Tea Cultivation: How are Tea Leaves Harvested?
Black tea, green tea, white tea… Do you know how tea is cultivated? This beverage, now an integral part of our daily lives, is rich in history, and its harvest follows a precise protocol subject to several conditions. In this article, Fauchon explains everything about tea harvesting.
Tea: What are its origins?
Tea originated over 5,000 years ago in China. This beverage, which is now the second most consumed drink in the world after water, continues to captivate many people internationally.
Several legendary tales are told about the birth of tea. The most famous one recounts 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. Upon tasting this beverage when he awoke, Shen Nong decided to develop the cultivation of this shrub, the tea plant, so much did he find the tea delicious. 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 beverage, especially in England, where Queen Anne Stuart drank it for the first time during her breakfast: the beverage was so appreciated that today it is an essential part of English culture. Tea is an integral part of breakfast and afternoon tea, the famous "tea time"!
Tea: when to harvest?
Tea harvesting relies on two species of camellias:
Camellia assamica: a tea plant native to 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 periods largely depend on the latitude of the tea gardens, meaning the number of daylight and nighttime hours in a day. Harvesting can take place at any time, except when the tea plant enters dormancy, which is when it is exposed to fewer than 11 hours of daylight out of 24 hours for at least 6 weeks.
Therefore, when the tea plant is dormant, harvesting must be interrupted: this dormant period notably includes regions far from the equator. Indeed, for regions closer to the equator, such as Sri Lanka or India, tea plants never enter dormancy. Thus, tea plantation harvesting can take place year-round in these geographical areas, while still being mindful of monsoon periods.
