Tea Facts

Tea comes from the plant Camellia Sinensis, there exist hundreds of kinds of teas, with their own individual appearance, taste, and aroma. Every harvest of tea will vary year to year due to changes in climate, rainfall, and other seasonal conditions. Tea from the same plantation or garden may taste very different each year. Again a particular tea gains much of its individual character from how the leaves are cultivated and processed. Tea in India only gained popularity as a national beverage in the 19th century after the British began to create large scale tea plantations. India is one of the world’s largest suppliers of tea, and yet because of this very recent history, tea has not had time to appropriate any elaborate tea rituals like in Japan or China. Although not ritualized, tea is more a part of everyday life at home, work, on the streets and while travelling.

Tea can be placed in several categories. The most common are green, white, oolong, black, and fermented. These categories refer to how much a tea is oxidized or, in tea terminology, fermented. Practically it is oxygen that is responsible for altering the tea leaves. By selectively exposing the tea leaves to the air, tea industries and producers can bring out certain flavours and aromas from the leaves.