Most orthodox teas are produced in China, Sri Lanka, Darjeeling and Assam. They represent about 31% of world tea production. An additional 25% is green and oolong tea. This means that about 55% or over one half of all tea produced is processed by the orthodox form of processing.

Therefore about 45% of teas are processed by the CTC (Crush, tear and curl) method of production. CTC describes the use of machinery that mechanically chops up both leaves, buds and stems without discrimination as to the quality of the end product. CTC produces tea that is finely ground and low in quality. All the leaves, buds and stems are ground down to an equal size, mostly dust and fannings, and are mainly used in tea bags filled with lower quality tea.

When the CTC method is used to produce lower quality bagged tea, usually only one infusion is possible.

Alternatively, the orthodox method oxidizes and prepares teas with a focus on the top quality leaves and buds that produce strong, robust flavor and are capable of multiple infusions. The highest quality tea leaves and buds are processed through the orthodox method whereas, the CTC method is associated with bagged tea of lesser quality.

The CTC method is highly efficient as opposed to the orthodox method that is very labor intensive. The CTC method is able to produce more tea at a lower cost and quality and the dust and fannings produced by CTC processing infuse very quickly because of the lower mass the small pieces allow. Furthermore CTC was a savior to the tea bag industry because the lower cost of producing inferior quality tea more than offset the price of the packaging of the tea bag. CTC therefore offset the higher packaging cost of tea bags with the lower quality tea produced by mechanizing the process.

Orthodox tea, on the other hand, avoids the tea bag cost but has higher processing cost - but the result is a higher quality, better tasting tea capable of supporting multiple infusions.

Jon M. Stout is Chairman of the Golden Moon Tea Company. Golden Moon Tea recently placed first and second in the best tea competition at the prestigious World Tea Expo in Atlanta Georgia. For more information about tea, green tea and black tea go to goldenmoontea.com

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