10 facts about tea. Interesting facts about tea: entertaining and educational. How did tea bags appear?
We all know that tea is not only delicious, but also very healthy drink. And we have collected for you many other interesting facts about him that you will be interested in reading. Ready? Then, let's get started.
1. According to experts, there are almost 1,500 various types tea. Moreover, all this variety is obtained from six main varieties: black, green, white, yellow, red and fermented.
2. Almost all the world's tea is grown in 5 countries: China, India, Sri Lanka, Japan and Taiwan.
3. The most popular variety is black tea, which occupies a share of almost 75% of the entire world market. And green tea is recognized as the most beneficial.
4. It is believed that tea appeared in Europe thanks to the Portuguese priest Jasper de Cruz, who brought it after a trip to China in 1590.
5. Until the 19th century, almost all the world's tea was produced in China, and its only export partner was Great Britain. Even now, the Chinese own almost a third of the world market.
6. During the Victorian era, special cups designed to protect gentlemen's mustaches from accidental soaking were successfully sold in England.
7. In Asia, tea leaves were used to read the future.
8. Tea bags modern look, first appeared on the market in 1929 in Germany. Nowadays, tea bags are used to prepare about 96% of all cups of this aromatic drink. And for the first time, bags were invented purely by accident - by the American Thomas Sullivan, in 1904.
9. After tourism, tea cultivation is the second most important source of income for the Indian economy. And although China was originally the birthplace of tea, it is the Indians who actively popularize it around the world.
10. A variety of tea called “Oolong” (“dark dragon”) is the most expensive in the world. Its cost reaches $3000 per kilogram.
11. Tea is not only rich in vitamins (B1, B2 and B6), but is also a natural antioxidant, helping to restore cells in the human body.
12. Research conducted in the Netherlands has proven that men who regularly drink tea have a 50% reduced risk of dying from coronary heart disease.
13. The so-called “white tea” is most valued. It is made only in China and it got its name because of a special way of collecting leaves, which are harvested when they are still very young and have not blossomed.
14. The taste of even the same type of tea will differ depending on the water, temperature and time spent brewing.
15. In the mid-1700s, tea finally established itself as the favorite drink of the British, displacing gin from its honorable first place.
16. The most popular and best-selling tea brand in the world is Lipton. Their factory in Dubai produces over 5 billion tea bags every year!
17. The tea ceremony is a very important part of Japanese culture, and it takes many years to achieve real mastery in its implementation.
18. After water, tea is the most consumed drink in the world.
19. On average, about 3 billion cups of tea are consumed in the world every day.
20. Tea is a natural antidepressant. Its leaves contain the amino acid L-Theanine, which has a calming and relaxing effect.
21. Once upon a time, Europeans seriously believed that green and black tea were made from different plants. In fact, green tea is not subjected to fragmentation, but black tea undergoes additional processing, which gives it the color and aroma we are familiar with.
22. Tea leaves can be brewed several times! Good news, isn't it? Moreover, during the re-brewing process, hidden notes of taste and aroma may be revealed.
23. From one kilogram of tea leaves, you can brew about 400 cups of this drink.
Tea has millions of fans around the world. Many people prefer this aromatic and invigorating drink to the equally popular coffee. At the same time, when brewing tea or putting a tea bag into a cup, few people think about the history of this drink and the interesting facts that are associated with it.
1. Da Hong Pao
There is tea that costs $1,025,000 per kilogram. Da Hong Pao is considered the best tea in the world. It is grown in only one place in China.
2. Mustache has no place in tea
In the Victorian era, there were special tea cups that prevented mustaches from being accidentally dipped into tea. These cups were invented by British potter Harvey Adams in the 1860s, when mustaches were all the rage.
3. Tea is much healthier than coffee
Drinking tea reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 24%. According to French scientist Nicolas Danchen, who studies the effects of tea and coffee on our health, tea is much healthier than coffee.
4. Green tea increases metabolism
Drinking some green tea before bed will allow your body to burn calories while you sleep. Green tea also increases metabolism. For example, oolong tea increases metabolism by 10%.
5. China is the largest consumer of tea in the world
In the UK, around 165 million cups of tea are drunk per day, or 62 billion cups per year. The largest consumer of tea in the world is China, but if we count tea consumption per person, the situation is different - Turkey, Ireland and the UK are in the lead.
6. 2nd place after water
Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world after water.
7. Three billion cups of tea
On average, three billion cups of tea are consumed every day around the world.
8. The invention of tea bags
The invention of tea bags was accidental. The "culprit" was an American named Thomas Sullivan, a merchant from New York who began sending samples of tea to his clients in small silk bags. He meant that tea should be shaken out of bags into cups, but customers misunderstood him.
9. Dried tea bags
Putting used, dried tea bags in a gym bag or old shoes will help eliminate the unpleasant odor. You can also relieve pain from burns by applying the sachets.
10. Hair conditioner
Rinsing your hair with a cup of tea can make your hair shiny and less rough. However, this only applies to dark-haired people. Blonde hair can be stained with tea and become darker.
11. 3% caffeine
Decaf coffee and tea contain caffeine. Only 97% of caffeine is removed.
12. Rule for drinking tea with your little finger sticking out
The rule of drinking tea with the “little finger sticking out” appeared because of syphilis. One of the symptoms of syphilis is damage to the joints of the fingers.
13. Position of tea pourer
In Morocco there is a special position for tea pourer. The person pouring the tea should hold the teapot high above the cup or glass to create foam.
14. Facial toner
Tea is a good facial tonic. It helps make the skin less oily.
15. Camellia Sinensis
There are many different types of tea, but they all come from one plant: Camellia Sinensis. All differences (color and taste) depend on the method of processing the tea leaves.
16. Iced tea
According to legend, tea was invented by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung in 2737 BC. As for iced tea, it was first served in St. Louis during the 1904 World's Fair. The weather was very hot then.
17. 6 categories of tea
18. Cleaning wooden furniture
Tea can be used to clean wooden furniture. You just need to wipe the wooden furniture with a clean cloth soaked in chilled tea, then wipe the furniture dry with another cloth.
19. Parents and tea teachers
Proverb about tea: “Water is the mother of tea, the teapot is its father, and fire is its teacher.”
20. Me and my Masha at the samovar
Famous songs about tea: “Come to me, Glafira,” “Me and my Masha at the samovar,” and “The samurai ate rice and drank tea.”
Especially for those who love tea, but do not want to master the intricacies of the tea ceremony,
There is a legend that a tea bush grew from the abandoned eyelids of a Chinese saint, who cut them off after falling asleep during prayer, and, angry with himself, wished that his eyes would never stick together. Until now in Chinese and Japanese the same hieroglyph is used to denote eyelids and tea.
Interesting fact #1: The tea bush is extremely durable - it can live and bear fruit for a hundred years or more. 
Interesting fact #2: In China, during matchmaking, the bride and groom gave each other tea as a sign of loyalty to their word. This custom is associated with one curious property of the tea bush - it does not tolerate transplantation.
Interesting fact #3: The variety of teas is divided into five main types: black, green, red, pink and yellow. This division is by no means due purely appearance, different colors of teas, both dry and especially in infusion. Color is only an external reflection of differences in the biochemical processes of processing tea leaves, which ultimately affects the chemical composition and basic taste and aroma characteristics of each type of tea. And it is tea that is considered one of the best gifts for the older generation, but in order to present it as a gift, it must look appropriate, so I suggest buying tea and coffee gifts in Moscow at www.teapresents.ru - everything here is beautiful and tasteful. 
Interesting fact #4: From the same freshly picked green tea leaves at a tea factory you can get Various types ready-made tea - black, green, red and yellow; loose, pressed or instant. It all depends only on what technological process the same tea leaf will be subjected to.
Interesting fact #5: Green tea contains 50% more vitamin C than regular black tea. Nowadays, green tea is positioned as the healthiest drink that has significant beneficial properties. It is available to customers in all sorts of variations, from classic loose-leaf tea to tea with many flavors. 
Benefits of green flavored tea
Traditional green tea is made from two- and three-leaf young shoots of the tea plant. Unlike black tea, two stages are omitted in production - withering and fermentation, in order to avoid oxidative processes. Tea is very useful due to the fact that it has a high content of so-called flavonoids. Numerous studies have proven that they act as natural antioxidants, in addition to preventing heart disease, hypertension, and so on. By adding flavored natural additives to a drink, a unique opportunity arises not only to create new exquisite tastes, but also to obtain a drink that has a positive effect on the human body. By visiting the aromisto online store http://aromisto.com.ua/catalogue/green-aromatized-tea.html you can purchase tea with all kinds of additives, for every taste and need.
At the very beginning, when the basis of such drinks was created, green tea was flavored only with jasmine. Nowadays you can find a huge number of teas that will calm frayed nerves, help you lose weight, or simply enjoy its taste. You can purchase a festive drink that is appropriate for any celebration - this is the “Champagne Splash” drink, which has an unsurpassed taste of caramel, strawberries and a subtle aroma of cornflowers. You can try tea, which will help you sleep peacefully and see beautiful, colorful dreams. This is tea " Good night", with an optimal combination of lemon balm, fennel pieces, rose hips and elderberry.
For example, if you need to calm down a little nervous system You need to drink mint tea. Like a mint mojito. Mint is an amazing additive that gives a wonderful aroma, at the same time refreshes, calms and gives a boost of energy to a person. And if you add raisins, lemongrass and barberries, the taste and aroma of the drink becomes simply unsurpassed. But the real champion in demand among buyers is tea with sour cream. This additive gives green tea an unusual taste, freshness and brightness of aroma. He's a true defender. Helps the heart, strengthens the immune system, supports the body against colds and flu viruses, and also has good antidepressant properties
Interesting fact #6: Tea should not be boiled: the aroma disappears with the steam.
Interesting fact #7: Russian tea or tea in Russian in Western countries, particularly in Britain, is called tea with lemon. This is because combining tea with lemon in one dish is a purely Russian invention. 
Interesting fact #8: If you drink tea with chopped lemon leaves, you will not feel the acidity, but only a strong lemon aroma.
Interesting fact #9: Loose teas are called loose leaf teas in the trade. The name “baikhoviy” tea appeared in our country a long time ago. It comes from the Chinese "bai hoa", which means "white eyelash". The Chinese called one of the components of loose tea this way - tips, i.e. barely blossomed buds, giving the tea a refined aroma and taste. 
Interesting fact #10: Tea contains such a high percentage of fluoride that it can be successfully used as a convenient and effective means, which prevents tooth damage and mainly prevents the occurrence of caries. Therefore, those susceptible to caries are advised to drink tea without sugar in a higher concentration than usual.
Interesting fact #11: Very strong and sweet (with sugar) hot tea with milk is an antidote for poisoning with alcohol, drugs, medicinal drugs (for example, luminal).
Interesting fact #12: Fresh tea leaf juice, tea extract, or powdered dry tea can serve as a remedy for burns.
Interesting fact #13: Chewing dry green tea helps relieve nausea and strong vomiting in pregnant women, motion sickness in a car, and seasickness. 
Interesting fact #14: You can often find a strange instruction in ancient books: tea is a sleeping pill. Yes, tea can also act as a sleeping pill, but depending on the quantities and concentration it is consumed. Typically, more than a tenfold dose of tea has this effect (in the volume of a glass, of course, and not ten glasses of tea).
Interesting fact #15: Tea promotes the absorption of food, greatly facilitates the digestion process, creates conditions for its proper flow, thereby preventing diseases of the digestive organs. That is why it is so useful to drink tea after meals, especially after fatty, meaty and heavy foods.
Interesting fact #16: Tea has an excellent effect on the cerebral cortex, thanks to the xanthines it contains - they are the ones that provide the main stimulating effect, causing ease and speed of thinking.
Interesting fact #17: Tea is consumed not only as a drink. There is fermented tea “Leppet-so”. The finished product is a slightly compacted, slightly moist mass of natural Green colour(but quickly darkens on contact with air, since oxidation processes occur in this case). Immediately before eating, the “leppet-so” mass is boiled for 1-2 minutes in boiling salted water, and then eaten as a salad, flavoring it vegetable oil, garlic, shrimp, etc.
Interesting fact #18: Also in late XIX centuries, it was believed that tea consists of four or five main substances, but now tea contains dozens of only large groups substances, each of which includes many complex and simple elements. Total number included in tea chemical substances and the compounds are still impossible to count; twenty to twenty-five years ago there were about 130 of them, and now about 300 have been discovered, and 260 of them have already been identified, i.e. reveal their formula.
Interesting fact #19: Contrary to popular belief, tea contains much more caffeine (from 1 to 4%) than coffee, but tea caffeine, or theine, has a milder effect than pure coffee caffeine for a number of reasons: firstly, because for brewing, they usually take a smaller amount of tea than coffee, and, therefore, create a lower concentration of caffeine, and secondly, caffeine does not appear in tea in isolation, but in combination with tannin, forming the compound caffeine tannate, which acts more indirectly, more mildly on the cardiovascular and central nervous system. In addition to caffeine, tea also contains small amounts of other alkaloids. These are theobromine and theophylline, soluble in water (they are good vasodilators and diuretics), adenine, sparingly soluble in water, and guanine, completely insoluble in water, a purine base with negative properties. It can be removed from the tea leaf into an infusion only by sharp boiling or prolonged heating of brewed tea. This is why you can’t make “stronger” tea over a fire.
Interesting fact #20: 17 amino acids have been found in tea, and the nature of one of them has not yet been clarified. Among the amino acids in tea there is glutamic acid, which is extremely important for the functioning of the human body, actively promoting the restoration of a depleted nervous system.
Interesting fact #21: The ancient Chinese considered it necessary to age tea for at least one year in order for it to acquire the desired condition.
Interesting fact #22: Since ancient times, the Chinese have learned to store tea for years, to age it so that, like good wine, it acquires a refined aroma and a special strength. Tea, once transported from China through Mongolia to Russia on camels and horses, sometimes reached the consumer years after production, but this not only did not make it worse, but, on the contrary, acquired such a high quality that it was valued significantly on the world market. higher than teas imported to Europe by sea. This “caravan tea” was transported in wooden boxes made of special, well-dried and odorless wood (Albizia wood), lined inside with tin sheets, and outside covered with a dense layer of waterproof varnish. Moreover, the boxes were covered with paper (such as waxed paper), placed in double bamboo wickers, and then lined with leather or skins (with the wool on the outside) so that the seams were overlapped twice. This, although very primitive and cumbersome, but nevertheless extremely reliable sealing made it possible for tea to remain in unfavorable travel conditions for up to 18 months or more without any damage to its quality, not counting further stay in tea warehouses and stores.
Interesting fact #23: At home, it is best to store tea outside the kitchen or give it a special place in the kitchen, isolated from other products. This is a prerequisite for preserving the valuable qualities of tea.
Interesting fact #24: In the rivers of Donbass, Krivoy Rog, Stavropol and the North Caucasus, the water is very hard. This circumstance partly explains why, for example, among the population of Siberia and the European North, as well as central Russia, tea was always held in much higher esteem than among the residents of Ukraine and Stavropol, where tea was practically not widespread and where people simply do not understand what he's no use.
Interesting fact #25: To brew tea, it is best to use water caught at the very boiling point. Overboiling water spoils tea, makes the drink hard and makes it empty. Such tea completely loses its aroma, taste and beneficial effect on our body. There is no tea in this drink - it's just colored water.
Interesting fact #26: Water that is boiled not over a fire, but with the help of an electric heater immersed in it, is not suitable for making tea.
Interesting fact #27: You can brew tea only in porcelain or earthenware dishes, but under no circumstances in metal ones. Porcelain is preferable to earthenware for the reason that it is capable of quickly and strongly heating through, and this is essential when brewing. 
Interesting fact #28: It is also best to drink tea from porcelain dishes. Glassware (glasses) is theoretically just as suitable, but practically less convenient for proper tea drinking, since the texture of glass does not make it possible to appreciate the taste of tea to the same extent as the delicate surface of porcelain, which causes a positive reaction in the organs of touch, softens the temperature of the tea and thereby enhancing our overall favorable feeling.
Interesting fact #29: Guanine, one of the alkaloids in tea, is named so because this alkaloid is usually found in bird droppings - guano.
Interesting fact #30: The tea drink in Tibet is called chasuima, it is a strong brick tea (approximately 50-75 g of dry tea per 1 liter of water), to which butter (necessarily melted) yak butter (100-250 g per 1 liter) and salt are added to taste. This whole mixture (hot!) is whipped in a special oblong barrel, similar to a Russian butter churn, until a thick drink of uniform consistency is obtained - very high in calories and unique in its tonic effect, and therefore capable of almost instantly restoring the strength of a weakened person. 
Interesting fact #31: Tea has been drunk in Tibet since 620. Chinese books say: “Tibetans live on tea. Without it, they suffer to such an extent that they can get sick.” It is no coincidence that in Tibet there is still a folk measure of distance in the mountains (not along a straight, horizontal surface, as in valleys, but along a winding line and vertically), expressed not in units, but in bowls of Tibetan tea. So, three large bowls of tea equal approximately 8 km of travel.
Interesting fact #32: Dry tea in Tibet is used to prepare the national dish “tsambu” - flour from pre-roasted barley grains, mixed and thoroughly rubbed with yak butter, dry brick tea and salt. 
Interesting fact #33: Mongols drink tea with goat, sheep, mare, and camel milk. With melted lard. With butter. With flour. With salt. Sometimes black pepper is added (one pea per glass).
Interesting fact #34: Kalmyks add to tea Bay leaf, nutmeg, cloves. 
Interesting fact #35: Uzbeks drink tea with pepper and call it “murch choy”. It is prepared like regular black tea with the addition of two black peppercorns (crushed) for each teaspoon of dry tea. Add honey. 
Interesting fact #36: The British strictly adhere to the rule of pouring tea into milk, and in no case vice versa. It has been observed that adding milk to tea spoils the aroma and taste of the drink, and therefore such a mistake is correctly regarded by the British as ignorance. 
Interesting fact #37: In Iran, cinnamon and ginger are added to tea. Drink hot, in small sips, with small pieces of crushed sugar.
Interesting fact #38: In Tuva, dry tea is poured into a heated earthenware teapot and poured cold water and immediately fall asleep with a handful of small hot stones (quartz, basalt pebbles, etc., which are prepared in advance and carried with them in a special bag). Then add cold water and re-place the hot stones.
Interesting fact #39: In prisons there is a tradition of preparing and drinking very strong tea, known under the slang name “chifer” or “chifir”. The harm of “chifir” lies not only in the fact that for its preparation they take a large dose of the brewed material (dry tea), but also mainly in the fact that this tea is subjected to prolonged boiling and evaporation, as a result of which insoluble substances are extracted from the dry tea in water during normal brewing, while everything. the beneficial components of chifir tea completely evaporate or are chemically changed under the influence of boiling. As a result, “chifir” is a concentrate of harmful alkaloids (including guanine, as well as destroyed theine), which together have a destructive effect on the central nervous system. "Chifir" has nothing in common with chemical composition with tea, even very strongly brewed one. 
Interesting fact #40: Tea in Poland for a long time used exclusively as medicine, it did not become widespread as a drink, and was therefore sold exclusively in pharmacies. Pharmacists gave the tea the name “herbata” (from “coat of arms”), believing that tea leaves were made from a special type of “Chinese herb”.
