Tea cultivation: how are tea leaves harvested?
Black tea, green tea, white tea… Do you know how tea is grown? This drink, which is now an integral part of our daily lives, is rich in history and its harvest follows a very specific protocol subject to several conditions. In this article, Fauchon explains everything about tea harvesting.
Tea: what are its origins?
Tea has its origins in China more than 5,000 years ago. Today, this beverage is the second most consumed drink in the world after water and continues to seduce many people internationally.
There are several legendary stories about the birth of tea. The most famous is that Emperor Shen Nong invented tea by chance. While boiling his water under a shrub, leaves fell into the water while the emperor was sleeping. Tasting this drink when he woke up, Shen Nong decided to develop the cultivation of this shrub, the tea plant, because he found the tea so tasty. This initiative was a success, and tea cultivation spread throughout Asia. It was only later that tea was introduced to Europe by the Dutch.
From then on, tea became a flagship drink, particularly in England, where Queen Anne Stuart drank it for the first time during her breakfast: the beverage was so appreciated that today it is a must-have in English culture. Tea is an integral part of breakfast and afternoon tea, the famous “tea time”!
Tea: when should you harvest it?
Tea picking is based on two species of camellias:
Camellia assamica: a tea plant originating from the Assam plain in India, known since the 19th century;
Camellia sinensis: a tea plant native to China, this variety is the only one cultivated in China and Japan today.
Tea cultivation and harvest times depend largely on the latitude of the tea gardens, i.e. the number of hours of daylight and nightlight in a day. Harvesting can take place at any time except when the tea plant goes dormant, i.e. when it is exposed to less than 11 hours of daylight in a 24-hour period for at least 6 weeks.
Therefore, when the tea plant is put to sleep, the harvest must be interrupted: this dormant period includes in particular the regions far from the equator. Because in fact, concerning the regions closer to the equator, such as Sri Lanka or India, the tea plants never go dormant. Thus, the harvest of the tea plantations can take place all year round in these geographical areas, while paying attention to the monsoon periods.
