Tea is essentially the dried leaves of a plant that grows as a bush, Camellia Sinensis an evergreen plant native to China. Tea has been around for a long time, having been grown extensively by the Chinese around 1,000 AD.
Tea was also introduced to the Japanese around the 8th century and became very popular by the 15th century. It was not until the 16th century that Europeans discovered tea. In those days it tended to be green (oolong) tea rather than the black tea we know today.
Black tea was first grown and manufactured by the British in India in the 1840’s and by the 1870’s in Sri Lanka. The terms black and green tea relate to the level of fermentation and drying the tea receives during processing.
Tea tends to be grown at high altitude where the air is a little cooler and the rainfall more plentiful. The UK is one of the world’s biggest markets for Tea and therefore teas are exported to the UK from all over the world.
Key regions supplying tea to the UK include:
-Kenya
-Sri Lanka
-India
-Africa
-China
See www.Tea.co.uk for further info
