Jeanne French, age 13, of Rock Island, I11., for her question:
WHO WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO DRINK TEA?
Tea is a beverage made by pouring boiling water over dried tea leaves. Tea ranks as the most popular drink in more contries than any other beverage. It is said that tea was discovered about 2737 B.C. by Emperor Shen Nung of China. The earliest written Chinese record of tea drinking goes back to the 10th century B.C.
Tea was first brought to Europe by the Dutch in the early 17th century A.D. Britain became the only European country of tea drinkers rather than coffee drinkers, after the introduction of tea there in 1657.
Tea was introduced into North America by early settlers but was heavily taxed, resulting in the well known Boston Tea Party of 1773, and it has never competed successfully with coffee as the staple beverage.
Half of the people in the world drink tea. China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Japan are the main producers. Leaf buds and young leaves are used in making tea. The age of the leaves determine the taste and name of the particular commercial variety. Thus orange pekoe is made from the youngest leaves and souchong from the fourth leaves.
After picking, the leaves either are dried immediately and completely to produce green teas, such as pan fired, basket fired, hyson and gunpowder, or are partially dried and then allowed to ferment to produce various kinds of black teas., such as orange pekoe, pekoe, congou and souchong.
Oolong tea is particularly fired and there steamed, thus being intermecxate between green and black teas. After being sorted, all grades of teas are packed in foil lined chests to prevent the absorption of unpleasant odors or the loss of aroma during shipment.
In China the idea originated to sometimes allow tea to absorb the odors of various flowers such as jasmine. Tea is an aromatic stimulant, containing various polyphenols, essential oils and caffeine. The concentration of caffeine in tea is from 2.5 to 4.5 percent, as contrasted to an average concentration of about 1.5 percent in coffee.
Today tea is also made available in decaffeinated form. To sort the processed tea leaves by grade, they are passed across screens with different size holes. Very popular today are tea bags. Instant tea is made by brewing tea in large vats and then removing the water by a drying process. Only a powder remains.
The powdered tea combines easily with moisture and must be packed under controlled humidity and temperature. People make instant tea at home by simply adding water to the powder.