* * Ashbys Teas of London Est-1850: * *

Ashbys Teas of London are an excellent way to start or end your day. Enjoy the finest quality of teas the world has to offer.

James Ashby, a traditional family man, established the Ashbys Tea firm in London in 1850. Importing and packaging only the highest quality teas from the most prestigious tea growing areas of the world. Ashbys Teas have become a standard among fine English teas. Ashbys Teas offers quality, freshness and packaging that reflects the heritage the English have come to expect of a great tea.

* * The Tea Plant * *

The tea plant is a tropical and subtropical evergreen that belongs to the Camellia family. The Camellia plant most familiar in the West is the shiny, green leaved Camellia Japonica with its red, white, or pink flowers, but by far the most important Camellia is Camellia Sinensis, whose young leaves and unopened leaf buds are processed in various ways into the dried tea leaves familiar all over the world.

Tea is grown on estates that range in size from a quarter acre farmed by a single family to giant plantations with hundreds of acres. The bushes are kept pruned to a height of 3 feet for easy harvesting of leaves and each acre typically has three to five thousand tea bushes. A tea plant may remain productive for over a century. Only about half the leaves produced during the life of the bush are actually picked and processed for market.

The crop taken from the tea bushes consist of young leaf shoots and the unopened leaf bud. These are rich in caffeine and the organic compounds that are responsible for the smell and taste of the tea. Picking, which is really plucking and is often called that, is either "fine" or "course." Two leaves and a leaf bud is fine plucking, three or more leaves and a leaf bud is consider course plucking. High quality teas are always harvested with fine plucking. Unlike many crops, tea is plucked or harvested at least three times a year and sometimes dozens.

* * Did you know that... * *

The three main categories of tea - black, green, and oolong - all begin with the Camellia sinensis plant. What makes them so different is what happens to them after they are harvested.

Black Tea:

Black teas are simply leaves that have been through a careful fermentation process. Though there are many subtle variations, the basic method of fermentation is as follows: the harvested leaves are withered, then rolled (sometimes by hand) to release the enzymes that will cause fermentation. Next, the leaves are spread out and monitored for the right color and pungency. Finally, the tea is "fired," or heat dried.

Oolong Tea:

Oolong is a semi-fermented tea first manufactured is Formosa (now Taiwan). The leaves are spread three of four inches deep in baskets, which are set if the sun and shaken frequently to bruise their outer edges, spurring fermentation. When the leaves give off their signature fragrance (variously compared to peaches, apples and orchids) the baskets are passed in and out of a charcoal fire to halt fermentation. Becaused it is generally produced with larger leaves than other teas, oolong is the best tea in which to read your future.

Green Tea:

Fresh and clean-tasting, green tea has a more subtle flavor than black. The first step in green tea processing is panfiring, wherein the leaves are exposed to hot steam to destroy the enzymes that would otherwise cause them to ferment. The rolling step takes place on heated tables to dry the leaves further. Lastly, they are fired, graded and packed. The entire process takes only one day.

* * Did you know that... * *

Tea's reputation as a healthy brew increasing...

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