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How is
Tea Grown?
The
tea plant, which grows naturally in the wild through much of Asia, is
cultivated in a variety of settings from small family gardens to giant
estates covering thousands of acres. The best tea is usually grown at
elevation, and often, on steep slopes. The terrain requires that these
premium teas be hand-picked. Many of the teas that are grown for tea
bags or iced teas, on the other hand, are grown on large, flat, lowland
areas to allow for machine harvesting.
Teas that are hand
picked and processed in the traditional fashion are called Orthodox
Teas.
Orthodox teas generally contain only the top two leaves and the unopened
bud, which
are picked carefully by hand and then processed in varying ways to reach
the desired result and bring out the characteristics of the tea. While
tea plants do have yellow-white flowers approximately 1 to 1.5 inches in
diameter, the "buds" referred to in the tea trade are the young,
unopened leaves - the newest, freshest growth.
Machine picked and processed teas are typically called
CTC (Cut-Tear-Curl or sometimes, Crush-Tear-Curl) teas. These teas
usually include the uppermost leaves and unopened buds, but also
typically contain varying amounts of older leaves, stalks and stems.
Depending on the quality of the tea and the care used in picking and
processing, CTC teas can be of very good quality, but cannot compare to
the quality of the best orthodox teas.
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