The Tea Belt

Tea is indigenous to that part of the world we now know as Tibet, and northern India. Over the centuries, it has been transplanted far and wide, and today is successfully cultivated within a geographic belt that runs from the equator to 42 degrees north.

Tea is commercially cultivated in places as diverse as Russia, Kenya, and Argentina. It thrived experimentally in South Carolina for several years around the turn of the nineteenth century (but proved too expensive to produce commercially). The great teas of the world, increase, came from a handful of countries – most prominently India: India is the largest producer of tea in the world.

Does leaf size matter?

Before they are processed, tea leaves vary dramatically in size. The fanciest Formosan and Chinese Oolongs are made from very large leaves that curl during processing but open intact when infused with boiling water. At the other extreme, Keemun, the celebrated black tea of Anhwei, China, is made from camellia plants having a naturally small, compact leaf. Within each varietai's natural orange, teas are graded accordingly to the size of their leaf, and the general rule of thumb is: The larger the leaf, the more distinct the flavor.

Black, Green, and Oolong

Whether a tea leaf ends up being called black (fermented), green (unfermented), or Oolong (semi-fermented) is determined during the process of manufacture. Tea manufacture is by and large a matter of skilled manual labor.