As another semester approaches its hectic finale, I find myself getting less and less sleep. In order to function at a level resembling full consciousness during the day, I, like most college students, have come to depend much on caffeine, that sweet elixir of alertness.
These days, this popular molecule comes packaged in many forms, from soda to breath-mints to coffee. There is one very special caffeinated beverage, however, that has been around for over three millennia, earning the adulation of cultures on nearly every continent.
Today's Campus Cooking is a tribute to that beverage: tea.
What is tea, exactly? We are surely familiar with the concept of plants, spices and herbs steeped in boiling water, but true tea refers to an infusion of the leaves of the tea tree, whose Latin name is Camellia sinensis.
Herbal "teas" such as chamomile, rooibos and yerba mate are often called "tisanes" or "herbal infusions." Because Camellia sinensis itself is so rich in history and lore, I'll save tisanes for another day (Though I can't help but mention that yerba mate - one of my favorite tea alternatives - gives a refreshing buzz can be superior to caffeinated jitters).
One legend has it that tea was discovered serendipitously by Emperor Shen Nung of China around 2700 B.C.
According to the legend, he was sipping a relaxing bowl of boiling water in the Imperial garden when a gust of wind blew some leaves from a nearby Camellia sinensis tree into his water, transforming its color and aroma. A curious man (after all, he is credited as being a Chinese father of medicine and agriculture), he took a sip and was pleasantly amazed.
Whether or not this creation myth is true, tea quickly conquered the palate of China, spreading to Japan and India. Middle Eastern and European travelers to China brought back stories of tea to the West.
In approximately 1610, the Dutch East India Company brought green tea leaves to European ports, whereupon the English took an instant liking to it. When England established British colonies in India, the colonizers realized that India's warm climate could be harnessed for growing tea, thereby surpassing the commercial monopoly that China had on tea. Today India and China are the world's largest exporters of tea.
Processing tea consists mostly of "fermentation." In the tea world, ferme has nothing to do with yeasts and alcohol. Instead, it refers to a process "during which the Polyphenols in the tea leaf are oxidized in presence of the enzymes and subsequently condensed to form Colored compounds contributing to the quality attributes of tea," according to TeaAuction.com.
Tea is separated by the way it is processed into four categories black, green, oolong and white (In China, black tea is referred to as "hong cha," or red tea, which caused me endless confusion when I was still learning English. In the United States, "red tea" refers to rooibos, an infusion of the needle-like leaves of the African rooibos bush).
Here are the four basic teas:
Black tea is our most familiar tea - smoky in taste, it has the highest caffeine content but is lowest in nutrients and antioxidants due to its lengthy "fermentation" process.
Green tea has a lighter, sweeter, grassier taste. Its oxidation period is much shorter and it is usually steamed. Popular in China and Japan, it has more antioxidants and less caffeine than black tea, making it a healthier choice.
Oolong tea is somewhere between black and green. It is hard to find in the United States, but is sold at specialty loose-leaf tea stores like Tealuxe and Teavana in Boston.
White tea is the rarest (yes, the advertising is true) tea. It consists of young tea buds (still with their fuzz) that have only been dried, without any added oxidation. Up until recently, it was available only in China, but the gourmet food industry has brought it to United States supermarket shelves. It has the highest levels of antioxidants and the lowest levels of caffeine out of all the teas, and a very light flavor. It is expensive, but not prohibitively so.
Dried tea leaves are highly receptive to added aromas, which is why blended teas and flavors work so well. I am a devoted fan of tangerine-and peach-flavored teas, though my purist Chinese grandmother pokes gentle fun at my succumbing to the American "flavor" market. Today you can find anything from chocolate tea to lychee tea available for sale.
So where's the darn recipe, you ask? It isn't here. That's right, no actual cooking in this week's Campus Cooking Something as elegant, perfect and effortless as making a beautiful cup of tea doesn't have much to do with a chaotic scene of sauce-splattered pans and screaming house mates chasing each other around with a gunky spoon. Instead there is a simple guide to the care and keeping of tea.
The Simple Ritual of Courting Tea Nirvana
1.Determine the kind of tea you have. Loose or bagged? Bagged tea is usually crushed, so it takes a shorter time to steep than whole leaves. Black, green, oolong or white? Methods can vary. See below.
2. Boil water.
3. Put tea in a cup or a tea ball - about a scant teaspoon per 8 oz. mug is a good measure. (Awesome secret: Tea leaves, at least high quality non-twiggy whole leaves, will all sink naturally to the bottom when done steeping, so you don't actually need any sort of tea ball or infuser to keep the leaves out of your mouth.)
4. If you are making black tea, pour the boiled water right on the leaves. If you are making any other color, let the boiling water sit for a minute so it cools slightly, then add to tea leaves. This is because boiling water can damage green or white leaves by cooking them, resulting in bitter off-flavors.
5. Let steep 3-5 minutes and drink. Yum!
6. Note that if you have high-quality loose tea, you can probably get 1 or 2 more infusions from the same cup of leaves. Don't toss them. Tea bags are usually only good for one infusion because the leaves are so crushed that all the flavor leaves immediately.
If you are a tea lover like me, don't stop at this article. Tea has an amazingly rich and varied culture - definitely explore it. Until next time, food lovers. To your health, happiness and successfully surviving the semester's final weeks!
