed to tea being able to cure all kinds of health problems. There seems to be no end to the claims made around tea and tisanes. Most of these claims, however, utterly lack quality sources and rigorous scientific inquiry.

So it is with one of the more fascinating claims we have come across; that the caffeine in tea is somehow different or better than that found in coffee. Specifically, there are quite a number of websites claiming that the caffeine in tea is either “slow release” or is absorbed into the bloodstream more slowly. As the theory goes, this property makes tea a better choice because it doesn’t have the significant quick jolt found in coffee. What’s more the theory suggests that the caffeine stays with you longer, providing an enhanced sense of alertness and clarity.

How Caffeine is Generally Accepted to Impact the Body

It turns out that caffeine causes quite a number of reactions inside the body stemming largely from the brain. Specifically, as the body gets tired it is believed that adenosine molecules builds up in the brain where they attache to aptly named adenosine receptors. This in-turn causes you to feel drowsy and triggers sleep. It turns out that caffeine fits nicely into those adenosine receptors where the brain happily doesn’t get the message that it should be tired. In a cascading effect, it is believed that neurons in the brain begin firing because of the blocked adenosine receptors, the body begins to think its under attack, and the pituitary gland starts releasing adrenaline and the body goes into fight or flight mode, ready for anything.

Caffeine in Tea is Somehow Different

Tea Leaves in Gaiwan

Steeping Tea Leaves by Wikimol, CC BY-SA-3.0

All this leads us back to the earlier theory about how the caffeine in tea is somehow different from caffeine found in coffee, soda, or myriad other products. Realistically, caffeine is caffeine is caffeine.  It’s all the same molecule, whether it’s coming from tea, coffee, chocolate, medicine, or so-called energy drinks. What is fascinating, however, is how the body behaves when caffeine is ingested with other substances. While tea has long been believed to deliver a less jolting caffeine effect science hadn’t been able to explain it (and really still hasn’t).

There have recently been a few studies which look at caffeine in combination with compounds present in tea that appear to shed light on the subject. In particular, research has been looking at L-theanine, an amino acid found primarily in plants and fungus materials in combination with caffeine. Tea, as should be obvious at this point, contains L-theanine. Researchers in two different studies (referenced below) have found some linkages in the combination of the two compounds to favorable alertness, cognitive performance, blood pressure, and heart rate. The kicker, however, is that the study participants were given 40-50 mg of caffeine and 90-100 mg of L-theanine.

According to research by Dr. Emma Keenan at the University of Bristol (UK), a standard cup of black tea, quoted as 200 ml or a bit over 6 oz, has 24.2 +/- 5.7 mg of L-theanine. This is one quarter the amount given to study participants when looking at the combination of both caffeine and L-theanine.  For green tea this was even lower at 7.9 +/- 3.8 mg of L-theanine. Even if you double the amount of tea consumed to a (perhaps) more reasonable 400 ml or 12-13 oz, the amount of L-theanine is still about half the amount used in study.

For its part caffeine varies wildly in a cup of tea ranging loosely between 30 and 120 mg of caffeine (we will be doing another blog soon which may further challenge assumptions about caffeine in tea).

So is Caffeine in Tea Different?

From our vantage the caffeine in tea isn’t different at all.  Its still caffeine.  What may be different is how the body responds to the combination of tea, L-theanine, and other compounds present in tea. There is promising research to suggest that L-theanine in combination with caffeine may boost alertness and cognitive response but we wouldn’t feel comfortable making that claim without more research and realistic dosages that mimic real-world consumption of tea.

Sources Cited

The combination of L-theanine and caffeine improves cognitive performance and increases subjective alertness, by Giesbrecht T, Rycroft JA, Rowson MJ, De Bruin EA, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21040626

The combined effects of L-theanine and caffeine on cognitive performance and mood, by Owen GN, Parnell H, De Bruin EA, Rycroft JA, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18681988

How much theanine in a cup of tea? Effects of tea type and method of preparation’, by Keenan, E, Finnie, M, Jones, P, Rogers, P & Priestley, C 2011, Food Chemistry, vol 125., pp. 588 – 594, http://www.bristol.ac.uk/expsych/people/emma-k-keenan/pub/2957550

5 Things About Orange Pekoe Tea

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We continue to be amazed by the wide variety of flavors found in the tea world. In an effort to differentiate themselves tea companies are always looking for new flavors and blends to set themselves apart. One thing that still amazes us is to hear people say they love the flavor of Orange Pekoe tea. Since it is not a flavor at all, it seemed inevitable that we would need to dedicate a blog to what Orange Pekoe actually is. In short:

  1. Orange Pekoe is a grade of black tea that a marketing department went wild with.
  2. There is no orange in Orange Pekoe
  3. Tea grading based on Orange Pekoe isn’t mandatory and is primarily for industry buyers.
  4. Grading based on Orange Pekoe generally follows British Colonial influence.
  5. Orange Pekoe says very little about the taste of your tea.

#1. Orange Pekoe is a grade of black tea that a marketing department went wild with.

Orange Pekoe is really a grade of black tea, not a flavor. Major tea bag producers did a disservice to the North American tea drinking public when it decided to market tea with the name Orange Pekoe. At some point they decided, like so many other companies, that marketing should win out over accuracy. At least one of the major brands refreshed their packaging a few years ago so that the word Ceylon (this is now the country of Sri Lanka) started to appear in the same size font in front of Orange Pekoe.

There is no orange in orange pekoe.

No Orange in Orange Pekoe Tea

#2. There is no orange in Orange Pekoe

There is no orange flavoring in the tea. How orange came to be attached to the grading system has several theories, ranging from a marketing ploy to just highlighting the variety of colors residing within the dried leaves. The marketing ploy is an interesting story theorizing that the Dutch East India Company added Orange to the front of the Pekoe, which is a mis-translation of the Chinese word for Bai Hao (Morrison, 1819), to honor the ruling Dutch family, Orange-Nassau.

#3. Tea grading based on Orange Pekoe isn’t mandatory and is primarily for industry buyers.

Grading around “Orange Pekoe” is not a mandatory grading system. Instead it is an agreed upon set of definitions in the industry around the appearance and size of dried black tea leaves. The system is followed by those in industry and anyone who abuses it are quickly corrected by their peers.  The system developed as a way for the Dutch and British to be able to communicate to the growers what they wanted in countries where they did not speak the language. It allows further description to their buyers what, specifically, they wanted.  The system helps to distinguish between the different sizes of whole black tea leaves. Leaf sizes are determined by sifting the tea through fine mesh strainers at the end of the production run. Ultimately, the grading system has nothing to do with quality or taste.

Grade Name Definition
SFTGFOP or SFTGFOP-1 Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe – The tea maker considers this to be the best of the best in both color variation, amount of unbroken leaf buds present and size of leaves
FTGFOP Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe – Shows the grower considers this a truly special tea both in both color variation, tea leaf size and the amount of unbroken leaf buds in the batch
TGFOP Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe – Not just unbroken whole leaves but leaf buds that have not unfurled are present and are typically gold or silver in color, shows an expert handling of the leaves, this is going to be a colorful tea ranging from silver to dark brown
GFOP Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe – Larger whole tea leaves, unbroken, with oxidized tips on some leaves that appear golden in color creating a wider variety in color in the dried leaves
FOP Flowery Orange Pekoe – Whole tea leaf with little to no broken parts that is more loosely rolled than orange pekoe so it appears wider in size than orange pekoe, more variation in shades of brown
OP Orange Pekoe – Whole tea leaf that may be slightly broken from processing but is generally whole.  Typically it is a tightly rolled leaf and the color is going to be consistent

 

#4. Grading based on Orange Pekoe generally follows British Colonial influence.

This system is typically used on black tea from India, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Kenya, and some South American countries. While the grading system outlined above is for whole leaf there is a grading system for tea that is crushed for tea bags.  China did not use this system until more recently, in response to market demand, and furthermore it is not used by all tea manufacturers in China either.

#5. Orange Pekoe says very little about the taste of your tea.

Kosabei Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe

Large full leaf tea with silver and gold leaf tips.

Experiment with the different grades of black tea and with the country your orange pekoe tea comes from and you may be surprised to learn how diverse orange pekoe flavors can be.  The OP is going to be a more robust blend with a malty flavor, while the SFTGFOP is going to be much lighter in flavor because of all the leaf buds.  Even within the same category the tea is going to taste different because it is an agricultural product and should vary in taste year to year just like the rainfalls and temperature that create the terroir of the tea.  I hope you enjoy the exploration!

Works Cited
Morrison, R. R. (1819). A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, Vol. 1, part 2. Macao: United East India Company.