A couple of centuries back, tea originated from China and became a worldwide famous tea. The credit for the discovery of tea goes to a Chinese emperor, who while resting one day in a jungle happened to discover tea by chance. Till the middle of 19th century the East India Company had the monopoly in tea trading. The real credit for distributing the tea worldwide goes to the English.
Today China and India happen to be the leading tea producers worldwide. More than half of the tea circulated in the entire world is produced by India. On the other hand, China takes credit for being the largest tea exporter. Currently, tea is being produced in huge amounts by India, China, Japan, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the USA and various other European countries.
Presently China is growing 4 different types of tea, namely; black tea, green tea, scented tea and oolong tea. China grows a large amount of green tea; almost more than a half of the tea grown is green tea. The most popular are the Hyson, young Hyson, Chunmee and Sowmee green teas.
Green tea is the healthiest of all teas. Sri Lanka is the third largest producer of tea in the world. Green tea is used by many daily in order to maintain weight and to keep away from many ailments. Traditionally, green tea is used in Indian and Chinese medicines as well. It is used by practitioners for many reasons like to improve health, heal wounds and as a stimulant. It is also used to maintain blood sugar and body temperature, to make better mental processes and support digestion.
They produce the black teas, known as Ceylon teas. Other varieties black teas are pekoe, orange pekoe and broken orange pekoe. East India Company introduced tea into India.
Black tea is the mostly grown tea in India, grown in Darjeeling, Assam and the Nilgiri hills. Japan also has a reach heritage in tea drinking. It is said that a Buddhist monk had brought tea leaves from China to Japan; it is from there that the Japanese people learnt the art of tea brewing. The famous Japanese green teas are sencha, matcha and bancha. Taiwan produces mainly oolong tea and pouching teas, which have a fruity and flowery taste.
Countries like USA produce large quantities of ready made tea products. Ice tea is a very important beverage there. Canned tea is available which is exported in large quantities to other parts of the world. Herbal tea, a substituent for natural tea is also a popular drink, for its beneficial effects on health are being produced in large quantities in Europe, China and Japan. In short, tea second water for being the most consumed drink. Tea has something special in it with offerings of so many of its types and flavors.