All real teas are made from the plant Camellia sinensis. It is an evergreen tropical shrub plant without smell, with a Latin name Camellia sinensis. Camellia sinensis is a plant with firm, leathery and elliptic leaves and white flowers. This modest-looking plant grows on plateaus of China, Japan, India, Georgia and on the southern slopes of Caucasus and in Java. Even though it can reach a height of 9 meters in the wilderness, a plant is cut at the height of 1 meter for the larger number of outgrowths and easier picking of leaves. The plant grows only in warm climates, particularly at altitudes up to 2100 meters. The higher this altitude is, the greater the quality of tea gets, that is the better the taste is. On lower altitudes leaves grow for approximately one week, and on the greater altitudes, they grow few weeks.
Because of the climate, altitude, ground, and procedures of processing the plant Camellia sinensis we got three main types of tea: black, green and red.
The most important difference between these three teas is the procedure of their processing, that is the fermentation. On the west the fermented teas are called black teas (tea leaves are black), non-fermented teas are called green teas (leaves are the green color, their natural form is preserved) and half-fermented teas are called red.
Today tea is (green tea as the main and the most healing representative) the most wanted beverage (even more than coffee), and it is getting more and more demand on the market, which is completely justified because of its extraordinary salubrity.
The history of tea
According to the legend, the Chinese emperor Shen-Nung discovered tea about 2737 years before Christ. The legend says that the emperor has started boiling a bit of river water after he got tired from hunt during one of his numerous hunting trips. Because of the wind, several leaves have fallen into the water by accident and it made the water blurry. The emperor Shen-Nung was a scientist and could not defy the urge to taste that liquid with a good and to him an unknown taste. The emperor was thrilled with that refreshing beverage and was especially impressed that he was no longer tired from the hunt. Thus, the tea was made which wins the world today.
It is considered that the culture of drinking tea every day was firstly spread by Buddhist monks. They used the tea as a meditation beverage because it awakens the energy and improves the mood, that is it improves physical peace.
The meanings of the word tea:
- The first meaning of the word tea is – processed young leaves of a tea shrub (Camellia sinensis).
- The second meaning is – a beverage gotten by pouring boiled water over tea leaves.
- Beverage from various other plants.
- Tea is a social custom when we gather around with tea.
Camellia sinensis are the leaves for making tea. In everyday speech, the word is used in singular (tea), and actually it is a very large number of teas.
This consists of various preparations made from leaves, flowers, stalks, fruits or roots of different plants. This includes a very large number of teas, and some of them are associated with the healing properties.
Here we single out a large group of domestic tea such as dog rose, chamomile, sage, marshmallow and others and preparations from pieces of dried fruit, for example, blackcurrant, lemon, orange, strawberry, raspberry, apple, cherry, apricot, banana and others.
There are also various mixtures of fruit teas as very tasty beverages filled with vitamins and other useful ingredients. Those teas are winning the market today, and some of them are forest fruit, orange-pineapple, red-orange, strawberry-raspberry and others. Also included are mixtures with exotic names, which is suitable for their composition, such as Hawaii cocktail, Pina colada and so on. Rooibos (red shrub) beverage from South Africa is also included here.
The exception between various teas is Yerbe Mate (Iiex Paraguariensis Saint Hilarie). It is a beverage of Argentine cowboys gauchos. It contains tein the same as the real tea.
Tein is the same as caffeine contained in a coffee bean. It is an important component of tea. Tein in tea empowers the flow of blood and an exchange of substances in the brain, and caffeine in coffee negatively affects the heart and bloodstream. Tein determines the properties of tea and its effect on a human organism.
All of these beverages, as well as the real teas, are prepared in the same way (a boiled water is poured over a pile of dried leaves, flowers, fruits, roots or rust, which is then left in it for a few minutes), but this is also all that they have in common.
The origin of the word tea
The word tea originates from ancient China. For centuries, China has been the only country in which that plant was bred and it was called tê. In Cantonese dialect tea is called Chá.
Tea got into Europe by land through Russia, and by sea, it was brought by Dutchmen.
Russians have known tea from before and from The Russian language, the Croatian name for tea was derived.
The letter i was derived from the expression ch’a a ye („cha i“ = tea leaves).
After China, tea became common in other countries (Japan, Thailand, Mongolia, and Korea) and is called cha.
Further on, the word was spread through India up to Turkey and Arabian countries of North Africa. In that area names for tea are India=chay, Iran = cha-yi, Turkey = caj, Egypt = chai, Morocco = shai.
Tea gardens
Famous tea gardens are present in provinces Fukien, Anhwei, Chekiang, Kiangsi. In China and Taiwan, tea areas cover about ¼ of the ground surface of 10 million square kilometers.
Provinces
Fukein
Fukein is a province positioned on the east slopes Wu-I. It is known for the production of high-quality white teas.
A series of other teas are produced in the gardens such as SHUI HSIEN, MAO HAI, T’IEH LO HAN, TA PAI, HUNG P’IEH, WU TUI, KUNG FU, PAI MAO HOU IAO SHE, LIEN PAI PAI MAO and others.
Chekiang (Zheijang)
This province covers the Shanghai area. It is known for the production of tea LUNG CHING (Long ching, Dragon’s source). The special method of tea production is used by which tea is only dried, so it keeps all of its natural ingredients. This method of making Lung Ching gives an excellent quality, so-called natural leaf. Well, known natural leaf teas are Pei Hou, Temple of Heaven, Yuet Wah, Chun Mee, Gunpowder, Lung Ching.
Pei Hou green tea which is bred on hardly reachable peaks (at altitudes of 1200 meters). Picking happens once a year in spring, and it is a much-esteemed species.
Yuet Wah green tea, with leaves in the shape of a ring.
Gunpowder green tea, with leaves, bent in small spheres.
Anhwei (anhui)
It is located west of Shanghai. It is known for teas Keemun, Chun Mee, Mao Feng.
Care and protection
Modern tea culture proposes a drain of excessive water and streams, or irrigation characteristic only for some areas, regular ground processing (plowing and digging) so that the ground is loose and porous, as well as nutrition and fertilization.
Tea grows best on a young volcanic ground when the surface layer of humus is well processed and rich in nitrogen, phosphates, and potassium.
The tea is not too sensitive and it does not require too much protection from pests and diseases.
In northern India the greatest enemy of the plant is a red spider, while in southern India, Sri Lanka, and Java, as well as eastern Africa it is attached by different types of mold.
DISEASE TREATMENT
Generally about diseases
The disease is generally every occurrence in the organism which leads to difficulties with performing different functions in that organism. There are different diseases that cause different problems such as weakness, itch, fever, headache or some other pain, social problems or death. There are different diseases and different classifications of diseases.
Here are some:
- according to cause, diseases are divided into bacterial, viral, fungal,
- contagious and non-contiguous,
- hereditary, non-hereditary and inborn diseases,
- according to the place of occurrence: diseases in lungs, digestive and so on,
- there are many other classic classifications of diseases, but the main classification of diseases is ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases and related health problems) where all diseases are divided into 21 categories.
Treatment of diseases
Taking into consideration the classifications there are different treatments out of which the best one is that our body (immune system)fights for itself, but if it not able to do so then various healing methods are necessary, for example, medication, operations or treatment with alternative methods (out of which the most famous one is treatment with teas). There are also different prevention measures for various diseases, and the most famous one is vaccination.