INDEX Making a Perfect Pot of Oolong Tea
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Wild tea, Camellia sinensis, was discovered five millennia ago in the highlands of Yunnan, China, the homeland of tea. A hot water brew of wild tea was taken to prevent lethargy and fatigue. The finest, handmade leaf was reserved for the nobles, a priceless, aristocratic pleasure. Japanese Buddhist monks, in the 8th Century, may have been the first non-Chinese to learn of tea. They carried tea seeds to the Japanese island of Kyushu, where the first tea outside China was planted. Tea became associated with Buddhism and meditation. While Japanese nobles sponsored tea-tasting contests in lavish tearooms as entertainment, Sen-no Rikyu, a 16th Century Japanese tea master and counselor to Lord Hideyoshi, did much to purify it and return the tea ritual to its roots. He is now known as the founder of C hado, the Way of Tea. Portuguese, Dutch and English traders brought tea by ship to the West in the early 17th Century, although it was priced beyond the means of all but royalty. By about 1610, it had been introduced in London coffee houses, such as Lloyds of London, Tom’s Café (Tom Twinning) and the Golden Lyon, all male preserves. The clergy preached against tea’s “inebriating qualities;” women, of course, did not imbibe. British women began to drink tea once it entered permissive venues, such as tea houses, bakeries and the public gardens on the outskirts of London. The average Brit acquired an almost insatiable appetite for it. Tea became so popular in England that a serious trade imbalance in China’s favor was created. In a desperate attempt to correct it, British traders pushed Indian-grown opium on the Chinese, which, in turn, led to the so-called Opium Wars. The war concluded with granting to the crown of a long-term lease to the Chinese port city of Hong Kong. American colonials also enjoyed tea, but the trade was a monopoly of King George III and the East India Company. British taxes on the tea trade led to the Boston Tea Protest, and ultimately to the American War of Independence. The British desired strongly to learn the secret process by which tea was made, so they could grow and manufacture it for themselves in their Asian colonies and break up the Chinese monopoly. After many botched attempts, they finally succeeded in the 1860s in Assam and Darjeeling, in northeastern India. In 1869, (Sir) Thomas Lipton, owner of a British grocery chain, began planting tea in former Ceylon coffee plantations, which had been stricken with a fungus. He introduced the first pre-weighed, pre-packed, tea to London consumers. Tea never attained the popularity in western Europe it did in the British Isles. It was, however, very important in the Russian Empire, Turkey, the Middle East and West Asia, all of which enjoyed tea imports from China via the Asian caravan routes. Up to the 1940’s, tea was the national beverage of America, mostly greens and oolongs from China and East Asia. World War II, however, disrupted this trade and the Chinese economy collapsed. Tea then made its way to America from the British colonies in India, Malaya and Ceylon and from the tea gardens of the Dutch East Indies ( Indonesia). American troops drank cheap Central and South American-grown coffees, which was more easily obtained than tea. Coffee gained in popularity during the post-war period.
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Tea is from the camellia, Camellia sinensis, an ancient caffeine-containing plant first cultivated and used in China, now grown all over Asia, parts of Africa and South America. “True tea” is made by infusing the leaves of C. sinensis in boiling water. There are three broad tea categories: black, oolong and green; the outcome depends on what happens in the tea factory. Black tea is made from partially dehydrated ( withered) leaf, rolled to draw out enzymes which promote oxidation. During this process (called fermentation), leaf color gradually goes from green to black and characteristic black tea flavors and aromas develop. The finished tea is oven-dried, sorted and packed into wooden crates or plastic sacks. Black tea produces a dark amber, reddish-orange infusion with aromas of fruit, malt or flowers. These teas go well with light foods, snacks or desserts. Milk, sugar, lemon is optional. Oolong (“black dragon”) teas also come from C. sinensis, but often from a distinct oolong sub-variety. These are “semi- fermented,” ranging in color or degree of fermentation from greenish grey to black. Oxidation is halted by steaming. An oolong infusion may be light, greenish amber to dark amber, almost black, with a flowery, toasted or spicy taste. Oolongs are wonderful drunk on their own or taken with rich, spicy foods or dessert. Oolongs produced in a tightly-rolled leaf style, the size of small pearls, may be re-steeped many times. Green teas are unoxidized. The leaf is steamed, basket- or wok-fired shortly after plucking to preserve a vivid leaf color and flavor. They often exhibit fresh, vegetal aromas, with hints of freshly-mown grass or the sea. Their delicate, sweet taste may be preserved by brewing in hot, but not boiling, water. Green teas go well with delicate, light foods and simple, sugary desserts. White teas, a subset of green, consist of tiny leaf and bud sets that are sun-dried. They produce a light liquor, sometimes with a delicate, nutty flavor.
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In 1949, a group of Chinese Nationalist soldiers (the Guo-min-dang or KMT) fled Yunnan and settled in the hills of the Golden Triangle, in Burma. From there, for more than a decade, they harassed China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In the early 1960s, the Burmese army drove these renegade soldiers into northern Thailand. To survive, at first, the KMT in Thailand raised money by running illegal drug and gem smuggling operations. Eventually educational and crop substitution programs helped a new generation of immigrants integrate into the Thai economy. Coming from the homeland of tea, tea farming naturally appealed to these new Thais. Olong tea plants were introduced by Taiwan into the highlands of Chiangrai Province in the late 1980s. Two tea varieties, known locally as No. 17 and No. 12, were planted on family small-holdings. Taiwanese tea experts provided technical advice and support. What began as a foreign enclave doing illegal business in the hills of northern Thailand, is today a cohesive, vibrant economic community, made up of independent tea gardens producing tons of Thai oolong tea. It is a beautiful, cool tea village with its own schools, small hotels, Chinese and Thai cafes. A global success story and a tea story quite unlike any other in history.
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Good News From the Bottom of the Cup Thomas Garway, owner of a London coffee house, introduced tea in the 17th Century with a handbill: "The Drink is declared to be most wholesome, preserving in perfect health until extreme Old Age....It maketh the Body active and lusty. It helpeth the Headache, giddiness, and heaviness thereof." His assertions seem exaggerated, but many of the health claims are now confirmed by medical research. It is well established that tea contains natural antibacterial agents and that the boiled water used in making tea renders the drink wholesome. Starting in the early 1990s, research on tea and health, supported by the tea trade, found that a group of antioxidants in tea, polyphenols, were beneficial to human health. Research in China and Japan revealed that tea polyphenols can lower blood cholesterol and reduce blood pressure. Experiments with Puer, an aged Yunnan tea, showed it was nearly as effective in lowering serum cholesterol as a popular Western drug. At the end of a two-month trial, tea drinkers showed a 64% cholesterol reduction, compared with 67% for the drug-takers. Polyphenols found in tea and other green leafy foods also function as cancer-fighting agents, thus tea may have significant implications for the future of chemo-prevention of cancer. In Japan, epigallo-catechin (EGCG), a substance related to green tea polyphenols, inhibited the growth and spread of skin, liver and stomach cancer experimentally in mice. Steeped tea contains about half the caffeine of drip coffee. It is well-known that the caffeine in tea can brighten moods and relieve lethargy without leading to the nervous jitters or the let-down associated with drinking coffee. Tea can relieve cold and flu symptoms and stimulate the cardio-vascular system. For most people, the relief and stimulation tea provides is gentle and safe, its transient effect lasting only an hour or so and represents no significant negative health effects.
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