What is tea?

Tea is not a name for a kind of beverage, as is commonly thought; it refers to the leaves and buds of the camellia sinesis plant as well as to the beverage made from those leaves and buds. The term "tea," therefore, excludes anything that does not contain camellia sinesis. For instance, the term "herbal tea" is a misnomer as most, if not all, herbal concoctions do not contain actual tea; instead they should be referred to as "herbal infusions." We will touch on this more later.

The camellia sinesis plant grows best in the tropical and sub-tropical regions found throughout Asia. The top 1-2 inches of leaves and buds only are plucked, and they are harvested in cycles called "flushes." They then go through various stages of wilting and oxidation - or fermentation, as it is often called, though no actual fermentation takes place - depending on the variety of tea being produced. Fermentation simply refers to the amount of time the plucked leaves are allowed to oxidize before they are dried. The longer the oxidization, the darker the tea. Black tea is highly oxidized, whereas white tea is not oxidized at all. The leaves are heated to stop the fermentation process.

Once the leaves have finished processing, they are sorted by quality. The lowest quality teas get turned into teabags and are often flavored or blended with other varietals to hide their inferior taste, while the higher quality is sold loose. I always recommend loose tea for quality and for taste!

Obviously there is much more to all of this than the brief summary I have provided. Feel free to do more research on your own.

Next: Basic Tea Varieties