Where did that come from?
- Chinese legend has it that the first tea bushgrew from the severed eyelids of Buddha, which were thrown to the ground. The righteous man accidentally fell asleep during prayer, and when he woke up, he became angry with himself and cut off the eyelids so that his eyes would never stick together. In Chinese and Japanese, the words "tea" and "eyelids" are expressed by the same hieroglyph.
- In China, tea has hundreds of names, but almost all of themall of them have a hieroglyph meaning "young leaf". In the north of the country, where tea was imported to Russia, it is pronounced as "ча": hence the Russian word "чай". It came to Europe from the southern regions of China, where this syllable is pronounced as "т" (a). Hence the English tea, the French thee and the German Tee.
- The tea bush is a close relative of the camellia. In the wild, it sometimes reaches 15 meters in height. But usually its dimensions are much more modest.
- Many people think that black and green tea are made fromdifferent types of plants - and they are wrong! The whole secret is in the technology of processing leaves. The production of black tea includes five stages - withering, fermentation, twisting, drying and sorting. If you skip the fermentation stage, you get green tea. Red and yellow teas are intermediate options, fermentation does not occur in them to the end.
- In Europe, yellow tea is almost unknown, sinceFor many centuries, under pain of death, it was forbidden to export it from China. (Crimes, especially smuggling, were severely punished in the Middle Kingdom: for example, in the 16th century, the queen of the emperor was quartered for the transfer of tea to foreigners!)
- The tea leaf contains much more caffeine,than in coffee beans. Why is coffee more harmful to health? First, in tea, the effect of caffeine softens tannin. Secondly, tea is required for welding less than coffee.
History of tea
The Case of Technology
- The main enemy of tea leaves is air!The more often a tea jar is opened, the greater the distance between its cork and the contents, the faster it spoils. The ideal container is small, about 50 grams, porcelain and glass teapots. They should not be opened when cutting meat, fish, garlic, onions - the tea will immediately absorb the smell! In general, it is better to store it away from other products, and even from the kitchen.
- Freshly brewed tea should be drunk within 15minutes, and pour out the rest mercilessly: the aroma and useful substances have already evaporated from them anyway. A Chinese proverb says: "Fresh tea is like a balm. Tea left overnight is like a snake."
- After putting a kettle of water on the fire, do not let it gohis eye. The ideal moment for brewing will come when the water boils "white key", that is, it turns white due to the many small bubbles rising to the surface.
- It is best to brew tea in a teapot of geometrically correct shape (ball, cylinder). Boiling water should be poured up to half a teapot, and a simple-shaped vessel is easier to determine the middle.
Features of national tea drinking
- The cup with a handle that we are accustomed to was inventedonly in 1730 in Vienna. Before that, tea was drunk from bowls for one and a half thousand years. Residents of many eastern countries still remain faithful to this custom. In Iran and Turkey, pear-shaped glass cups are in use (the Iranians call them "ormud", the Turks - "bardak"). The drink stays hot in them for a long time.
- To drink tea with a lemon the Russian have guessed first! From us this habit was adopted by the whole world.
- The appearance of Indian tea we owe the English. In 1834, the British colonialists planted the first plantations there and established production. Hindus still prefer to drink tea with milk, in English manners.
- Turkmens brew tea with camel milk.Uzbeks add pepper to it. In Latin America, they drink it cold with rum and pineapples. In Japan, they drink it with bitter orange. In Iran, they add cinnamon and ginger to the glass. Tibetans not only drink tea, but also eat it dry!
Photo by Dmitry ZhuravlevStylist Marina Bessonova
