Category Archives: Types of Tea

History of Nepal Tea

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Nepal Tea comes from a country with many different people and traditions.

Faces of Nepal (collage from photos by Flickr Users Sukanto Debnath, ilkerender, and Wonderlane)

To appreciate Nepali tea, one must first understand how its history, geographic location, and terroir have played a major role in the production of tea. Nepal is a small land-locked country, just slightly bigger than North Carolina, situated between China and India. Its location, as a crossroads between China into other western countries, created a place with a rich and diverse culture (there are over 120 dialects spoken in the country). It is home to Katmandu valley, a place with hundreds of ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples, most of which are currently protected as an UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Himalayan Mountains and Mt. Everest, and some of the highest quality but unknown teas on the planet.

Short History of Nepal and its Tea

Nepali Tea comes from the edge of the Himalayas in Nepal.

Kathmandu Nepal by Flickr User ilkerender cc-by-2.0

The Katmandu valley was believed to be settled by various tribes as far back 3000 B.C.E. These tribes battled and formed little kingdoms with various kings up until 1200 C.E. when the first of Mallas came to rule. The Mallas ruled Nepal for 550 years. At first as a unified kingdom, but in the late 1400s the three sons to King Yaksha Malla spilt the kingdom upon the death of their father and proceeded to compete with each other through the building of temples and the development of art and culture. Their rivalry is what built Katmandu valley into the cultural icon that we still see today. Nepal was again unified in 1768 by Prithvi Narayan Shah from Gorkha village in the western part of Nepal. The Shah dynasty still rules today even though Nepal has a general assembly and has attempted implementing democracy. This monarch and their isolationist policies managed to keep both the Chinese and British out of Nepal. In doing so, the Nepal tea industry in the country was very small and totally controlled by the government until the 1950s when the monarch started to open up the country to outside trade. So, while the first tea plantations in Nepal came into being during the late 1700s, they were not commercially viable until well into the 1970s. Today, the Nepali tea industry is expanding as Nepal entered into the World Trade Organization and put a concerted effort into allowing for privatization of the industry in the 1990s. The government of Nepal sees the tea industry as a means to providing higher paying jobs to the rural populations and as the drivers of bringing in electricity and roads to the rural communities as tea manufacturing facilities are built on or near the farms.

Nepal Tea Today

The eastern region of Nepal is currently where most of the tea is grown, even though the topography and soil of the entire country could support tea cultivation. This region is directly north of the Darjeeling region of India. It is a high altitude, mountainous area that gets the right mix of sun, mountain fog, cold and warmth to allow tea to flourish in this area. Most of the current Nepal tea farms are at or above 4,000 feet in altitude. Nepal makes all six types of teas. The aromas and flavors of the tea are frequently compared to Darjeeling tea because of the growing conditions. However, they are truly distinct teas with their own unique aromas and complex flavors.

Nepal Tea - Golden Buddha Oolong

Loose Leaf Golden Buddha Tea and Liquor

There are four growing and harvesting seasons in Nepal, which they refer to as flushes:  1st Flush, 2nd Flush, Monsoon Flush, and Autumn Flush. The 1st flush and 2nd flush are in the spring and early summer and, much like the 1st and 2nd flushes of Darjeeling tea, they produce first a delicate tea and then a more robust and fruity tea. What is unique about Nepal tea is its Monsoon and Autumn flushes. The monsoon season brings large amounts of rain to the tea farms allowing the leaves to grow rapidly and develop a much stronger flavor moving from floral and fruity flavors of the first two flushes to more malty flavors. It is typically these monsoon and autumn teas that are used to make oolong and black teas, while the early flushes are white and green teas.

Nepali tea is worth exploring further and this country is worth watching as it allows for more private investment into their tea industry and develops the full infrastructure to allow increased tea production and export from this fascinating country.

White Tea – Delicate, Subtle, and Delicious

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White tea with downy hairs.

Himalayan White with Downy Hairs from Nepal

White tea can be a real treat, offering delicate and subtle taste, beautiful appearance, and creamy pale yellow liquor. It is produced from the buds and young leaves of the camellia sinensis plant and only lightly processed before steeping in your cup. The sign of a truly fine white tea is the presence of lots of fine white (downy) hairs on the leaf, like the bud-only, Bai Hao Silver Needle. There are also white teas made of bud and one to three of the young leaves. The white hair is where its name comes from. To preserve these hairs, the tea is handled very carefully. The tea is hand plucked. It is withered in the sun to dry and then is further dried in the air, sun, or mechanically to stop oxidation. It is not pan fried, steamed, roasted, or rolled since those methods would destroy the fine hairs.

Delicate Hairs For Self Defense

The camellia sinensis plant typically produces the most hairs on its first buds and new leaves of the season. It is not unusual for plants to have hairy leaves or buds as the hairs serve multiple defense functions for the plant like protecting the buds from sunburn and insects (Evert, 2006). As the leaves get bigger, the hairs fall off. So there is a very small window at the start of the growing season to pick the buds with the most hairs. This means there are very limited quantities of true white tea, and if weather interferes there could be seasons with little to no white tea available.

Origin of White Tea

There is no definitive answer as to when the first white teas were produced. The name silver pekoe starts to appear in the mid-1800’s in English publications referring to a fine black tea with silver hairs. Back in the 1800’s, teas were either black or green. If the tea was steamed, it was green and all other teas were black (Hanson, 1878). Most of these silver pekoe teas came from the Fujian and Zhejang provinces of China. Those provinces are still considered home to the finest of Chinese white tea. China, however, does not have a monopoly on white tea. India, Nepal, Vietnam, and Kenya also produce white teas. As tea farms take hold in Hawaii, they too are making white teas.

White Tea Preparation

White tea normally has a creamy pale yellow liquor like that from the bud-only tea of Bai Hao Silver Needle

White Tea – The bud-only style of Bai Hao Silver Needle and creamy pale yellow liquor.

When preparing white tea, be careful to prepare gently, in the spirit in which it was produced. Boiling water should never be poured on a white tea since it will produce a very bitter brew. It is best to allow the boiling water to cool to between 185-190 degrees Fahrenheit or even cooler before introducing the tea leaves. White tea is also only brewed between 1-3 minutes though it depends on the origin and variety. The flavors of various white teas range from floral to fruity to nutty with all brews being smooth. Most white teas can be infused 3-6 times and not lose their flavor. Since this tea has the lowest amount of oxidation, it brews a very pale yellow cup.

White tea is a variety well worth exploring.

 

Works Cited
Evert, R. F. (2006). Esau’s Plant Anatomy: Meristems, Cells, and Tissues of the Plant Body: Their Structure, Function, and Development, Third Edition. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Hanson, R. (1878). A Short Account of Tea and the Tea Trade. London: Whitehead, Morris and Lowe.

Darjeeling Tea Estates in the News

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Darjeeling, India

Darjeeling is in the Northeast of India surrounded by Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh (Public Domain)

We’ve written about how much we love Darjeeling tea in the past. It’s a special region in India from which many distinctive teas originate. Its so distinctive that the European Union now recognizes Darjeeling tea with the mark of Geographic Identification. Unfortunately, the region also struggles with a system not far removed from the colonial plantation system of its recent past.

Recently, news has been surfacing in the west of abandoned plantations and worker starvation. This news isn’t entirely new. It’s been circulating for months in the Indian press but is becoming more widely known, thanks in part to an Associated Press article published in places like The Washington Post and CTV (Canada).

Struggling to Survive

In some Darjeeling district tea gardens like the Red Bank, Budapani, and Dheklapara tea estates, closures have resulted in growing numbers of people dying of starvation, malnutrition, and disease. There are quite a number of stories surfacing about absentee owners of tea plantations having closed up shop and left workers to suffer. Some of these workers are reported to have gone years without pay or regular meals while awaiting the outcome of the legal proceedings needed to reopen estates. In many cases there is a common theme where drought or mismanagement brought about financial hardship and the ensuing years of legal battles to reorganize leave tea garden workers in rural parts of West Bengal to suffer in limbo.

Darjeeling Tea is not from urban areas.

Urban Area of Darejeeling City, India by PP Yoonus, CC BY-SA-3.0

Darjeeling falls in the northern portion of the West Bengal state which borders Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. A 2012 report by KPMG notes that the state of West Bengal has one of the most densely populated regions in the country, a per capita income lower than the average Indian income, yet is a region experiencing rapid urbanization. The report also identifies a need for significant investment infrastructure, especially mass transportation in order to ensure adequate access to education and healthcare for the poor (KPMG). While those in urban areas are generally doing better, those in rural areas, where the tea farms are often located, face much greater challenges to diversify their opportunities for income and education in part due to lack of roads, markets, communications, and electricity (Khutan, Roy).

The ultimate cause may be a colonial era structure of plantations which needs to be remodeled. However, the near term cause is found in recent rainfall shortages sending businesses into bankruptcy and a legal system that ties up legal proceedings necessary to restart these plantations for many years (Reevell). Allegations of a local government in denial, a court system which can take years or decades to resolve disputes, very low wages, and lack of adequate education and infrastructure in rural areas means there are no easy answers to the situation.

Darjeeling in Perspective

It is worth bearing in mind that tea production in the Darjeeling region enjoyed substantial growth and investment during the British colonial era. Indeed, in the 1830’s one of the most pressing objectives of the Governor of India was to identify the right locations of soil and weather where tea could be grown in order to provide an alternative source from Chinese tea (Varma). Many large tea estates were developed during this time and although the labor practices may not have been perfect at that time, there was growth and investment by the owners of these estates.

While there is substantial opportunity for improvement in India, West Bengal, and Darjeeling, it is worth noting that the United States has a significant head start with the institutions, infrastructure, and laws necessary to improve the situation. India gained independence from the British in 1947 while the United States gained independence in 1776, having over 170 years more “experience” in the development of its laws and institutions. Likewise, the US Department of Labor which sets acceptable labor standards was signed into law March 4th, 1913 by President Taft, or nearly 35 years before India even became an independent nation.

Importance of Relationships in the Tea Business

Tea plucker in a Darjeeling tea garden.

Idyllic Picture of Darjeeling Tea Plantation, by DeviantArt user annanta, CC BY-SA-3.0

All this leads us to the importance of relationships in the tea business. If you delve a bit beyond flavored tea and the ongoing research about health benefits of tea, you find like any business, there are many great things and plenty of opportunities for improvement. Driving improvements in the industry means getting involved; getting to know suppliers, asking questions, understanding that the industry isn’t perfect, and pushing for change. Driving change by being informed, forming strong relationships and making buying decisions that demonstrate what you value in the whole tea product.

There are plenty of responsible plantations in Darjeeling and throughout the tea industry. Being informed and passionate about the industry leads to asking questions, building relationships, and ultimately partnering for change and improvements.

 

Sources Cited

Darjeeling tea estates closures mean hunger, death for abandoned workers, by Patrick Reevell, September 29, 2014, The Associated Press, http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/darjeeling-tea-estates-closures-mean-hunger-death-for-abandoned-workers-1.2029167

Importance of Urban and Social Infrastructure in Economic Growth of Bengal, 2012, by KPMG, http://www.kpmg.com/IN/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/Importance-economic-growth-Bengal.pdf

Producing Tea Coolies?: Work, Life and Protest in the Colonial Tea PLantations of Assam, 1830s – 1920s, Nitin Varma, http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/dissertationen/varma-nitin-2011-12-01/PDF/varma.pdf

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/death-hunger-stalk-indian-tea-estate-workers/2014/09/29/75dda230-47a7-11e4-a4bf-794ab74e90f0_story.html

Rural Livelihood Diversification in West Bengal: Determinants and Constraints, by Dilruba Khatun and B.C. Roy, Agricultural Economics Research Review, Vol. 25(No.1) January-June 2012 pp 115-124, http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/126049/2/12-Dilrub.pdf

A new DAWN rises in Darjeeling to save starving tea garden workers, by Ashim Sunam, Darjeeling Times, http://darjeelingtimes.com/a-new-dawn-rises-in-darjeeling-to-save-starving-tea-garden-workers/

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