A detailed description of tea

Tea

Tea
Primary
What I have chosen to do my assignment on is the product Tea. It is a familiar product which is known worldwide. The process to making tea requires a lot of effort and hard work. Tea is the second most common beverage worldwide, the first being water. The company I have chosen is Lyons. They are the most common tea company in Ireland. Tea comes from the plant Camellia Sinensis. This plant can be grown anywhere, tea is best grown in cooler climates. The Tea plant has to reach maturity before the leaves can be harvested from it. When making Tea, there are two ideas to be had from it, the first is to make sure there is no moisture on the leaves and the second is to bring out the flavour during the steeping process. Each Tea plant takes about 5 years to mature. Tea originates on farms that are also known as ‘Tea Gardens’. Some Tea Gardens can stretch from thousands of acres. There are six main categories that tea can be divided into to, black green, oolong, white, compressed and flavoured teas. (www.tea.com)
Secondary
When the leaves have matured the workers then pick them by hand. The tea leaves are then sent to be steamed, they will then be air dried. If this process isn’t done the tea leaves can also be sent for rolling. This helps the leaves be exposed to oxygen so they can then be dried out. The Tea leaves can then be then oxidised or pan fried. If they are pan fried, then there is a low level of oxidisation it can then be sent for hand finishing, which involves more rolling and Tea is produced. For green, black and white tea the process is standard. With changes to the oxidisation leaves this will help produce the different varieties of Tea there are available today. Factory tea-tasters will taste the finished Product make to ensure that no mistakes have been made during the manufacture or that the tea has not been contaminated by anything within the factory. After each make of tea the tea factory is washed from top to bottom to ensure that the completed make does not contaminate the next make of tea. (www.ashworthtea.com)

Tertiary
When Lyons are going to box and sell their Tea bags they are put into special machines that are designed just for tea. Thousands of teabags are put into this machine at a time. They can be any shape or size. They are then sealed and put into containers or boxes. Lyons tea company then begin to sell their product to larger supermarkets, and salespeople who go into smaller and local shops. Tea can be sold in multiple ways, some being at auctions or other ways being direct trade. Tea prices are generally decided by the government of a country. Economics shows that the supply and demand are also taken into consideration. The quality of Tea is also important, for people who drink a lot of Tea on a day to basis, they will know which quality is good and which is of a cheaper standard. At the minute there is said to be over 1500 cups of tea worldwide. Companies who sell Tea bags make their own packaging, they have their own unique name and image and this is how people decide which cup of tea to buy. Lyons tea bags are said to be one of the best selling tea companies in Ireland. They produce a good cup of tea and their customers remain loyal. (www.coffeetea.about.com)