Facts about Tea

• Tea is grown commercially in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the globe
• The tea plant is a flowering evergreen shrub that has distinctive dark green leaves. All tea comes from variants of the tea plant and the differences in tea are due to geographic location, time of picking and the way the leaf is processed after picking
• The tea plant grows best in a warm and wet climate, at altitudes ranging from 1000 to 7000 feet above sea level
• Tea is grown in more than thirty countries and each region produces a leaf with its own particular characteristic
• The highest tea tree can reach up to 20 meters, but to make harvesting easier they are kept to a height of less than 1 meter
• The trees have a flat top called a plucking table. Tea plucking is a labour-intensive operation often carried out by women. Plucking involves the buds and top two leaves being taken. They are collected in a basket carried on the harvester’s back. A skilled tea plucker can gather as much as 35 kg of fresh tea leaves in a single day, which makes about 9 kilos of dried manufactured tea
• The fresh tea leaves are taken to a factory on the tea estate where they are turned into tea
• The tea is auctioned to tea merchants. These merchants then have to blend the teas
• The cultivation of tea is a huge industry. Thousands work in the fields and estates where tea trees are grown
• About 40% of people in Britain will have a cup of tea at some point today
• Tea contains about half the amount of caffeine as coffee
• The tea bag was invented in New York in 1904 by the tea merchant Thomas Sullivan