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 It is difficult to find a plant whose path to our table would be more thorny than that of tea. More than three hundred years ago, when the Moscow envoy V. Starkov was returning from Mongolia, the local khan presented him with a gift for the king - four pounds of tea.
Two hundred bulky bales. In Russia at that time they did not drink tea, and Starkov accepted the load with annoyance - unnecessary trouble.
However, the king approved the drink. The boyars also liked him. Since then, tea caravans have stretched across Siberia to Moscow. They walked until the railroad was built. In the Trans-Baikal mountains, the tea tract is still visible ...
The living tea bush itself came to our borders later, in the middle of the last century. His appearance drew behind him a chain of events that have not yet been fully solved. The beginning of these events was laid by the then Governor-General of Novorossiya, Count M. Vorontsov. He was fond of rare plants and ordered several tea bushes from China for his estate in the Crimea and for the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. Of course, he was not going to develop the tea industry, but an evergreen bush in Crimea was not superfluous. The moisture-loving plant did not take root in the dry Crimea. But in the humid Transcaucasia it turned out to be in its place. Especially in Georgia *. However, how the tea got to Georgia - either from the Crimea, or it was delivered directly from abroad - is still unclear. And the early history of tea looks like a detective story. The controversy continues to this day. They were started in 1875 by the "Kavkaz" newspaper. She decided to clarify the order of events and posted two letters from the Armenian Patriarch Nerses V, which describe the history of the Vorontsov bushes. In 1833 they were sent to the Caucasus from Odessa by sea on the ship "Sparrow". Not reaching the target, the ship got into a storm and crashed on the rocks near the coast of Guria (part of Georgia). The tea bushes were saved. They fell into the hands of the local prince M. Gurieli and were planted in his garden. This is the version of the newspaper.
Opponents have raised many objections to the facts mentioned in the article. Firstly, in the archives of the maritime department, no documents have been preserved about the accident of the ship "Sparrow". Secondly, even if it broke on the rocks, then, once it got into the salt water, the bushes should have inevitably died. If the ship was thrown ashore, then why did the captain not send the parcel to the address, but allowed Prince Gurieli to take possession of the cargo?
Comparison of dates is also puzzling. The ship crashed in 1833, and Prince Gurieli died in 1826, seven years before the crash. Later it turned out that it was not the prince himself who stole the bushes, but they were simply planted in his garden. There are still many ambiguities left. Patriarch Nerses wrote that he was sending cargo from Odessa, and Vorontsov's bushes, in all likelihood, were grown in the Crimea. Why was it necessary to carry cargo from Crimea to Odessa, and then back again - past Crimea to the Caucasus? To top it off, it turned out that Kavkaz had published only copies of the patriarchal letters. The originals were not found.
In general, they think that tea bushes came to the Caucasus later, when Count Vorontsov was staying at the house of Prince D. Dadiani. He later sent an expensive gift to the prince. Several bushes went to Prince M. Eristavi, who later developed a small plantation. He dreamed of getting his own Georgian tea. And he achieved it. In 1864, the first batch of sheets was collected. Overjoyed by his luck, Eristavi invited members of the Caucasian Agricultural Society to the tasting. The guests sat on the terrace, drank fragrant potion, and praised. However, the outcome of the tea party was not as brilliant as the owner wanted. Those present barely took their feet. Some were sick. Others were dizzy and staggered, clutching the walls with their hands. Not knowing the secrets of leaf fermentation, the prince offered the guests a drink far from ordinary tea. The experimenter is not to blame.Even a more knowledgeable person, his contemporary and tea lover, the great chemist A. Butlerov, did not know the secret of making tea.
Meanwhile, the Free Economic Society became interested in tea. Seedlings and seeds were ordered from Hankou. The cargo arrived in Odessa in 1880. From there he was sent to the Kuban. They did not dare to send by sea: what if it breaks again on the rocks? But on the way frost struck, and the seedlings died. Finally, the Caucasian Agricultural Society obtained five poods of tea seeds and a dozen seedlings. They were given to the Batumi gardener Ressler. But the governor took pity on the land for the plantation. All seed is gone. A. Butlerov and the geographer A. Voeikov advocated for tea. Did not help. The only thing Butlerov managed to do was to grow several bushes in his dacha near Sukhumi on a flowerbed.
Only at the very end of the last century, Professor A. Krasnov and the agronomist I. Klingen were able to defend the tea business. They made a grand expedition to the Asian subtropics. They took out twelve gifts of the East. The most important gift was tea.
Years passed. For a long time already, the subject of general attention has taken a full-fledged place in the Caucasus. But until now, lovers of a tart drink are chasing Ceylon and Indian tea, brewing their own, Georgian (or Azerbaijani), in the last turn. "Wrong scent!" They refer to the climate. Tea is a child of the subtropics, and the Caucasus is their northern outskirts. There seems to be not enough warmth for a delicate plant ...
I don't want to persuade unbelievers. I will give just one fact. Not so long ago a specialist from abroad came to the Georgian tea growers. A subtle expert in his field. Over the course of his long life, he tried thousands of varieties, knew the shades and nuances of each variety. He was brewed local tea and asked to rate it. Where and what sort, while silent. The visitor did not hesitate to name one of the best foreign brands. And he gave the highest score - 7! I could hardly believe it when they told him that he was drinking an infusion of a new Georgian variety, Kolkhida.
It is not known, however, whether the beast eats and carries seeds in the forests of China? After all, almost nothing is known about the tea tree itself. We only know that now it grows wildly in the mountains along the upper Mekong and Salween, in evergreen forests. Lives for three hundred years. It stretches for ten meters, like our mountain ash. The leaves are hard, like cardboard. Young, slightly hatched, silvery from dense pubescence (they are collected for brewing). Whitish-pink fragrant flowers.
For a long time it was not possible to find wild tea. It seemed that he had disappeared, like many other relatives of cultivated plants. Finally found in Vietnam after the First World War. And earlier - in the Indian state of Assam at the end of the last century. Real tea forests. There are almost no other trees in them - tea trees stand so densely. They are not very tall, but so thick that it is difficult to grasp another trunk with your hands. If not for the evergreen leaves, pubescent below, the trees could be mistaken for birches. Both crown and bark color are very similar. Locals brew the leaves like regular tea. It really has taste and aroma ... chicken broth!
True, experts say that there are masterpieces of higher rank, which pull by 8 or even 9 points. And that they are little known because they do not go into mass circulation and few have tried them. I haven’t tried it, so I don’t presume to judge. And who can guarantee that they exist at all?
As for Colchis, this is a very real thing. We found it by chance among the seedlings of common varieties. Even before the war. Dilution quickly failed, because the variety is preserved if propagated by cuttings. And how many cuttings from the bush will you cut? For forty years it was possible to breed the seven-point Colchis only on five hundred hectares. Now things seem to go faster.
In nature, of course, this tree is propagated by seeds. They look seductive. An exact copy of the dragee in chocolate... As large as hazelnuts, round and with a noble chocolate gloss. I just want to put it in my mouth.However, isn't it strange? Local animals in Georgia do not show the slightest interest in the fruits. Even omnivorous goats do not touch tea seeds.
In the wild forests of Assam, residents have to climb ten meters to pick a fresh leaf. How to get rid of unnecessary climbing? The Assamese came up with the following. They hang boulders from the branches, and the branches obediently bow to the ground.
Wild tea is also growing in Upper Burma. It is from there that Indian scientists are now drawing material to improve cultivated varieties. And there is still a lot to improve. Productivity. Taste. Aroma. Difficulties on this path turned out to be considerable.
Let's start with the yield. Indian tea growers have developed very productive forms. Now their average bush gives ten packs of tea a year. Experts believe that it can grow as much. The best bushes give their owners six times more - sixty packs!
It would seem that the goal is close and accessible, but it turned out the opposite. Appreciated the quality of the products from the outstanding bushes and became depressed. Alas, it is far from perfect. Ordinary tea is much tastier and more aromatic. Judge for yourself: a kilogram of ordinary tea costs one hundred rupees, and an improved one - only ... nine! How can this contradiction be resolved?
It must be resolved as soon as possible, because Indian geneticists have already developed a special form - "Sundaram-1", which gives a yield three times more than the modern one. Connoisseurs consider this form to be the future of Indian tea growing. But what about taste and aroma?
Another difficulty with fertilizers. In Georgia, high doses of fertilizers increase the yield by 10 times, while in India they reduce it. Not everything is clear with the quality either. The Indians noticed that the benefits of fertilization are noticeable if no more than one bag of nitrogen is applied per hectare. If there are two bags, the quality of the sheet deteriorates. Our tea growers were also alarmed and checked the Indian data on their own. It turned out that our quality also decreases, but only if we add six bags of nitrogen per hectare.
Different climates. Different soils. Different varieties.
And now about who drinks tea and how much. The world treats this drink differently. Italians don't drink it at all. But the Japanese, with their tea ceremonies, drink half a kilogram per brother a year (if you count the tea leaves). The British - that's who, it seems, has surpassed everyone! They just revel in tea. Hard to believe, but true. The inhabitants of the British Isles consume ten times more than the Japanese - four and a half kilograms per capita!
Disputes still persist whether tea is useful or harmful? Some say: useful. At the same time, they recall the catechins that our everyday drink is rich in. Catechins increase the strength of blood vessels. There is also another opinion. Its supporters cite tea tasters as an example. Even experienced tasters who follow safety precautions still suffer sometimes insomnia and nervous disorders. They lose their appetite, dry mouth appears, and the heart begins to play pranks.
There is one more drawback to tea. At the bottom of the teapot, there is always a thick residue, a sediment that has to be thrown away every time.
Nowadays, there are ways to dispose of tea waste.
Polar explorers wintering at Novolazarevskaya station in Antarctica experienced considerable difficulties when they tried to grow fresh vegetables there. Several houses on a rocky patch. Where to get fertile land? We managed to take a little with us from the mainland. It was mixed with sand, sawdust. Sprinkled with ash. And the topmost, most important layer was made from ... tea grounds mixed with local lichens. It went not so little - five percent of the total soil. Then the Moscow region grew well on sleeping tea Murom cucumbers.
A. Smirnov. Tops and roots
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