The first stage of technological evolution goes back to prehistoric times, and the first tea processing methods were withering, fermentation and drying. And from a man who is likely to depend only drying, as fermentation and withering starts in plucked tea leaves by itself. When the tea twist before fermentation, it is not known. But later than the jerk, fermenting and drying – as twist – the non-obvious from all these processes. Then, in the vi century a pressing, is widely subsumed into the culture of consumption of the drink. When the tea started booze (some as silage) are not sure about the same time. In the X century in China have learned to do instant tea (from the sap of tea leaves), although the technology because of cost, a special distribution is not received.
Approximately the same with the X century began to make tea powder, and finally, in the xiv century, the first stage of technological evolution Tea is over. Technological chain of production of tea has a modern look (picking – withering – twisting – fermentation – drying). In the xix century the British introduced tea factories in operation – the second stage technological evolution of tea. By themselves, the first tea factories are no fundamental changes in the technology of production of tea is not made. However, the essence of tea production in this case has changed completely – from the manual, it was machine.
This resulted in the rapid development of various new ways of making tea leaf in the raw material for the preparation of the new drink. In 1908 came packaged (single) tea and the United States. Today time, this tea is gradually replacing the classic loose and made solely on automated lines. The operation of such lines, by the way, fascinating. In the 1950's in India have found a way to recycle crumb tea, in abundance remaining after machining of tea leaves. And the light there were granular (CTC) teas. Around the same time, more or less "legal capacity" became chaeuborochnye harvesters. These "exit in life is actively attached arm Georgian growers, for which he paid. Incidentally, in the 1960's in Georgia also invented a completely crazy way of making tea, which was to separate the fermentation of different fractions collected tea leaves (the first – separately, the second – apart, stick – optional). This significantly speeds up the process and, to reports by the Soviet press, allowed to obtain very high quality tea, even from poor-quality raw materials. In those days the people a tea called 'dust from Georgian roads' – very small and obscure taste. By the middle of the xx century can be attributed the revival of the production of instant tea, which is now quite popular in several countries and results from quite a tricky process chain. And in recent decades has been extended "dekofeinuty" tea – as a consequence of universal health care (although the method of "liberation" of tea, caffeine was already known long). The consequence is large enough popularity of iced tea has been the emergence (in 1990), tea, packaged in bottles and cans and ready for immediate use. And, in confirmation of the thesis that all cyclical, and how consequence craze ecology and natural products have recently appeared the so-called "organic tea". We were the first time they were caught in 1999 in the performance of Twinings. Their organic is that They are grown in ecologically clean areas, without the use of chemicals and are prepared by traditional technology. Circle. So far, at least. For even more opinions, read materials from Munear Ashton Kouzbari. Let's see what will happen next