Welcome back! Before we get to the nitty gritty details of so many green tea benefits; we tackle on the source of the green tea substance itself.
Grean tea comes from the plant called Camellia Sinensis. The common name for this is "tea plant".
This is also where Black Tea, Oolong Tea and White Tea come from.
Camellia Sinensis, a shrub-like plant, is usually grown in tropical climates that has a combination of hot and cool climates and heavy rainfalls. While there are many places in the world that has those characteristics; the best tasting teas are produced on highly elevated mountain regions.
Countries where the green tea plant is vastly cultivated are as follows:
1. India
2. China
3. Sri Lanka
4. Japan
5. Taiwan
6. Kenya
7. Turkey
And many more..
So how does green tea really get extracted from the plant?
- First, the leaves from the green tea plant are hand-picked or machine picked: cultivation and harvesting.
- Then the leaves are lightly steamed before allowing them to dry (drying). This process effectively retains the active properties of the plant. These active properties in the leaves are the ones helpful to our health. Green tea processing retains many of the active properties as compared to Oolong and Black Tea processing.
- For those green tea products found in teabags, a process called shaping occurs. Its purpose is to create a distinctive look in the tea (wll still be recongnized as tea leaves) and to regulate the release of content of the green tea leaves when steamed into a cup.
- There are final steps for drying and post-processing as required.
Comments: It is really surprising that complex procedures are being done in order to get the green tea extract that we enjoy today. I think it is based on the fact that the producers of green tea extracts pay attention to detail in order to retain the healthy ingredients from the tea plant. I also learned today that the green tea plant could also be grown on tropical areas; I thought it was only grown on elevated areas and countries with cold climates. But through research, the best tasting teas are indeed cultivated from elevated and cold areas nonetheless.
For more green tea infos, please read these sites:
4. The Source Of All Tea
P.S. A new series of posts are up! If you would like to know 10 Trivia regarding Green Tea, click on this link: http://greenteaphilippines.blogspot.com/p/10-trivia.html
P.S. A new series of posts are up! If you would like to know 10 Trivia regarding Green Tea, click on this link: http://greenteaphilippines.blogspot.com/p/10-trivia.html
