Green Tea Plant: Where is Green Tea Extracted? and How?

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".

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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.

Here are the details on the extracting of green tea from the plant.

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:

1. Green Tea Extract

2. Camellia Sinensis

3. The Tea Bush

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

Origin of Green Tea: How Did It Start?

So how did the discovery of green tea take place? and when?

Good thing it did!

Upon reading several articles I found out that 2 stories stood out. Both are Chinese legends.

1. Leaf Drop

One story stated that in the year 2737 B.C. a Chinese leader and a medical expert, Shen Nung, was found resting under a tea tree while simmering water. A breeze then stirred the branches of the tree causing a few leaves to drift down on the water he was simmering. The resulting drink was found to be refreshing and deliciously revitalizing. After this he introduced and instructed many people to drink the resulting brew and the rest is history, thus tea was discovered!

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2. Leaf Taste

Another story involved a man named Shien Non Shei. He found the tea plant as it is known today. It has been told that he tasted the leaf from the plant and he thought that it tasted fantastic. After which he decided to mix it with water as he felt that it had special medicinal properties. He was right after all!

Comments: There were many other stories regarding the origins of green tea. The discovery is the product of man's unending sense of curiosity. The effect is that many people are now healthier and are saved from major diseases! There you go! I hope I have satisfied your curiosity a bit with regards to the origins of green tea!

For more info regarding the origins of green tea, please check out these links:

1. Green tea origins and benefits

2. Types of tea other than green tea

3. Flavors of tea other than green tea

4. Planet Tea - Green tea

5. Green Tea Revolution

6. Green Tea Guide

7. Green Tea Bits

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