What Does A Green Bracelet Represent

tea in the garden

Case & Country in September 2010

E 'a camellia tea plant, Camellia sinensis, and it seems that the first has arrived from China only in the eighteenth century.

















The flowers are white, much smaller than those of camellias that are used to seeing in the gardens. A large number of yellow stamens contributes to the delicate beauty of its flowers. Leaves persistent, deep green and a little 'tough certainly do not think the content of the tea bags ready for use. In Italy they tried
its cultivation, especially in the great lakes of the north, by selecting varieties resistant to cold as the Camellia thea Ticinensis. The plants flourished, but did not develop the cultivation to poor economic performance, could not compete in quality, but especially for the cost of processing with Oriental teas.
For some 'time the usual profiteers, always looking for something to offer to entice easy money, after the breeding chinchillas and cultivation of ginseng, farmers contacted by offering contracts with fabulous profits to begin growing this plant. In fact their only interest is to sell the seedlings at an exorbitant price.
I would not dampen the enthusiasm of someone, but the disappointment and loss of time and money, are much worse.
In addition to finding areas with a microclimate suitable for these plants, their cultivation could never become profitable.
collection, manual, is to remove the nails with the latest 2 / 3 growth in leaves, then comes the processing of the product, different for different types of tea. Need experience and professionalism in the preparation of various teas, the most common are the green and black, but there are many others, such as oolong tea, white, yellow the postfermentato, flavored teas, and here you can give space fantasy. All these teas are produced from the same plant, will be the next steps to differentiate the quality.
Many years ago I saw this working in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and it seems to me anyway that we can not improvise
Cultivation is easy, just like a camellia, bearing in mind that these plants like a soil rather acid positions and a bit 'fresh. seeds, very large, sprout easily, you just wait a couple of months. The plants tolerate a few degrees below zero, but when the temperature drops more than -5 / 6 ° for long periods, you risk losing them.
For a tasty tea after harvest must be done to dry and roll the leaves that later will have to undergo fermentation. These operations, carried out in different ways, give very different products.
collecting leaves and making them just dry, you will have a drink that only vaguely recalls tea.
In Morocco, but not only, is used to add to tea, green in this case, abundant leaves Fresh mint Mentha viridis, more delicate taste of peppermint, a cultivar grown to obtain essential.