Project topics and materials
Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »
Historical importance of tea.
Tea has been cultivated and consumed in China for more than two thousand years (Dodd, 1994). Today it is the most widely consumed caffeine-containing beverage in the world. Its worldwide consumption is second only to water. The importance of tea is however much more than just the consumption of it by millions of people. Tea also had a marked effect on human development in both the East and West.
Tea arrived in London for the first time during 1652. During this time the hygiene in Europe was dubious. Because of the threat of waterborne disease, water was often boiled before drinking. The addition of tea gave it both flavour, and stimulative properties due to the presence of caffeine. Although coffee and chocolate also became available in Europe during the same time, it was unaffordable for the general public until after the Second World War. The only other alternative was alcohol strong enough to kill the waterborne pathogens. Since people do not work, learn or function properly while constantly drunk, this was impractical.
The East India Companies started the tea trade. These groups of European merchants started to sail the seas in search of valuable commodities since the end of the 16thcentury. They bought the tea in Canton, however, the Chinese demanded to be paid in silver. This practice led to massive inflation in Europe as silver prices in Europe climbed. The rising popularity of tea only worsened this situation. In 1801 each person in England consumed more than a kilogram of tea. This prompted the East India Company to find some other trading commodity to replace silver. They found this in opium. This highly addictive drug they produced from the opium poppy in India. The Chinese were willing to provide tea in return for opium, which was illegal in China. By 1830 the British exported 1.5 million kg of opium to China annually. This nearly destroyed Chinese society by leaving millions addicted. This also led to the Opium War (1840-1842) between Britain and China. By winning the war the British forcibly opened China to trade and ravaged the country’s cultural and intellectual heritage. A society, which was centuries ahead of the rest of the world in inventions and technology, was consequently ruined by opium. Arguably this also prompted the communist uprising of the 20th century.
Tea also influenced the history of other parts of the world. Most of the tea now originates from India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Africa, where the Europeans introduced tea. Today India is the biggest producer of tea in the world, and two-thirds of that produced is for home consumption. Before 1840 tea drinking was unknown in India. In the United States of America, tea also played a crucial role in the build-up to the War of Independence in America. In 1773 a group of colonials objected to British taxes on tea. That led to the famous Boston Tea Party when they dumped the cargo of three tea ships into the harbour of Boston, Massachusetts (Fullick 1999).
Chapter 1: Introduction.
1 Historical importance of tea
2 Manufacturing of black tea.
3 Conditions affecting quality.
3.1 The environment and quality
3.2 Manufacture practices and quality
3.3 The genetical make-up of the tea plant and quality.
4 Tea breedin
4.1 The taxonomy and genetic background of tea
4.2 The propagation of tea
5 The flavan-3-ol content of tea.
5.1 The flavonoids
5.2 Flavonoid biosynthesis.
5.3 General flavonoid biosynthesis.
6 Analysing tea for their flavan-3-ol and theaflavin content.
6.1 Analysis of tea flavan-3-ols.
6.2 The analysis of theaflavins.
7 Capillary electrophoresis.
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Band broadening.
7.3 Modes of capillary electrophoresis
7.4 Capillary electrophoresis of tea flavan-3-ols.
7.5 Capillary electrophoresis of theaflavins
8 Aims of study
9 Hypotheses
10 Null hypotheses
Chapter 2: Analysis of caffeine and flavanol composition in the fresh leaf for predicting the quality of the black tea (Camellia sinensis) produced in Southern Africa.
1 Introduction.
2 Materials and methods
3 Results
4 Discussion
Chapter 3: Analysis of black tea theaflavins by non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE).
1 Introduction
2 Materials and methods
3 Results
Chapter 4: Analysis of the theaflavin composition in black tea (Camellia sinensis) for predicting the quality of tea produced in Central and Southern Africa
1 Introduction.
2 Experimental
3 Results.
4 Discussion
Chapter 5: The effect of tannase on the quality of black tea.
1 Introduction
2 Materials and methods.
3 Results.
4 Discussion
Chapter 6: Concluding discussion
References
