Tea raw materials

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The leaves of a perennial evergreen plants, growing in areas with a humid tropical and subtropical climate are the raw material for manufacturing of tea. In nature, it is a shrub or tree from 3 to 17 meters high, but garden forms usually have modest size. The tea plant belongs to the Camelia genus (Camelia), in which there are two main varieties suitable for making tea - Chinese sinensis (Sinensis) and the larger Indian Assamica (Assamica). Raw materials collected from plants have reached 5-7 years of age. The tea leaf has an oval shape, jagged edges and a smooth surface. The lower part of the leaf is covered with a small fur of silvery-white color, which is called buy-hao in China. From there comes the name of loose beichao tea, which is widespread tea in Russia.

For the manufacture of this tea usually used young, soft and succulent leaves, located on the top of the scion. These vegetative scions, having several newly formed leaves and unblown leaf bud, densely covered with silver fur. Collections from the leaves and buds of such a shoot are called flash drives. The top leaf bud is called tips. The number of top leaves in the collection and the proportion of tips determine the quality of future tea.

The best sorts of tea are made from flushes containing two or three topmost leaves and a large number of tips. This tea not only has the best taste properties, but is also the richest with nutrients and microelements. Four- and five-leaf flushes are used to make simple tea. There are tea sorts, made from mixed flushes of different selections.

Collection of tea is very laborious and time-consuming process. One kilogram of prepared raw material contains 5-10 thousand of tea leaves. For the most numbers of plantations, tea is harvested by hands. Only with hand harvesting, you can pick ripe flushes from the surface of the bush and from the thick of the crown, pick them at the necessary point of the stem and leave old or immature shoots. Tea harvesting machines are rarely used, because they do not allow separating the tender fraction from the rough, especially to meet the necessary varietal conditions. In addition, the mechanized method of harvesting is traumatic for the plant itself. When harvesting, it is necessary to leave enough leaves for the normal development of the tea bush, so that it would not weaken and would actively form new shoots for the next harvest.