So I was sitting at work in our canteen on break one evening with some colleagues, drinking the tea I always bring (whole-leaf green tea), and a friend who knew I had a balcony garden asked if my tea came from my balcony too! I at first chuckled, but after digging around on the internet some, I came to the conclusion: WHY THE HECK NOT?!
What I hadn't realized before was that green, white, oolong, and black teas all come from the same plant, that being the Camellia Sinensis! Who would have though! Wow! There are 2 varieties, the var. sinensis and var. assamica, one being broad-leaved and one narrow-leaved. What makes the different kinds/flavors of tea is how the leaves themselves are processed, basically the conditions and amount of time under which the leaves are dried and oxidized. Of course the region on which the plants are grown affects the flavor as well!
So after realizing how cool that would be to grow my own tea, I did some snooping around and found a company that ships tea plants. Wasn't sure how that was going to work out, but I figured it was worth a shot - was around 7€ ($10). It came all wrapped up with foliated cardboard and in a big box. All was well!
It's been several months now since it arrived, and it is still doing well! It's gotta lots of new leaves, too. I guess at some point I'm going to have to prune it back - fully grown it can get up to 3 yards tall, too high for my apartment!
For now I'm keeping it indoors on the windowsill facing my balcony (southwest), which is fairly warm and dry, which it seems to like.
Of course I'm super anxious to make some tea, but I think I'd better just be patient and wait until the plant gets bigger :-)
In the meantime, The Fragrant Leaf is a nice website that I found on the history of tea, how to best brew tea, tea customs and cultures, types of tea, etc.
At the International Garden Show, which I recently attended, I also bought some tea seeds! They're pretty big, look kinda like a hazelnut. Can't wait to see if I can get them to germinate and prosper as well!
What I hadn't realized before was that green, white, oolong, and black teas all come from the same plant, that being the Camellia Sinensis! Who would have though! Wow! There are 2 varieties, the var. sinensis and var. assamica, one being broad-leaved and one narrow-leaved. What makes the different kinds/flavors of tea is how the leaves themselves are processed, basically the conditions and amount of time under which the leaves are dried and oxidized. Of course the region on which the plants are grown affects the flavor as well!
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| my Camellia Sinensis var. sinensis, about 1 foot tall |
It's been several months now since it arrived, and it is still doing well! It's gotta lots of new leaves, too. I guess at some point I'm going to have to prune it back - fully grown it can get up to 3 yards tall, too high for my apartment!
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| some new leaves! |
Of course I'm super anxious to make some tea, but I think I'd better just be patient and wait until the plant gets bigger :-)
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| leaf close-up |
In the meantime, The Fragrant Leaf is a nice website that I found on the history of tea, how to best brew tea, tea customs and cultures, types of tea, etc.
At the International Garden Show, which I recently attended, I also bought some tea seeds! They're pretty big, look kinda like a hazelnut. Can't wait to see if I can get them to germinate and prosper as well!
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