If you pick up a magazine or look at a health site on the web these days, you will probably see an article talking about the health benefits of green tea. But where does green tea come from and how long has it been in use as a beverage?
All teas come from the same plant, camellia sinensis. Green tea is differentiated from black or oolong teas by the methods used to prepare it for consumption. For green tea, once the tea leaves are picked and sorted, they are either steamed or pan fired. Green tea does not go through a fermentation process. This preserves more antioxidants and other phyto-nutrients than other tea types. In contrast, black teas are picked and left out to begin wilting. The wilted leaves are rolled to break the leaf structure, then are exposed to the air, where the inner chemical content of the leaves begins to react to oxygen in the air and ferments. Fermenting changes the color gradually from green to black. Finally, the leaves are dried and packaged.
There are many stories about the origin of tea consumption. Some say an emperor accidentally discovered it when a tea leaf fell into his boiling water. Others attribute its discovery to Buddha. Whatever the truth may be, teas have been consumed in Asia for thousands of years. References to tea in written records occur as early as two thousand years ago.
Tea drinking was originally reserved for the wealthy and elite. Tea was prepared by plucking the leaves from a tea plant and immersing them directly in hot water. This maximized the freshness, but it meant that tea could only be prepared from fresh leaves. In the eighth century, the Chinese began steaming tea leaves soon after picking to preserve color and freshness. The steamed leaves were then dried and could be stored. This process of steaming lasted for centuries. It was also in the eighth century that Lu Yu wrote his definitive work “The Classic of Tea,” all about cultivation, preparation, and drinking of tea.
During some periods the dried leaves were pressed into cakes, and later ground up to be whisked together with hot water, creating a richly colored beverage. Visiting monks took the ground tea process back to Japan, and it developed into the elaborate tea ceremony that Japanese still practice today.
In the seventeenth century, the Chinese began fermenting teas, resulting in the production of oolong and black teas. It was about this time that the Dutch East India Company brought the first green tea to Europe. From Holland, it spread to other parts of Europe, and eventually to England, where it has become the national beverage. English colonists brought it with them to the “colonies.” In 1767, England imposed a tea tax that so enraged the colonists that it prompted the Boston Tea Party.
However, even at this time, tea was still a drink for the upper classes. It did not become a drink for the masses until the nineteenth century, when cheaper imported black tea began arriving from India and Sri Lanka. Concurrently, the increased production of sugar in the Caribbean began to cause a drop in the price of sugar, so that the average working person could afford both tea and sugar. The combination of caffeine and sugar energy was a needed boost for hard-working but often poorly nourished laborers.
Today, the focus has shifted again from black tea to green, as researchers are finding more health benefits in its less-processed leaves. Due to the fermentation process, where other constituents are oxidized out of black tea, it has more caffeine by weight than green tea. This may be another reason for some people to choose green over black.
When you prepare a cup of pale green lightly-scented tea, you can ponder that you are joining centuries of earlier tea drinkers in enjoying this refreshing beverage.