Grow Your Own Black or Green Tea

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Grow Your Own Black or Green Tea

One day, as I was making our beloved sweet tea, it occurred to me that it would be awesome if we could grow our own tea! Imagine… never having to buy those tea bags again!

So I did a little research, and this is what I found out…

Black Tea (which is what we use for our Southern Style Sweet Tea), and Green Tea (which I also enjoy) are made from the same plant- Camellia Sinensis.

• Although it is native to Asia, it can be grown in zones 7-9.
• It is an evergreen shrub or small tree, which should be pruned to 4-6 ft. in height for ease of picking.
• In the Fall it blooms small white flowers.
• These plants need full sun to part shade, in rich organic soil. They thrive in neutral to partly acidic conditions.

Garden of Tomorrow shares some fantastic information on how to use this tea plant…

Baby leaves are harvested, cut, roasted, dried and fermented in different ways to produce different types and varieties of tea. Depending on where the Camellia Sinensis tea plant is grown it will produce varying flavor. The baby leaves contain 4% caffeine on average. There are six primary varieties of tea produced from the Camellia Sinensis tea plant, they are oolong tea, green tea, white tea, black tea, flowering tea, and my favorite pu'er tea.

 

Preparing Green Tea from Camellia Sinensis

• Pluck the newly grown young leaves and leaf buds in early Spring.
• Preheat your oven to 250°F.
• Dry the leaves with a napkin or clothe and let the leaves dry in the shade for about 3 or 4 hours in the heat of the day.
• Dice the leaves with a kitchen knife so they look more like your used to seeing prepared tea leaves.
• Steam the leaves for about a minute, or for a different flavor roast them in a skillet for 2 minutes instead.
• Spread the leaves out on a pan and dry in the oven at 250°F for 20 minutes.
• Either store the leaves for later, or make a cup and taste test it!

Preparing Oolong Tea from Camellia Sinensis

• Pluck the newly grown young leaves and leaf buds in early Spring.
• Spread them out on a towel in the heat of the sun and let them dry  for about 45 minutes.
• Bring your leaves inside and let them sit at room temperature for about 4 hours, mixing the leaves around every hour.
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