Introduction

We have been hearing about the health reimbursement of tea for years now. Whether, black, green, or white, tea is a muse of nutrients, antioxidants, and other compounds. And it tastes delicious and provides a little boost of caffeine and the comfort that only a temperate beverage can bring. Numerous medical studies have found that tea contains compounds that exhibit anti-cancer properties. This does not mean that drinking tea will prevent anyone from getting cancer, but it certainly can’t hurt. Other potential benefits contain underneath and maintaining weight loss, reducing the risk of heart disease, preventing diabetes, and lowering cholesterol. Before modern science could tell us how wonderful tea is, people already seemed to know. Humans have been cultivating tea plants and drinking tea for so long that no one can really say when and where it first appeared. Most likely the plant was first grown by people in the region of southwest China, northeast India, Burma, and Tibet. What we know for confident is that tea as a beverage has been around for at least 5,000 years. With the popularity of tea these days, it is not difficult to find it at any grocery hoard, nearly anywhere in the world. You can buy economical black teas or pricey, organic loose teas and everything in between. But, what about making your own? It is definitely possible to grow tea plants, produce the leaves, and create and ferment your own teas right in your own design or backyard.

The Tea Plant and Growing

All indisputable tea comes from just one kind of plant: Camellia silences. There are four different types of tea that can be made from the leaves of this deposit and those are black tea, green tea, white tea, and Oblong tea. Any other “type” of tea is not in actuality tea and comes from a various plant. There are two group of the tea tree, which are Camellia insistence insistence and Camellia insistent balsamic. Insistence insistence has smaller leaves and grows in the cool, rocky environment of places like China and Japan. The balsamic selection is a taller plant and thrives in moist, low elevation, sultry locations like India and southwest China. The tea plant is a shrub that grows to about one to two meters tall. In fall, it develops small white flowers that smell amazing. The leaves are dark green in color and have a smooth, shiny texture. The fruits that follow the plants are hard and small and the seeds are about one quarter of an inch in diameter. The balsamic tea stand can grow up to 65 feet tall and produce larger leaves. For increasing your own tea at home, you will probably want to avoid the balsamic plant and stick with using insistence silences. The balsamic is very large and requires a humid environment. Insistence is hardy through zone eight in the U.S. However, if you live in a colder zone, you can still grow a tea plant in a greenhouse or in a pot that you move indoors in the hostility. You can cultivate your tea plant from seed or from a cutting taken from an existing plant. You may also be able to find a plant at a local nursery. If you are increasing from seed, germination will take about four weeks. Cover the seeds lightly with soil and keep it damp and warm. When starting from seeds, be organized to wait a few years to make tea. It takes at least three years to get a plant that will manufacture enough leaves for you to make a harvest. If you are using a cutting, nurture it indoors for a year before transplanting outdoors

Harvesting Tea

Your tea plant will go resting in the winter. When new shoots emerge in the spring, this is called a flush. Pick the new development, the two smallest leaves and the bud, for your tea. The warmer your climate is, the more flushes you will get per year, which make a hothouse a good idea for mounting tea in colder areas. Once you have plucked your new expansion, you have tea. The harvest is that simple. What you do with the harvest decide whether you make black, green, white, or Oblong tea. Use soil that is slightly acidic. You can buy earth that is elected for rhododendrons to keep a tea plant happy. To continue the right acidity for your tea plant, water with soft water only. If you are uphill your plant in a container, give it a shot of dung a couple of times in the summer, but or else it will be happy. Your plant will be happy in full sun, but it also tolerates shade. It will tolerate a deficit better than many of your vegetables. In other words, escalating tea is not very difficult! If your location is warm enough, put your plant outside in the garden in a spot where it will get sun and maybe a little bit of shade. Put it up against a wall or tree to protect it from strong winds. If you are planting more than one tea bush, put them at least three feet apart from each other. Prune them back about every four years to keep the foliage productive and to keep them from getting too big and too tall. If you take care of your tea position, you will have tea for the next 50 to 100 years.

Production Tea

The vegetation that you harvest from your tea stand is tea. To get diverse flavors out of those leaves, you must arrange them in a different way. The information for making green and white tea is the same. For white, however, use only the buds and not the plants. Green tea. Spread out your harvest foliage and buds and leave them in a shady spot for a few hours. Steam them on the stove-top top for about a minute or bake them in a hot, dry skillet for a couple of minutes for a different flavor. Dry the leaves on a baking sheet in the stove at 250 degrees for about 20 minutes. You can store the desiccated leaves in an airtight container, or brew right away. Oblong tea. To make Oblong tea, let the leaves and buds wilt in the sun for a half hour to an hour. After that, leave them in the shade or inside for up to ten hours, with regular mixing. You may dry them in the oven at 250 degrees for 20 minutes. You can also treat Oblong tea in the conventional manner, which is to skip this step. Instead, roll the leaves into thin strips or small balls. They will unfurl as you brew them, but they won’t store as long as if you dry the leaves in the oven. Black tea. After you pick the leaves and buds, roll them between your fingers and hands until they turn a darker color. Spread the leaves out on a flat surface in a cool place and abscond them to dry for two to three days. Dry and store the leaves as you would for green or Oblong tea. An herbal tea is any beverage that is brewed from a plant other than Camellia insistence. There is a huge amount of variety in herbal teas, and there are many, many plants that you can grow, harvest, dry, and brew to make a tasty tea.

Herbal tea

Some of the more common plants that you can use for tea are: Peppermint. Peppermint tea is made from the leaves and is very refreshing. It also settles the stomach. The plant is very easy to grow, but use a container or it will take over your garden. Lavender. This fragrant plant makes a tasty and soothing tea that can reduce tension and relieve headaches. Use the buds to make tea. Lemon verbena. Another easy herb to grow, the leaves of lemon verbena makes a zingy, lemony, and refreshing drink. Grow it in a container and bring it inside for the winter. Rose hips. They are not exactly an herb, but the seed cases on your rose bushes make a tart and delicious tea. They are also very high in vitamin C.Bertram. Bertram has a slightly citrus flavor. You can use the flowers and leaves as tea or add it to your black tea to make a homemade Earl Grey blend. Chamomile. Chamomile plants are easy to grow and produce lovely, daisy-like flowers. When dried, these flowers make a tea that is calming and often used to induce sleep. Jasmine. The flowers of the jasmine plant have an intoxicating smell and can add a fragrant flavor to your tea, especially green and white tea. This is a warm weather plant, so if you have cold winters, grow it in a container and bring indoors. It also requires a trellis or other type of structure on which to climb.