Coffee & Tea
The use of Tea (Camellia or Thea sinensis, fam. Theareae) as a beveragehas been known to the Chinese and Japanese since prehistoric times and thesouthwestern parts of China and northern Indochina are believed to be theplaces of origin of the tea plant. Tea had a strange and long journey acrossAsia. In Java, Ceylon, and Formosa, which today have a great interest inits production, tea was introduced only in the mid-nineteenth century. TheDutch made it known throughout Europe during the seventeenth century, anda hundred years later it was brought to the United States. The traces oftea sold commercially are numerous, and, depending on the place of origin,are called Chinese, Japanese, Ceylon tea etc., while their qualities areindicated by indigenous, oriental names such as pekoe, oolong, suchong,and congou. Asians drink mostly "green" tea, obtained by firingimmediately after harvesting, without previous fermentation. In Europe andin Anglo-Saxon countries in general, "black" tea is more popular.It comes from partly dried leaves which are allowed to ferment before beingtoasted. In Russia a particular type of tea is drunk, made of the remainsand fragments compressed into tablets. Theine, which is identical to caffein,provides the stimulant properties of tea. Tannin gives it the flavor andaroma. With regard to world consumption, England and Russia Occupy firstplace, importing almost half of all the tea exported from India and China.The Dutch and Americans are also great tea drinkers.
Deamer 11/19/96