The Tea - Producers of the World

Tea, like most people, enjoys warm weather. However, unlike most people, it is an evergreen plant with glossy, dark green leaves. It grows best in sub - tropical or tropical regions, which is why it likes Asia so much. It grows abundantly in China, Ceylon, India and Japan, and also a little in eastern Africa. Here are the main tea - growing regions:
                                               

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China, which has produced tea for over a millennium longer than the other tea - growing countries, used to produce about 700,000 tons of tea per year. This has grown substantially lately, surpassing one million tons in 2006. This is the number to beat if you are interested in going into the business yourself. They produce the highest amount of unusual teas, sixty percent of which are green teas. There are hundreds of different green teas.


India used to be the tea market leader, producing almost 900,000 tons per year. However China has caught up with them and surpassed them in more recent years. Most of India's tea production is black tea. Of the enormous amount of tea produced in India, only about half of this is exported, since the Indians like to drink a large amount of it themselves. Interestingly, India didn't actually think to drink their tea until the British introduced the idea to them while colonising their country.


Ceylon, or Sri Lanka, was once noted for its huge coffee production. However, the coffee plants were all killed by the 'coffee rust' disease (may they rest in peace) so the owners switched to tea. Ceylon produces about 300,000 tons of tea each year. Like India's tea, most of the tea produced in Ceylon is black tea.


And finally we come to Japan. Japan is one of the most noted nations of tea drinkers. Japan produces about 90,000 tons of tea per year, a large proportion of which does not leave the country. 97% of Japanese teas are green. Some of the varieties include sencha, ordinary green tea, sen-cha, unfermented green tea, and matsu-cha, for use in ceremonies. I will talk more about different teas and tea ceremonies later on.