oolong tea

Oolong (traditional Chinese: 烏龍; simplified Chinese: 乌龙; pinyin: wūlóng) is a traditional
Chinese tea (Camellia sinensis) somewhere between green and black in oxidation. It
ranges from 10% to 70% oxidation.[1] It is among the most popular types of teas
served in typical Chinese restaurants.

In Chinese tea culture, semi-oxidized oolong teas are collectively grouped as qīngchá
(Chinese: 青茶; literally "clear tea").[2] Oolong has a taste more akin to green tea
than to black tea: it lacks the rosy, sweet aroma of black tea but it likewise does not
have the stridently grassy vegetal notes that typify green tea. It is commonly brewed
to be strong, with the bitterness leaving a sweet aftertaste. Several subvarieties of
oolong, including those produced in the Wuyi Mountains of northern Fujian and in the
central mountains of Taiwan, are among the most famous Chinese teas.

Oolong tea leaves are processed in two different ways. Some teas are rolled into long
curly leaves, while some are pressed into a ball-like form similar to gunpowder tea.
[1] The former method of processing is the older of the two.

The name oolong tea comes into the English language from the Chinese name
(traditional Chinese: 烏龍茶), which is pronounced as O·-liông tê in the Min Nan spoken
variant. The Chinese name means "black dragon tea". There are three widely accepted
explanations on how this Chinese name came about.

According to the "tribute tea" theory, oolong tea was a direct descendant of Dragon-Phoenix Tea
Cake tribute tea. Oolong tea replaced it when loose tea came into fashion. Since it was dark, long
and curly, it was called the Black Dragon tea.

According to the "Wuyi" theory, oolong tea first existed in Wuyi Mountain. This is evidenced by
Qing dynasty poems such as Wuyi Tea Song (Wuyi Chage) and Tea Tale (Chashuo). It was said
that oolong tea was named after the part of Wuyi mountain where it was originally produced.

According to the "Anxi" theory, oolong tea had its origin in the Anxi oolong tea plant. A man
named Sulong, Wulong or Wuliang discovered it.

Another tale tells of a man named Wu Liang (later corrupted to Wu Long, or Oolong) who
discovered oolong tea by accident when he was distracted by a deer after a hard day's tea-
picking, and by the time he remembered about the tea it had already started to oxidize.[3]

blacktea

Black tea is a variety of tea that is more oxidized than the oolong, green, and white varieties. All
four varieties are made from leaves of Camellia sinensis. Black tea is generally stronger in flavor
and contains more caffeine than the less oxidized teas. Two principal varieties of the species are
used, the small-leaved Chinese variety plant (C. sinensis sinensis), also used for green and white
teas, and the large-leaved Assamese plant (C. sinensis assamica), which was traditionally only
used for black tea, although in recent years some green has been produced.

In Chinese and Chinese influenced languages, black tea is known as "crimson tea" (紅茶,
Mandarin Chinese hóngchá; Japanese kōcha; Korean hongcha), perhaps a more
accurate description of the colour of the liquid. The name black tea, however, could
alternatively refer to the colour of the oxidized leaves. In Chinese, "black tea" is a
commonly used classification for post-fermented teas, such as Pu-erh tea. However,
in the Western world, "red tea" more commonly refers to rooibos, a South African
tisane.

While green tea usually loses its flavor within a year, black tea retains its flavour for
several years. For this reason, it has long been an article of trade, and compressed
bricks of black tea even served as a form of de facto currency in Mongolia, Tibet, and
Siberia into the 19th century.[1] It was known since the Tang Dynasty that black tea
steeped in hot water could also serve as a passable cloth dye for the lower classes
that could not afford the better quality clothing colours of the time.[citation needed]
However, far from being a mark of shame, the "brown star" mark of the dyeing
process was seen as much better than plain cloth and held some importance as a
mark of the lower merchant classes through the Ming Dynasty.[citation needed] The
tea originally imported to Europe was either green or semi-oxidized. Only in the 19th
century did black tea surpass green in popularity.[citation needed] Although green
tea has recently seen a revival due to its purported health benefits, black tea still
accounts for over ninety percent of all tea sold in the West.

The expression "black tea" is also used to describe a cup of tea without milk ("served
black"), similar to coffee served without milk or cream.

green tea

Green tea is made from the top two leaves and buds of a shrub, Camellia sinensis, of
the family Theaceace and the order Theales. This order consists of 40 genera of trees
or shrubs that have evergreen leaves, flowers with five sepal or leaf-like structures
and petals. The genus Camellia consists of 80 species of East Asian evergreen shrubs
and trees. Besides the leaves, other ingredients may be added to create special
scents or flavors during the drying process, such as jasmine, flowers, or fruits.

The tea plant originates in an area between India and China. There are three main
varieties of this plant—China, Assam, and Cambodia—and a number of hybrids in
between. The China variety grows as high as 9 ft (2.7 m) and has an economic life of
at least 100 years. The Assam variety is a tree that grows as high as 60 ft (18.3 m),
with an economic life of 40 years dependent upon regular pruning and plucking. The
16 ft (4.9 m) high Cambodia variety is naturally crossed with other varieties.

discovery ..........

he Chinese Legend
Around five thousand years ago, The Chinese Emperor Shen Nung (Divine Healer), was revered
as a great teacher of agriculture and herbal medicine. He took pride in teaching his people the
value of cultivating the land and the wisdom in boiling water to make it safer to drink and believed
that it also increased longevity. One day, while working in his own garden, Shen Nung was
enjoying a cup of steaming water when he noticed that a few leaves of a nearby camellia-like
bush had blown into the imperial cup. Sipping the concoction he discovered a drink that was
refreshing, relaxing yet exhilarating and increased his sense of well-being.
And so tea was born.

The Japanese Buddhist Legend

The Japanese legend traces tea’s beginnings to Prince Bodhidharma, (also known as Daruma)
who was a missionary monk. He was instrumental in bringing Buddhism from India to China and
Japan. During his mission Bodhidharma began a nine-year meditation in a temple, built in a cave,
in Canton. Growing tired after endless months of staring at a stone wall, he fell asleep. When he
awoke, Bodhidharma was so disgusted with himself for sleeping, that he cut off his eyelids and
threw them to the ground. It was there, according to legend, that the first tea plant grew, providing
Bodhidharma with the leaves with which to make an elixir that kept him awake and refreshed, for
the remaining years of his mission.
And so tea was born.

discovery of tea in india

The history of tea abounds with Scotsmen. One named Robert Bruce had ventured to explore
Assam a decade before the Company appointed its Tea Committee. This adventurer had lived
with the native tribes of this remote province between India and Burma and discovered they drank
tea which they themselves produced from indigenous plants. Robert died but his brother Charles
had specimen branches sent to the director of the Company botanical gardens at Calcutta.
Coming from the last place the director expected tea to flourish, a low-lying jungle valley, it
couldn’t possibly be tea, he ruled, but just another type of Camellia. There the matter rested until
this same Company botanist was named secretary of the Tea Committee and circulated his
questionnaire. By way of reply, Charles Bruce this time sent actual tea seed, live plants, and
manufactured tea from Assam. Even the botanist could no longer deny the obvious and the
Committee soon reported: “We have no hesitation in declaring this discovery . . . far the most
important and valuable that has ever been made on matters connected with the agricultural or
commercial resources of the Empire.”

Brave word, but it would stagger the Tea Committee, even in its wildest enthusiasm, to imagine
India the world’s largest tea producer, which she is today. Her crop routinely exceeds one billion
pounds, well over half of which she drinks herself, having also become the world’s leading tea
consumer. India today is the home of over thirteen thousand tea estates or “gardens” or about
one million acres of tea, all told, all but a fifth of it in north India. It has been estimated that tea
provides employment for over two million people. India’s marked increase in production in recent
decades has been achieved with only a modest increase in acreage. This enormous agribusiness
was largely crated by the British in less than four generations between the Tea Committee’s
report and India’s Independence from Great Britain in 1948.

In fairness, the Dutch deserve recognition for succeeding where previous experiments in South
Carolina, St. Helena and Brazil had failed - in producing the first tea grown anywhere outside of
China. Though this accolade has been awarded the eight chests of Assam tea sold at Auction in
London in 1839, it properly belongs to the Java tea grown and manufactured in the Dutch East
Indies and brought to Amsterdam aboard the frigate Algiers in 1835. Dutchmen first attempted
cultivating tea in Java in 1684, well before the English ever did so in India, and in 1829 the Dutch
Jacobson became the first European to penetrate China and emerge with tea plants and skilled
tea makers. If such “firsts” are forgotten today, Holland’s consolation may be that the Dutch firm
of Van Bees remains the largest and most profitable in the world tea trade. But it is now time to
ask ourselves how the British ever came to control India in the first place.

role of agencies

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(2) How Does the UN Respond to Emergencies?

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