From the Vault: Tea, Part 2

by the gentleman. This tea dispels my suffering, cleansing my mind from worry and fear. Come morning, the emotions of the fragrant brazier remain intoxicated. Still we walk across the clouds reflected in Tiger Stream in high song I send the gentleman off.

four ancient Chinese poems on tea in one Symphony. This was on the website Tranquility Tuesdays, and I found this one interesting because the author of this piece pointed out that the piece that we opened the first episode off with the seven bowls of Tea is just very well cited. You'll find it referenced in just about any history of tea. It frequently shows up on tea blogs and so forth.

The author here noted that, you know, given that it is, you know, over sighted, that one should also include other poems of note, and this is one such poem well so.

at Tea. We're already hearing from some folks regarding our first episode, and in the second episode we're going to continue the journey. So go back and listen to part one if you haven't heard it yet, because in that last episode we discussed the botanical facts concerning tea, as

well as some myths about its origin. But now that we've established what tea is and where it's spring from, and referenced some of the mythological ideas about tea and read a couple of poems, this most recent was Tanged Honesty, by the way, at this point, I think it's time to discuss the history of tea in a little more detail, especially as it concerns the ways that it can be

prepared and was prepared across time. So I think it makes sense, first of all, to just look at some of the steps that are frequently employed in preparing tea after it's been harvest what happens between it growing on the plant that we discussed in part one and somehow making it into a cup or bowl of tea the beverage.

steps are common to many of them. Not all varieties of tea involve all the steps, but it's worth going over them all and then we can say, well, this one doesn't involve this step, and this one does involve this step.

to be really bitter. So this is at this point we have the first step of withering. So the fresh green leaves and buds are dried out, either in a heated room of some sort or they're left in the sun, and this causes the starch in the leaves to begin transforming into sugar and the moisture content drops by fifty to eighty percent, and this allows the next possible step to take place, which is the rolling of the tea leaves and then be able to roll it without breaking

the leaves. This is something you might have to think back to your childhood days of like playing with leaves and sticks. But sometimes if a leaf is fresh and you go to like roll it up, it's going to it's going to break, all right. The rolling part here is often done via machines today but was historically done by hand, and the rolling without breaking here twists and crushes the leaves in a way that releases SAP, exposes it to oxygen, and stimulates fermentation. Additional rolling and or

sifting may take place here as well, so that's step two. Now.

chemical reaction. Now, it's interesting that the deliberate oxidation of tea leaves is an important stage in their processing, especially for producing darker teas, less so for greener teas, because most often oxidation in foods is not something you want. It's an undesirable outcome associated with spoilage and ransidity. So some examples, and I guess these would be the closest analogies. There are oxidation reactions of various types, like there's oxidation

of fats and so forth in oils. But for an analogy in plants, think about when you cut an apple. So you cut an apple in half and you leave it out on the counter. What happens, Oh, it turns brown, right, And this browning is not generally considered good. It's not something that makes the apple harmful to eat, but most

of the time people don't find it very appetizing. It changes the appearance and sometimes the flavor and texture as well, and you know, tastes can vary, but most people would not say that is a type of browning that they seek out on purpose. And this is actually true of many foods, especially fruits. So you can think of the way avocados brown once they're cut or smashed and left out on the counter, or potatoes or any number of

other plant based foods. The chemical reaction taking place here is a form of oxidation called enzymatic browning and insomatic browning is due to an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase. Fruits and vegetables have compounds in them called phenolic compounds, and when these compounds get exposed to both oxygen and to that enzyme to polyphenol oxidase at the same time. They react with the oxygen and go through a multi step

transformation process that ends with them turning into melanin. Melanin is a natural brown pigment that you can find in all forms of life. It's in plants, it's in fungi, it's in animals including us. It's the brown pigment in human hair and skin and inner irises. And so that process naturally takes place once you cut an apple or

a banana or any of these foods. But how come this chemical reaction turning phenolic compounds into melanin doesn't happen once the when the apple is just like sitting there on the counter uncut. How come it only happens once you cut it. This is because in order for the reaction to happen, we need three different substances to come into contact with one another. So you need the phenolic

compounds the base molecules were transforming. You need the enzyme, which in this case is polyphenol oxidase, and you need the free oxygen in the air. And when all three elements are present, there together, then you get this browning process. So in plant tissue, the enzyme, the polyphenol oxidase, and the phenolic compounds are usually kept separate from one another.

But damage to the plant, such as cutting it open or bashing it and bruising it, will rupture cells and cause these chemicals to blend together and unite, And then you expose them to air and the oxidation happens. Now, coming back to what I said earlier, ensomatic browning is considered undesirable in lots of foods like you know you do you, but most people would rather eat their apple slices, bananas, avocados, and so forth before they sit out on the counter

for a few hours and turn brown. The browned versions of these plants kind of look and taste degraded, not exactly fresh. But in other plants, the browning process has a desirable outcome. It is used on purpose to achieve desirable improvements in appearance, texture, and flavor. One example would be in certain dried fruits like raisins go through enzomatic browning it deliberately in order to create new and interesting

flavors that people like. And another example might be in seeds or leaves used to prove strongly flavored caffeinated beverages. Oxidative browning is specifically sought out as part of the preparation process for tea leaves. So you can think about the process of say, rolling tea leaves around, like smashing them or rolling them in a tumbler of some kind in order to kind of like bruise and just rough up the leaves to these get these different compounds coming together,

and expose them to oxygen to trigger the sprowning process. Yeah.

from green to kind of a copper color. They also heat up during this phase, and you also and you have to depending on exactly what you're doing with the tea leaves, you may have to halt it as well, because you don't want the oxidation to go too far, because then you'll end up with what's described as kind of a burnt taste. It's also really important to note here that not all teas go through this phase, and this should seem pretty obvious that black tea does go

through the oxidation phase and is therefore fully oxidized. Yeah, that is why it is this black or red color.

All right, And then with the fourth step done, we're under the fifth and this is grating and sorting. Basically, what you're left with. You got to figure out what you've got, and generally what you have is you have whole leaves, you have broken leaves, you have the dinnings, and you have dust. Whole is the best, that's the highest quality, while and then broken leaves and then fannings and dust that tends to go into cheaper things like you know, tea bags and so forth. Again, not all

teas go through all of these phases. Black tea goes through all five. Oolong tea is partially oxidized. Green teas are dried after rolling to prevent oxidation at all. White tea doesn't go through withering, fermentation or rolling. Now, this doesn't cover anywhere near all the teas out there. In the different types of teas, there are plenty of sub varieties of each, and then there are blends as well, Like one common example is English Breakfast Tea, which is a blend of black teas.

stored away in bricks or cakes. Also, they're often various wrappings, like sometimes it's like a like a bamboo type situation or some sort of fabric wrapping and and ends up with just a wide beret of flavors that are at least in my experience, unlike any other teas I've tried, h they often have the ones I've I keep coming back to have kind of a often kind of like a barnyard flavor, kind of straw or hay to them. One of them that I really love is just especially dark.

It's like it's like a bowl or a cup of midnight. And like I say, they're often you often you'll find these in kind of like a loose leaf situation, but you also find them in little pucks, little bricks, big cakes that you have to chip away with a special little ornate knife. I mean you could use a normal butter knife or your car keys, I guess, but you know,

get into it. This is tea we're talking about. But these have a fascinating history not only as just being t bricks, but being used as money as well, with

the prime example being taking place in Tibet. As Wolfgang Birch points out in the use of tea bricks as currency among the Tibetans in the Tibet Journal, the Chinese introduced tea to Tibet sometime prior to seven eighty c. And while it was first used as more of a pure bartering commodity, you know, I'll trade you a brick of tea for this, that or the other, it eventually took on a form that we might reasonably refer to as currency, a regimented system of tea e bricks based

on the tea's quality and pureeness, and eventually imprinted with trademarks and seals. So you might think of it almost like, you know, you think of like a bar of gold that has been imprinted with governmental information, Like here's the seal of the of the governing body saying this is an approved grade of gold, the amount of gold, et cetera. It's the exact same thing with these t bricks. The governing authority has said this is such and such tea of such and such quality, and it is a certain

amount of it. It's usable as currency in this scenario.

its use value. So if it's something we're freshness really matters, you would not want the use value of your currency to degrade fast over the course of a few months. But if it's like a fermented tea, you mentioned that these get better with age rather than declining, so you can at least hope your currency there keeps its value. Does that make sense?

These are things where we have some interesting myths that kind of sum up some of the general ideas and ultimately some of the general realities of how human beings experimented with and chronicled the nature of their botanical world. But in general we can't answer it. There's no one person.

Though again, some of these accounts do have a sort of an interesting shred of truth to them, like one of the ones that, in addition to the ones we discussed in the last episode, there's one that Michael d. Co brings up in seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World in a chapter about I Believe Chocolate and Tea. There's another myth where a past Chinese emperor was boiling some water and some wild leaves just kind of blew into his water, boiling in the pot, thus creating tea.

That of course sounds like pure myth and is not like a real story, but it reminds me of our episode on the invention of the cauldron, and about how like a cauldron or any kind of container even like a skin of boiling water, Like what an essential laboratory that is for humans in ancient times? Figuring out what things are and what they can be used for. Now, the question that may come up for some of you might think, well, there's a great deal of Chinese literature

out there going back quiet a way. Can't we just see when people first started writing about tea? And I think this is a reasonable question to ask. But as Martin explains in the book, it's not quite that simple. And part of the problem is that the Chinese character associated with t was previously used again in literature, in

writing to refer to other shrubs and plants. For example, there are mentions of tea dating back to the fifth century BCE, but it's thought that the character in question here is just referring to south thistle, a plant sometimes used in Chinese cuisine and native to Europe and Western Asia.

and report back, Yeah, palm de tear. So again, we can't pinpoint a time when tea drinking began in China, but we can likely say it was certainly a thing by the Han dynasty two o six PC through twenty twenty CE. Granted that's a large period of time, but

by that period people were drinking tea. It most likely began in Sichuan Province in southwestern China and spread gradually to the rest of China, and would have reached northern China by the Tang dynasty that period six eighteen through nine o seven by the third century, though, according to Martin, we do have mentions in the literature of tea that we can more firmly connect to actual tea drinking, which points out that Hatwo, a noted physician who may have

also developed one of the earliest forms of anesthesia, also wrote about tea quote, to drink tea constantly makes one think better.

know exactly what this supposed anesthesia contained. Also, a general from the third century, lou Kuhn, wrote that he felt old, depressed and needed some real tea when just the impression he that he's out doing the military thing and he just realizes, Man, I'm just I'm old, I'm sad, and I would just kill for an actual cup of tea instead of I guess boiling various other things that we're finding in in nature around us M. So you could

you could have fake teas. There's like, if you can't get real tea from Camellia sinensis, you might just try boiling other plant matter.

happens when there's a migration. Yes, in many cases you can bring your plants with you. Sometimes those plants don't survive though, Sometimes they can't be brought anyway, or you just that the people that bring them are not able to keep those plants going in these new places they move to. And in those cases you might try to find some sort of reasonable facsimile, like what's something else that does something that changes me a little bit when

I boil it in water and drink it. So we may come back to some of that in a pit. And then Martin also points that by let's say, around three point fifty CE, there's a more detailed description of the tea plant that we seem pretty sure is an actual description of tea. And this is provided by go Poo again around three fifty C.

And I believe Martin, I believe mentioned that this probably also didn't work. It was just so strong a flavor you couldn't really improve on it all that much. But you drank it because you know it was there were already some healthful associations with it, and you know, maybe it wasn't making it was sick because it was boiled, et cetera. But during the time of the Northern Way Dynasty three eighty six through five thirty five, apparently the tea processing had improved, at least to what we might

think of as a basic level. There are mentions of cakes made of tea leaves that have been roasted. It was probably still a lot cruder compared to things that were gonna come, or certainly cruder than things that you would think of today as desirable teas. But the journey toward more complex flavors was underway, and I'm assuming you were maybe not having to put onions in your tea

anymore now. During the fifth century CE, there's also examples of tea tributes being made to the imperial court and to the emperor himself, and also the emperor was said to have his own tea reserves as well, like these were places where just the emperor's tea was grown. So already it was presumably flavors are improving, and also the ruling class, the elites of society are really getting attached

to the idea of tea. But then the Tang dynasty six eighteen through nine oh seven, this is the period in which we see Chinese tea in the form of baked bricks of green tea, which are ideal for travel, spreading to new parts of the Empire and beyond. Martin also writes that this widespread technique also greatly improved the flavor. The popularity of tea spread so much during this time that it was no longer just a drink of the

elite of the emperor and his court. It was a drink for everybody, even peasants by this point were we're getting in on tea culture. That doesn't mean everybody would have access to the same tea. Of course, with the type of tea you drank would be intrinsically linked to your place in society, as would the various paraphernalia that were used in tea preparation and tea consumption, but it

was essentially something that could be found throughout society. Also, this would again have been exclusively green tea, as red black tea would not be developed for centuries to come. And this is the time of an individual by the name of lou U. This would have been in the eighth century. He was known as the Immortal of T the Sage of T, and he was author of the Classic of.

was then trained. He then trained to be a clown in the opera, and this was his lifelong ambition, but then he ended up becoming a scholar instead. He started spending a lot of time in tea houses, which was a popular hangout at the time. And this reminds me a bit of accounts of tea and coffee houses in later European history as a kind of like cultural incubator.

how to cultivate and process tea. Everything before the Classic of Tea was just orally transmitted or was unknown to individuals who might want to partake of it and cultivate their own tea. His work made tea cultivation accessible, and it included everything that was known at the time about tea, where you could grow it, how to grow it, how to harvest it and prepare it, the culture of drinking it, the twenty four implements required to prepare tea in the home, that sort of thing.

actual changes in flavor here, but truly just appearance. But this is also quite observant because I think, as like chefs and people who work in restaurants will tell you the appearance and color of your plates really does affect how people perceive the food.

the world surrounding this growing tea culture. Now, the popularity of the Classic of Teas not only spread the word of tea, it also further enhanced its popularity and pushed both greater tea trade and greater advancements in how it was cultivated and prepared. Tea also spread throughout China during this time because it had become just so embraced by Buddhist practice and culture. But it's also meant that when Buddhism fell out of favor during the decline of the

Tang dynasty, tea culture did as well. And this would this was a trend that would recur when foreign invaders would control parts of China, Tea culture would suffer in that area.

there too. Of course, because you also see in the in the histories where you know, some some groups, say the Mongols becomes the ruling body in a part of China, they also become more Chinese as they rule, So you know,

the cultural transmission goes both ways. But it seems like you would have these situations where a foreign power would take control for a while and yet just Tea popularity would wane, but then when inevitably Chinese rule was restored to these areas you would see the reverse and one of the examples of this would be nine sixty. See the rule of the Song dynasty brought tea back to

the forefront. Its trade during this period became so important that the Imperial court found that they could just restrict or manipulate the flow of tea to outlying regions if deemed necessary. So it would be a way to control and manipulate other groups, such as determining how much tea goes to, say, to bat or to the Mongols, or to the Turks and others. Almost kind of like a spice trade of Dune sort of scenario, you know. And certainly that's the sort of thing that Frank Herbert was

thinking of when he was right. Maybe not tea specifically, but obviously this control of a desired or vital resource by one particular body.

water till it's foamy. This is what we typically call macha tea today, and it was a huge hit during this time period. Of course, has remained whip us.

whip it up. There's gonna be a special implement to do that, and this of course can also be quite exceptional.

vegetable in this time. Still, though again it would have been bitter. It would not have been a pleasant experience. You Also, I was surprised by this. You also might have sniffed it like snuff, So that would be a sort of a you know, an approach to powdered tea that I didn't think about. Also, not what I'm saying anyone needs to try, but it was one method that was used, as was sometimes using it externally, like you know, applying it just to the skin, or perhaps to some

sort of skin irritation like a poultice. Yeah, so it was widely used during this time. Again not because it was necessarily pleasant to have. But first of all, it was associated with wakefulness and digestion, which I think these are both agreed upon effects of caffeine. If you've had caffeine, or explored caffeine, or even been around people that use caffeine, you probably know that this is the case. Like caffeine can can wake you up, it can make you more alert,

it can also speed up digestion. And yeah, and that's why if you go to a coffee house or a tea house these days, there may be a weight at the bathroom, and there may be a lot of people with you know, a lot of crackling energy.

So we again, so we're seeing like the full spectrum here of possible and perceived uses for tea that benefited your current ailments, prevented other ailments, and maybe even affected sort of spiritual energy concepts regarding the functionality of the human body.

on a question of is this common food or drink item good or bad for your health? Coffee, tea, chocolate, wine, a million other things. It always seems like there are just reams of conflicting results, some of which sound prima faci absurd and probably are, you know, like a study

show wine cures heart disease or something like that. And I detect the presence of persistent methodological problems with attempts to look at this kind of thing specifically, like does a common food or drink item that people consume for pleasure or for other reasons have you know, X broad health effect. But with that caveat, I'm going to cite the findings of a major meta analysis that I looked

at from twenty nineteen. So this was by Mengshi Yi called Tea Consumption and Health Outcome Umbrella Review of Meta Analysis of Observational Studies in Humans. This was published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research and twenty nineteen. So this study is an umbrella review, also known as a review of reviews, which kind of gives you an idea how much research there is on the topic, so

to picture where this rests in the research hierarchy. Of course, you can have individual studies or experiments on the effect of tea on some particular outcome, and then you can have a paper a level above that, which is a review or a meta analysis, which compares and analyzes and usually averages the results of many different individual studies of a bunch. You know, it collects everything it can find in the literature and says, when you compare all these

what results poke out. And then if you have enough of those reviews within a subject area, you can have an umbrella review, which is a review of reviews. And

sometimes umbrella reviews are going to have like a broader question. So, for example, you can have a meta analysis of studies on the relationship between T and cardiovascular disease, and another one comparing studies on TA and various cancers, and then you could maybe have an umbrella review looking at all those meta analyzes to understand the relationship between T and health outcomes. More generally, Okay, so sorry about all that preamble.

But anyway, what did this umbrella review find in the existing literature as of twenty nineteen. Well, it looked at ninety six meta analyzes addressing forty different health outcomes and it concluded that overall, studies showed greater evidence for health

benefits than for harm to health from T consumption. So they say, quote dose response analysis of T consumption indicates reduced risks of total mortality, cardiac death, coronary artery disease, stroke, and type two diabetes melitis with increment of two to three cups per day. Beneficial associations are also found for

several cancers, skeletal, cognitive, and maternal outcomes. Harmful associations are found for a soft geal cancer and gastric cancer when the temperature of intake is more than fifty five to sixty degrees celsius. So this leads them to the conclusion that except for the upper digestive cancer risk that may be associated with drinking very hot tea and again greater than fifty five to sixty degrees c is about one

thirty one to one forty degrees fahrenheit. Unless you're drinking tea that hot or hotter, normal levels of tea consumption, such as two to three cups per day, appear safe, and those levels of tea intake are even associated with a broad range of apparently positive health effects, the ones I mentioned in a minute ago. However, this is a

very important thing to stress. They acknowledge the difficulty in disentangling regular dietary TA consumption from possible confounding variables, and so they argue that to really conclude that the observed associations are causal, So you know, for example, finding that t consumption two to three cups per day might be associated with like reduced risk of cardiac death or something

like that. In order to really be sure that the tea is the cause of that and not just some random association, you would need to do randomized controlled trials. And this is often true. I think when you're looking at connections between like common food or drink items and health outcomes, you might find that any random thing. People who eat kelp on a regular basis have a lower risk of pancreatic cancer, but that doesn't actually show that it's the kelp that makes the difference. It could be

that people who have a lower risk of that cancer. Also, for some reason, just happen to eat more kelp, And the best way to establish the kelp is the cause would again be to do a randomized controlled trial, which is the gold standard use for testing new drugs and so forth, but not always used to examine the health effects of common food and drink items such as coffee, chocolate, tea, all these things that you see a million conflicting study

results on tea helps this health effect, and then another study says on maybe it doesn't. So in the end, I think it's hard to get very solid results on these kind of food and drink items. But at least the existing research today makes it look like broadly tea is pretty safe to drink as long as you're drinking it within moderation and not super hot, and may in fact have some positive health benefits associated with it, but don't bank on those too much.

it lands today. But I did want to note that positive health effects of tea could exist and might also be construed, not in an absolute sense, but in the sense of comparing tea to alternatives, to other things you could consume instead of tea.

for it does not carry disease. Neither does it act like poison as water does when it contains foul and rotten matter.

inherent pathogens. So if you're just looking at the difference between having a hot cup of tea and drinking or rain water or something or any kind of water that might be on hand for pure drinking purposes, the tea is a healthier choice historically speaking, that seems quite true as long as people are, of course not consuming that seventh cup of tea and you know, rapturing themselves to the Holy Mountain.

different tastes, different experiences. We'd love to hear everything you have to say about the matter, So write in let us know. I'd love to hear from you. A reminder that core episodes of Just to Blow Your Mind published on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Monday is listener Mail. Wednesday is a short form artifact or monster fact, and on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns to talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema.