Various
Chinese Teas from 10 o'clock White tea and moving clockwise to
green, yellow, Oolong and Black Teas
If I asked you what is the most expensive beverage in the world,
most people would probably think of a bottle of vintage wine or
brandy. But from what I hear from our Tea Merchant from Peh
Sin Choon, I reckon the most expensive beverage in the world might
just be Chinese Tea.
Legend has it that the mother of a Ming Dynasty Emperor was cured
of an illness by drinking tea from 4 particular bushes in the Wuyi
mountains of Fujian province. As a result, the Emperor sent
four red robes to honour the tea bushes and thus the legend of Da
Hong Pao Tea was born. Three of these bushes are still
existing today and produce just a handful of the original Da Hong
Pao tea each year. The price of the tea has reportedly
reached millions of dollars per kg. The tea is so valuable
that when Richard Nixon visited China, Chairman Mao presented him
with 50g of this Tea as a gift. Richard Nixon as apparently
insulted with what he considered was a small gift until it was
pointed out to him that the gift represented half of the year's Da
Hong Pao harvest!
Da Hong Pao tea can of course be found at good tea houses, but they
are of course not from the original three bushes. They are
however grown from cuttings of the original tea bushes and
processed the same way. I guess most people would never have
the chance to taste the original Da Hong Pao, so who can really say
how different the this is compared to original Da Hong Pao?
Jasmine
Tea
If you enjoy food, then one of the things you have to contend with
is your cholesterol levels. Tasty food usually means fatty
food which usually means that your cholesterol levels are going to
go up unless you consume other foods to balance it out. There
are many foods like mushrooms, walnuts and almonds which actually
help lower cholesterol levels and it is important to consume them
together with foods that contain high levels of saturated fats so
that the cholesterol balance is maintained. Another way is to
consume a beverage like Chinese Tea with your meals. Pu Erh
in particular is particularly good for reducing cholesterol
levels.
Over the last few years of blogging about food, I have actually
more concerned about what I eat and have slowly switched from
drinking Coffee and Milo to Chinese Tea. First of all, I
really don't need the extra calories from the sugar and the milk
and secondly I wanted the antioxidant and cholesterol lowering
properties of Chinese Tea.
Now, there are a huge number of Chinese Teas and if you are like me
a few years ago, whenever the waitress at the Dim Sum restaurant
asked what tea I would like to have, I would just utter one
of the teas I have in my Mandarin vocabulary, just to get the
process over and done with. However, I begin to realize that
Teas, just like wine, can be paired with different sorts of
food. So it pays to understand a little about Chinese Teas so
that you can look more like an expert the next time the waitress
asks for your choice of tea.
All teas, whether English or Chinese originate from a single plant
species, namely the Camillia Sinensis. Just like how milk can be made into many
different types of cheeses, the type of tea produced depends on
where the tea is grown and how the tea leaves are processed after
the harvest. Basically, if very little is done, you get green
tea. If you leave it to wilt before frying, you get fermented
tea which can be semi fermented, Oolong tea or a fully fermented
and aged black tea like Pu Erh tea. The Chinese Red Teas are
what the English call Black Tea which is your familiar English
Breakfast tea. These teas are fermented and fried to achieve a high
level of oxidation. In general, Chinese Teas can be divided into
six different classes of teas depending on the way it is processed,
viz: Green, White, Yellow, Oolong, Red, Black and Flower teas
where dried flowers are used to add an extra dimension to the tea,
eg Jasmine tea.
