Summer is sun Camellia sinensis season . My love for this drink has only heighten as I ’ve develop erstwhile . Of of course , if you call this drink “ simple , ” you have n’t been drinking it .
The first controversy is sweet tea leaf versus unsweetened . If you populate in the South , sweet teatime is a form of ethnical pride . When I move around to the southerly states for a league , I pack my own tea leaf . I know I wo n’t encounter a restaurant , gas station or grocery store store that stockpile the unsweetened rendering . That sacrifice my particular spatial relation aside in this fussy battle . I love mine unsweetened . I like to try out the tea itself . I muzzle in a frightful way that abash my married man if I erroneously toast the sweet version .
The next arguing is a pretty basic one . What do you mean when you say “ Camellia sinensis ? ” It cover so much ground as a common term . It applies to black , green , red , bloodless orherbalformat — and I know I ’m forgetting some .
What Is and Is Not Tea
At our soda cafe , we serve a lot of “ tea . ” I repeatedly have to explain myself . The proper name for a drinkable that is a blend of herb is as a tisane . In accession , you must moot a whole host of plants that were used in the early years of our land as tea leaf relief . These appear in drinks such as “ Liberty Tea . ” Next up ? plant such as New Jersey Tea ( Ceanothus americanus ) and Bee Balm ( Monardaspp . ) . These taste a lot like the reliable teatime flora but are not related . The only thing that is technically a tea is any swallow that is made with the Camellia sinensis plant .
Now we ’re catch somewhere .
The tea plant is the source of dark , green , chicken , white , assam , darjeeling , pu errh , matcha , oolong and kukicha . They are all fromCamellia sinensisor one of its varietal . As it is develop today for the commercial-grade market , this plant is a bush . It can grow to be a tree if exit alone .
C. sinensisis audacious to zone 8 and is a subtropic industrial plant . Here in the United States , a few place can get tea leaf outdoors year - round , but where I live in Ohio is not one of them . Just the same , that does n’t mean that I ca n’t grow my own .
How to Grow Your Own
In temperate region , mature the tea plant in a pot outside and play it in during the winter . Otherwise you need a greenhouse . In Ohio , my most significant considerations are keeping the works abeyant in the winter month . This mean that once the temperature drops below 60 degrees F at night , I move it inside . C. sinensisneeds to be kept between a unfluctuating 35 and 60 degrees to keep it from bud out . This quiescency keeps the plant in a hold in pattern until temperatures increase enough outside .
When you move the plant back outside it ’s a good time to fertilise . It needs an vitriolic soil , so a respectable acidifier applied to the top of the grunge just before you want to encourage ontogenesis is all you need each year . It also likes Mg , so an epsom salts Camellia sinensis ( 1 Tbsp / Imperial gallon of water ) applied doubly a year also helps . C. sinensisdoes not like wet feet , but it grows in a humid position with occasional heavy rain . Water the plant thoroughly when the top feel dry , and keep it in a humid location for in force result .
It ’s quick to find fault when the new shoots lead off to emerge . The gamey quality teas are made from the first “ flush ” of new emergence . Kukicha is made from the twigs ; all the other colour of Camellia sinensis are made through varying degrees of oxygenation created in differing dry out processes . As a novice , adjudicate pick your leaves , roll them lightly between your thumb and finger and lay them out on a dehydrator sheet . Dry them at the herb dry out temperature and remove as presently as they are sharp . You will have approximated a black tea leaf .
Growing your own tea in a temperate zone never equates to much of a harvest . You need to hold off three year before the industrial plant has enough leaf to withstand your pruning of all its fresh growth . Whatever you get will go together to make a flock of sun tea . It will outshine everyone else on the block and make you the envy of anyone who grew up know the summer exactly for a sip of an shabu - cold classic .
