The Insane Biology and Cultivation of Tea | Masterclass on Tea (Chapter 2)
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- čas přidán 25. 06. 2024
- In this CZcams video, we explore the biology of tea and the key factors that affect tea quality. We discuss the three main types of bioactive tea compounds - theanine, polyphenols, and caffeine - and their potential health benefits. We also delve into the world of tea cultivation, and discuss sustainable tea field management practices and the effects of tea cultivation on tea quality components.
Tea, which is made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant, is a popular beverage that is enjoyed around the world. In addition to its delicious flavor and aroma, tea also contains a range of bioactive compounds that have been shown to have many potential health benefits.
The three main types of bioactive tea compounds are theanine, polyphenols, and caffeine. Theanine is an amino acid that is found exclusively in tea, and has been shown to have a calming effect on the mind and body. Polyphenols are a group of plant-based compounds that have powerful antioxidant properties, and are believed to play a role in preventing chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer.
Caffeine is a stimulant that is found in tea, coffee, and other beverages, and is known for its ability to increase alertness and improve cognitive function. While tea contains caffeine, it is typically lower in caffeine compared to coffee, and theanine can help to counteract the stimulating effects of caffeine.
In addition to the bioactive compounds in tea, the quality of the tea also depends on how it is grown and processed.
Sustainable tea field management practices are critical for ensuring the long-term health and productivity of tea plants, and for producing high-quality tea. These practices include using organic fertilizers, implementing pest and disease control measures, and conserving water and energy.
In addition to sustainable farming practices, the methods used to cultivate tea plants can also affect the quality of the tea. For example, the timing and method of tea harvesting can impact the flavor and aroma of the tea, and the methods used to process the tea leaves can affect the levels of bioactive compounds in the tea.
Overall, Chapter 2 of the Masterclass on Tea discusses tea plant biology and tea cultivation, and we lay out critical concepts we will be building upon in coming chapters, such as the unique health effects of bioactive tea compounds (Chapter 6) and the role of caffeine, theanine, and tea polyphenols in building tea flavor (Chapters 4 & 5). We also introduce Tea Soil Acidification - a critical issue in modern tea cultivation and a topic we will be addressing further in Chapter 8.
Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and comment below with thoughts, reactions, and ideas for future videos topics… Thanks for watching!! :) So be sure to watch this video to learn more about the factors that affect tea quality, and the importance of sustainable tea field management practices.
00:00 - One Sentence Summary + Hype Reel
2:04 - Tea Polyphenols: Taste, Tea Leaf Concentrations, and Health Benefits
3:14 - L-theanine: Taste, Health Benefits, and Synergistic Effects with Caffeine
5:08 - Caffeine: Tea is the MOST Caffeinated Plant on Earth ( + Taste, Health Effects, and Biological Function in Tea Plants)
6:59 - Evolutionary Birthplace of the Tea Plant
7:37 - Importance of Shade in Tea Cultivation
8:07 -Tea Monoculture vs. Wild Tea Agro-ecosystem Conditions
8:52 - Tying Together Tea Biology and Tea Cultivation: The Important Effects of Tea Roots’ Soil Acidifying Properties on Tea Field Management
10:42 - The Current Tea Soil Acidification Epidemic
11:02 - Functions of Tea Polyphenols within the Tea Plant
11:41 - Functions of L-Theanine within the Tea Plant
12:14 - Recap of Chapter 2 Takeaways
13:06 - Preview of Chapter 3: Tea Processing
DON’T FORGET: We have a free downloadable PDF the recaps the main takeaways and provides a few of the helpful educational graphics shown in the masterclass videos - you can access all of that here: wumountaintea.com/a-mastercla...
Love Tea? You’ll Love our Insta: / wumountaintea
Subscribe to our Youbtube Channel (new uploads monthly): / @wumountaintea
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Credits:
Intro track:
I Dunno by Grapes ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported- CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/i-dunno-grapes Music promoted by Audio Library • I Dunno - Grapes (No C...
Outro track by Jared Mulcahy
"Homo sapiens dispersal routes out of Africa dating from 120,000 years ago: Genetic admixtures with Neandertaler and Denisovans took place 50,000 years ago." by quapan is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
"Matrix pills" by ThomasThomas is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
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Don't Miss Chapter 3! (All About Tea PROCESSING):
czcams.com/video/LqDk2swTiB8/video.html
Feel like skipping around to other chapters? They're all linked right here:
Introduction to The Masterclass on Tea + My Story with Tea:
czcams.com/video/DGfKxU6Oxiw/video.html
Chapter 1 - Laying out the 6 tea types and exploring their awesome sub-types:
czcams.com/video/lAYRZeDJ4Pc/video.html
Chapter 2 - Exploring the biology and cultivation of tea plants:
czcams.com/video/munJOh-19yk/video.html
Chapter 3 - Everything about tea processing:
czcams.com/video/LqDk2swTiB8/video.html
Chapter 4 - How to conduct a formal tea quality assessment
czcams.com/video/kiqsrAzgbZ8/video.html
Chapter 5 - How to make a good cup of tea and not make a bad cup of tea:
czcams.com/video/L_lhIDXjf4M/video.html
Chapter 6 - Health effects of tea (EPIC CHAPTER DON’T MISS IT):
czcams.com/video/n4YpGbSmaFE/video.html
Chapter 7 - The History of tea from 2737 BC to today’s Tea Renaissance:
czcams.com/video/TpdoU7DDuXo/video.html
Chapter 8 - Today’s Tea Industry Issues:
czcams.com/video/oCBdlqJQE7A/video.html
Tea makes the soil acidic, blueberries need acidic soil and rob the acidity. Most blueberry growers need to add Sulphur to their soil. This gives me ideas of adding tea plants to the blueberry planters.
I thought of that as well!
That seems like a really good idea, kinda similar to the three sisters concept of growing corn, squash, and beans all together.
What growing climate are you in? In the US I thought tea only grew in South Carolina or Hawaii, but I don't know if I could just plant a tea bush and expect it to grow without expecting to harvest it. Maybe just plant a Camelia flower in its place?
@@nobodysanything2330 there are camellia sinensis cold hardy to zone 4. Most grow 7-9 but they do have cold hardy varieties.
Thank you for the intel. Let's take control of our lives back from Switzerland's Nestle.
I´m amazed by the quality of this masterclass. This is really the deep understanding of tea I´ve been looking for, in an easy and excited video.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge so generously, Dylan! You're a true Tea Scholar!!! Keep it up. Absolute legend!!
Thank you Gabriel!! It's my pleasure 🙏🍵 Plenty more videos on the way!! 🌱🤘
Now and then you come across golden nuggets in the sea of distractions that is CZcams. I feel like your videos are made just for me haha. Hope you get more subs soon, the quality you put out is 10/10. Thanks you so much!
Thank you so much Robin! That means a lot to me 😊🙏
I tend to take a lot of time scripting and editing each video, which means I can't put out a TON of videos (and probably why the sub count isn't too high), but quality is priority #1 for me 🤗🌱 And it makes it all worth it when people like you remind me that the effort is appreciated.
Thanks for watching and commenting! Looking forward to connecting more in future videos 😊🍃🍵
Dylan
as an ex barista and a future traditional Chinese medicine practitioner I’m obsessed with these video!! I can’t wait till tea has the same appreciation as coffee in Canada!
Sir
Didaktisch hervorragend gestaltetes und fachlich fundiertes Video.
Hut ab.
Please dont stop making these great videos! I am learning a lot. I am looking for a book on tea science, do you have any recommendations?
That's great to hear! There are not any Tea Science textbooks available in English, but I would recommend starting with a basic introductory biology textbook (I recommend "Essential Cell Biology, Fourth Edition- Alberts, Bray, Hopkin") to get a grasp on the basics of cell biology, then reading through one tea-related scientific article at a time, looking up the unfamiliar terms as you go. Good luck! DM me on IG if you have specific questions :) 🌱🍵💚🙏
Time to write one@@wumountaintea I dont how many would sell. but imagine having your name amongst the scientists with an over all handbook for english speakers
Love it, your enthusiasm is infectious dude, digging this series big time.
This is the second time Im watching this masterclass! It so full of useful information that Im happy to watch it again. As a chemistry student and tea lover this is exactly what I need! Please upload more videos like this!
Before finding these videos (stemming from my wife sharing one of your kombucha vids), I already had a general knowledge of teas. This series blows me away with the in depth detail and expansive knowledge you've gone to lengths to acquire. I really hope you continue to translate the years of research and information on teas that are only available in Chinese. I think by far my favorite varieties are Oolong, and Pu-erh, but I think after your first chapter (and much pausing) I've just grown my shopping list by a mile. Subbed for sure!
Side note, has anyone tried crop rotation with acid loving plants such as blueberries to raise the Ph back up?
amazing video. Veey clear and educational!
This is so fascinating! I was considering how a couple tea plants would work into my backyard garden. It’s propensity towards acidifying the soil makes it seems like it would be a good companion with blueberries.
Mind blown on the caffeine per gram of tea vs coffee! Really interesting.
Right?! A tea leaf shoot is the most caffeinated plant part on the planet.
That’s when people say they like tea because it’s less caffeinated I go ummm… kinda? 🤔 😂
Did you hear the part about caffeine being a natural nerve poison for insects? That gets me too 🙃
Thanks for watching and commenting! 🌱🙏
Dylan
Thank you buddy, your master class is amazing. I am a third generation tea planter- manufacturer, I believe I am still learning and you have been my inspiration and Guru. Keep going, your Videos are a great source of knowledge for us. Thank you
From all the tea videos I’ve been watching these are far by the best!! Sooo thorough! Geeking out hard 😍
Noticed you seem to have a rolling shutter problem, to fix this adjust your aperture and shutter speed a little higher or change the refresh rate in the camera settings. Hope this helps!
Thank you for these great videos packed with a ton of information!
Love learning all this biochemistry! If you ever want to expand this channel, I'd look forward to more videos on how biology influences the farming and cultivation of tea, and other crops too! Heck, if you feel qualified to research and make videos on the reasons why different crops are biologically beneficial to humans, and why we may have cultivated them historically, I would watch all of that! e.g. wine, beer, (fermentation in general), chocolate, coffee, sugar...
Great videos dawg
Thanks for this series, Dylan! Will you be covering tea plant pruning? We're wondering how and when to prune our tea plants, since they seem to need it now. How much to prune off the top, the bottom; any guidelines, the reasoning behind them, etc... Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and if you would like to try the first year of our Santa Cruz Oolong tea (drink at your own risk!), we'd be happy to send you some.
Hey Alexander, you're welcome 👌 I'm happy to help, but I need the following information: where globally you are positioned, macro pictures of your acreage, height and width of your crops, pictures of top buds and leaves AND lower leaves, trunk/stalk width, untouched topsoil conditions, barely sub-surface conditions (O profile), and the A profile (6-inch deep). You can DM them to me on instagram 💚
@@wumountaintea Ok, I'll try to get those sent to you today. Thanks!
Would love a video about synergistic companion/cover cropping for growing tea leaf plants and a guide to picking the most optimal tea leaf plant variety for our own local microclimates
Ok we could try that! It is a tricky topic though because people have very different access to tea plant genetics depending on where they live. For example if you live in the US you only have access to whatever cultivars are available at domestic nurseries, which represents a tiny fraction of total tea plant germplasm resources, but maybe I could do a ROUGH guide of climate zone and corresponding tea plant genotype/phenotype traits. OR if you want my personal recommendation for your specific location in the world you can just DM me and I'll let you know what I think 😄🌱
Oo, yes - I'm also interested in more info/ tips on companion planting/ cover crops!
I'm in Oregon, and Fava beans are a classic for winter cover crop / nitrogen fixing - or some of the clovers. Black eyed peas?
Self heal and Purslane ...
Here the Sochi variety does well at near 45th parallel, but lower elevation than tea came from ....
Very informative video, nice
This is so fricken good, Dylan. That is all.
I just found your channel and love your videos. Thank you for taking the time to making them. I was wondering if you have any research for the % of caffeine in the leaves depending on size?
Thanks
Your videos are amazing!
Aw thank you so much! I really appreciate that 😊
Thanks for watching and commenting 🙏🌱🍵
Dylan
Love the science ad the biology.
Pretty mind-blowing stuff! 🤯🍵🫶
L-theanine is also found in the Bay Bolete mushroom (Imleria badia).
You should write a book, I would buy it 😊👍👍👍👍
Hmmm, I wonder if Western Oregon would be a good place to farm tea. Naturally acidic soil in the Wilamette Valley, and it's the same plant hardiness zones as you see in Yunnan. And the Coastal Range offers extremely misty mountains. Dry, warm summers and cool, wet winters, with the forests along the coastal range up and down Oregon and Washington as being legitimate temperate rainforests.
Came here too early, watching in 360p :P
lolllll sorry man 😂 come back tomorrow to re-watch in 4K 🤗🌱
@@wumountaintea Aw psssh. Not gonna wait till tomorrow to cultivate my succulent knowledge-fruits! Excellent video, I learnt a lot. Eagerly waiting for the rest of this series, especially Chapters 7 and 8!
@@TheYashie lolll let's go 🤘🌱🙏 Yeah Chapter 8 is ridiculous you're gonna love it 👀🙃
What tea would you recommend that doesn’t make you nervous?
hey, you can check guayusa plant, it has caffeine and l thaenine too :D
So excited for the other six
Nice! 🙌🌱😄 Will be interested to hear what your favorite is 🤓🍵
Has anyone ever tried Camellia japonica as tea?How is itdifferent from Camellia sinensis? Does it also contain caffeine?
May I eat my tea then?
You kinda look like Jesse pinkman