Regions of Tea

The tea plant grows in many places across the planet (Canada is unfortunately not a great one for it). What makes the tea plant so interesting is how the taste of the liquor changes based on where the plant is grown and processed. I touched on this briefly last week, but I'll go into a bit more detail this week.

China
A large amount of tea comes out of china. The huge amount of landmass there makes for many different climates and regions. Black, green and white teas all make their ways out of china, as well as a few variations that I haven't discussed yet (Pu'erh and oolong). Chinese tea makers also take huge pride in the presentation of their tea. The leaves are often rolled into pearl-like balls, or small pellets. They also make tea bricks, which vary in size from a single serve "nest" about the size of a quarter to a foot long brick that becomes a family heirloom, passed between generations.
Chinese teas are heated mostly through exposure to smoke, which makes the tea taste smokey or drier. A small number of teas are dried in a wok, and have extremely complex flavours. They also cost an arm and a leg, but are well worth the cost. Chinese (And Taiwanese) white and oolong teas are some of the most sought after and expensive teas in the world.

Japan
Tea grown in Japan is almost exclusively made into green tea, and they have made it an art form. There are so many different kinds of green tea that come from Japan, each with unique flavours. The word for tea in Japanese is "Cha", and the types of teas usually incorporate it into the name of the blend; Matcha, Genmaicha, Hojicha. So the next time you order a macha latte from somewhere, don't say you want a matcha tea latte. That means you want a tea tea latte.
Japanese teas have the oxidization process stopped by steaming the leaves. This process creates a sweeter flavour, sometimes similar to artichoke, seaweed, or grass. For those unaccustomed to the flavour pallet of teas, this might sound unappealing. I personally love Japanese green teas. I love the flavour profile, the smell, and how I feel after drinking them.
There are also pan dried tea made in Japan, and these end up being nutty instead of grassy. Japan also is the home of matcha, a finely ground, bright green tea that is served in many ceremonies. Because you ingest the entire leaf in this ground form, matcha has more health benefits than normal green tea (and more caffeine, be forewarned).

Sri Lanka
History lesson! Sri Lanka used to produce massive amounts of coffee, and developed a huge industry around it. Unfortunately, the coffee crops were devastated by a infestation and the plants died. Like, all of them. The farmers didn't want to have a total crop wipeout again, so they changed to growing tea. They already had huge amounts of land suited for growing tea, and multiple elevations for variation. They used this land to become the world's largest exporter of black tea. At this time, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon. That's why when you buy black tea, it's often called Ceylon, referencing the original name of the country. Most black tea on the market for general use comes from Sri Lanka.

Tea comes from many places, all over the world. These three happen to be large producers, so I'm mentioning them. Africa is another large producer of tea, but they also produce large amounts of rooibos. I'll talk about rooibos later, don't worry.

Toodles!