Camellia Sinensis, the families of tea and their transformation process

Families of tea : White. Green, Yellow, Wulong, Pu Er, Black(Red)

They all come from the same plant : Camellia Sinensis

Before Robert Fortune discovered the "secrets" of tea in the middle of the XIX^th century, Europeans believed that green tea and black tea came from different plants. We now know today that it is the phenomenon of oxidation that transforms the natural state of the leaf by changing it's taste and colour and that all the families of tea come from the same plant : Camellia Sinensis. Oxidation happens thanks to oxydase, an enzyme that reacts when the cells of the leaf are broken. Reacting to oxygen, this enzyme provokes oxidation of the leaf, therefore making it possible to transform any new freshly picked leaves into any family of tea!

If the picking of the leaf is one of the determinant factors of the quality of the tea, mastering the transformation , often a result of a traditional "savoir-faire", is also a decisive factor in regards to the final taste of the tea.

Each family of tea is a result of a particular transformation method :

1) White Tea

White tea is obtained from very precious harvests constituted uniquely of buds, in the case of the highest grades. It is also white tea which receives the less handling. The leafs are dried naturally in order to retrieve a part of their humidity. Their liquor is a slightly tannic, refreshing, and low in caffeine.

2) Green Tea

Produced essentially in China and Japan, where there are approximately 1500 varieties , green tea are the favourite of the orientals. The fresh leaves undergo a desiccation in order to prevent any possibility of oxidation, which provokes an increase in tannins and the vegetal character of the liquor.

3) Yellow Tea

Yellow tea undergoes a slight oxidation by covering the leaves still warm from the desiccation with a humid cloth. A slight oxidation of the enzymes occurs which confers to the leaf a yellow hue present also in its liquor.

4)Wulong Tea (Oolong)

Transformed according to a process which dates back about 3 centuries, Wulong tea is a tea partially oxidized that are rolled or wisted in an intense manner. The Chinese and Taiwanese have 2 types : the ones that undergo an oxidation of about 10 to 30% and resemble more green tea by their slightly sweet and floral flavours; and the ones that are oxidized from 40 to 70% which confers notes of timber, fruit, and sometimes even caramel. "Wulong" means black dragon and refers to the black serpents that are enrolled around the branches of the tea tree.

5) Pu er tea

Originating from Yunnan province (south of China), where the leaves were harvested from old wild tea trees before being compressed to facilitate transport, Pu Er tea is still today a speciality of China. Chinese medicine uses Pu Er since centuries to help digestion and because of its cleansing property. There are 2 types of Pu Er tea : sheng (raw), shou(cooked). Cooked Pu Er is a fermentation acceleration process, because Pu Er is the wine of teas : the older, the better! They have an earthy, mineral, and copper taste to them.

examples : Pu Er shou 1998, Pu Er Sheng 1974 Menghai 74342.

6)Black tea

Black tea undergoes a complete oxidation. In reference to the copper coloured infusions, the Chinese name these "Red teas".