The birthplace of "American tea"

Recently, I was in Charleston, South Carolina. According to Charleston Tea, Charleston is the birthplace of tea in America. The french botanist, Francois Andre Michauz, brought the plants to the Lowcountry outside Charleston. Charleston Tea claims that "Charleston still grows descendants of these tea plants."

I did not visit the American Classic Tea plantation now owned by Bigelow Tea. I did not drink tea at the numerous tea houses in and around Charleston. But, I did receive a box of American Classic Tea in the wedding welcome bag at my hotel.

Tasting notes to follow.

P.S. I drank sweet tea and unsweetened ice tea. A blend of the two was almost as good as 1/2 (lemonade) and 1/2 (iced tea).

Tea plant to teas

The philosophy behind Notes on Tea is to provide tea information ranging from reviews of tea houses to recipes of tasty things to eat with tea to histories of teapots and teacups. While I have written about plum kiflis, Samovar Tea Lounge, and tea art, I have not written about a basic thing: the processing of tea, from the tea plant to black, white, green, oolong, and scented teas.

Black, green, white, oolong, and scented teas originate from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. The difference in tea types results from processing of the tea leaves. White is the least processed of the teas compared to oolong which is the most processed tea. Tea leaves are steamed and dried to create white tea. The process for oolong tea is more complex and involves withering, shaking (to initiate the fermentation process), short fermentation, pan firing and drying. The making of black and green teas involves fewer steps than oolong, but also begins with withering and ends with drying. Steaming is the final step in making Japanese-style green tea.

Black, green, and oolong teas are used to make scented teas. The teas are scented with flowers or fruits and then cooled. Herbal teas are prepared from the leaves, flowers, and roots of plants with medicinal properties, not from the Camellia plant.

1: Camellia sinensis (thea)

Sources
1: http://www.swsbm.com/Images/New10-2003/Camellia_thea-2.jpg
Processing information: http://www.teatalk.com/general/steps.htm; http://www.stashtea.com/teawhere.htm

A new teaser

The Links section of the site was titled "Tea Treats Tea Places." We changed it to "Teasers."* Teasers are just that. The sites presented tell us about teahouses, teashops, and things that are good to eat while drinking tea, like pastries and desserts.

The latest teaser is Cupcake Bakeshop. The blog is featured in today's Wall Street Journal (US edition). The site is dedicated to cupcakes: "Cupcake devotees can feast their eyes on this virtual shrine to the diminutive desserts." The blog is also mentioned in a cupcake feature written by SF Gate.com.

* The title was suggested by a reader.