Fresh tea leaves?
Hello everyone.
One of my favorite tea’s (well technically not a tea) is to brew fresh mint or sage leaves. Just curious would brewing fresh tea leaves (not dried or processed) yield good results?
edit.
A friend of mine has some Camellia sinensis plants, so could I just pluck some leaves and brew? Or is it totally necessary to steam etc.?
cheers
I have had some tea leaves from Taiwan which are sold refrigerated / frozen. I think they have had some processing, but are not dried. It was very floral, very similar to greener Taiwanese oolongs.
However, I’m not sure what exact processing is done. The leaf was softer than leaves picked right off the bush would be.
People eat tea leaves in South China and parts of SE Asia that border on it, but generally I believe they are cooked and / or fermented.
The story of Shen Nung says that tea leaves fell into his boiling pot from a tree above. Considering that would be fresh leaves and the beginning of tea as we know it, I think it would be neat to try!
As well, I’m not quite sure but the drying/fermenting process was also a way of keeping the leaves for transport and then may have developed into the different processes to get different flavours while still preserving the tea.
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