What is Tea?

Tea is an infusion made exclusively from the leaves and leaf buds of the tea plant Camellia sinensis. Only what comes from this plant deserves to be called tea. Hot infusions of herbs, spices or fruits, however soothing they may be, are not, strictly speaking, tea, but herbal or fruit infusions. The tea plant was originally called Thea sinensis. It was only the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature that established its membership of the Camellia family, and from then on it has carried its modern name: Camellia sinensis. ## The tea plant Camellia sinensis is an evergreen shrub that, left unpruned, can grow into a tree up to ten metres tall. In tea gardens, however, the bushes are kept at waist height so that pluckers can easily hand-pick two leaves and a bud, the so-called fine pluck. There are two main varietals: • Camellia sinensis var. sinensis: the Chinese small-leaf varietal. Cold-resistant, long-lived, it gives us the delicate, aromatic teas of China, Japan and Taiwan. • Camellia sinensis var. assamica: the large-leaf varietal from Assam and Yunnan. It produces strong, malty teas and is the basis of many Indian, African and Yunnan teas. Within these two varietals lie hundreds of cultivars, each with its own DNA, character and flavour profile. How it all came together is the story of [tea's long history](/knowledge/tea-history). ## The six main categories Out of the same leaves, six completely different types of tea can be produced. What makes the difference is processing — and in particular, the degree of oxidation: • [White tea](/knowledge/white-tea): minimally processed; lightly withered and dried. • [Green tea](/knowledge/green-tea): non-oxidised; the enzymes are stopped early by heat (steaming or pan-firing). • [Yellow tea](/knowledge/yellow-tea): similar to green tea, with an additional «smothering» phase (Men Huang) that triggers a gentle non-enzymatic oxidation. • [Oolong tea](/knowledge/oolong-tea): partially oxidised, anywhere from 10 % to over 80 %. • [Black tea](/knowledge/black-tea): fully oxidised. In China, it is called «red tea» (Hong Cha). • [Dark / Fermented tea](/knowledge/fermented-tea), microbially fermented after manufacture; this category includes Puer from Yunnan. [Flavoured and scented teas](/knowledge/scented-tea) are not a separate category, but rather teas from one of the six categories enriched with flowers, fruits, spices or oils. ## Where tea grows The tea plant has clear preferences. It thrives best in tropical or subtropical conditions, with at least 1,500 mm of rainfall per year, temperatures between 10 and 35 °C, about five hours of sunshine per day, humidity of 70–90 %, and a well-drained acidic soil with a pH of 4.5 to 5.5. What it dislikes: frost, clay or chalky soils, and standing water at its roots. Interestingly, a little stress, drought, insect attack or a struggle for nutrients, often improves the flavour of the leaves markedly. The famous Taiwanese Oriental Beauty teas, or the Mi Xiang black tea, owe their unmistakable honey character to exactly that kind of stress: the bite of tiny leafhoppers. ## Terroir — nature's invisible hand The French term Terroir means the same thing in tea as it does in wine: the sum of all environmental factors that shape the character of the final product. Altitude, soil composition, rainfall, sun exposure, mist, surrounding vegetation, microclimate, all of this flows into the finished leaf. This is precisely why a tea grown at 1,500 metres in the mountains of Taiwan tastes different from a tea of the same variety grown on a plantation at the foot of the same mountains. And it is precisely why at VestaTea we curate our teas by origin, garden and cultivar, because every cup tells a story of its own. A glance at our [shop](/shop) shows how we organise teas by region and character. ## What tea is not Peppermint, chamomile, rose hip, rooibos, mate, fruit blends, all delicious infusions, but not tea. They contain no Camellia sinensis caffeine and no L-theanine, the unique combination that gives real tea its meditative yet alert character.