Consumption
of tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage in China, in the eighth
century (Grigg, 2003). Tea
is an evergreen bush of the genus Camellia, from south-eastern Asia, whose
leaves were subject to adequate preparation with only the most aromatic, young,
top two leaves and the unopened leaf bud. Up to 80,000 hand-plucked shoots were
needed to produce one pound of top-grade tea. The production of tea has high
labour-intensive steps while processes undergo, which determine the resulting
tea’s characteristic colouring, taste and composition where every step has to
be monitored to achieve superior quality (http://www.irvingtea.com,
2010). Tea is grown not only in Asia but also in many other tropical countries,
but the main exporters are China, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Vietnam.
