What Is Tea?

Tea comes from the plant Camellia sinensis, a warm-weather evergreen. Tea is grown around the world in thousands of estates or tea gardens, resulting in many flavourful variations. Like wines, many teas take their names from the district in which they are grown, and each district is known for producing teas with unique flavour and character. While there are more than 1500 varieties of tea available worldwide, all teas can be divided into six types: white, yellow, green, oolong, black and pu-erh.

The way the fresh tea leaves are processed and their level of contact with oxygen determine the types of tea. During oxidation, the tea leaves experience natural chemical reactions that result in distinctive taste and colour characteristics.