Page 4 - Tea Basics Brochure

A FLAWLESS INFUSION YOUR CUSTOMERS CANNOT FORGET
A soothing potion or a bracing beverage. The perfect concoction of subtle flavors or a mouth-watering pick-me-up on a steaming day. Multi-faceted, aromatic and flavorful. Flawless tea starts with the tea leaves slowly unfurling in steeping, and ends as your patron savors a perfect cup of tea.
THE ART OF SELECTING TEA
TYPES OF TEA
Black teas are withered, rolled, fully oxidized and dried.
Flavored teas are usually black but could be any teas with flavor added.
Oolong teas are partially oxidized and feature leaves that are withered, rolled, partially oxidized and dried.
Green teas are not allowed to oxidize and their leaves are steamed, rolled and dried.
White teas are very rare and produced predominately in China. White tea is actually defined by
a process which lacks the rolling stage of usual tea production.
GRADES OF TEA
As a part of their processing, tea leaves go through sieves with graduated mesh to sort them for commercial sale. These sieves divide them into three grades: leaf, broken, and fines.
Leaf grades are made up of the larger leaves left after the broken grades have been sifted out. In orthodox manufacture, broken grades made up of smaller and
broken leaves represent roughly 80 percent of the total crop.
The name for the smallest grade produced is Fines (Dust). This grade is very useful for a quick brewing, strong cup of tea.
Tea selection and steeping information provided by the Tea Association of the USA.