The most important and first thing to remember: ALL TEA is made from one plant!

The tea plant, whose botanical name in Latin is Camellia Sinensis, or Chinese Camellia. It has two main subspecies: Camellia sinensis var. assamica - the tree form and Camellia sinensis var. sinensis - the shrub form.

These two camellia species have several subspecies, which have several of their own subspecies and so on, but the basis is camellia sinensis.

It follows that only what has come from Camellia can be called tea. This should be remembered forever.

Hibiscus - is not tea

Ivan tea - is not tea

Osmanthus - is not tea

Da Hong Pao - is the tea.

However, there are nuances here too.

Assam tea (Camellia sinensis var. Assamic) mainly grows in the Assam region of India. This is a powerful evergreen tree reaching a height of 15-20 meters. However, on plantations, trees are not allowed to grow to such heights. The leaves of Assam tea are larger but slightly less dense than those of Chinese camellia. The best Indian teas are made from Assam raw materials.

Pu'er trees. From a biological point of view, Pu'er trees are a Chinese variety of tea, but in terms of characteristics, Pu'er plants are in a somewhat borderline state - they are not quite shrubs, but they have dense and juicy leaves.

Plants from which raw materials are collected to make Pu'er ("Pu'er trees") reach a height of several meters. They grow longer than tea bushes, and the oldest Pu'er trees are several hundred years old. There is a tree estimated to be around 2400 years old.

Tea classification

In Europe and the United States, tea classification is very simple. If the leaf has a light color - it is green, and if the leaf is dark - it is black tea. Only recently have "Oolong" and "Pu'er" appeared in stores.

Why such a classification? Europeans did not want to complicate their lives with any classifications, their task was to subdue China and reduce tea prices. We will talk about this in more detail in our other blog about the history of tea, and now let's return to the classification.

In China, tea is classified according to the degree of fermentation and the color of the infusion. Thus, it is divided into 7 main groups:

1. Liu Cha - Green tea.
2. Bai Cha - White tea.
3. Huan Cha - Yellow tea.
4. Oolong.
5. Hong Cha - Red tea.
6. Hei Cha - Dark tea.
7. Pu'er.

Fermentation, or enzymatic oxidation - a similar process occurs when we cut an apple and over time it turns brown.

When cutting an apple, we break the integrity of the cells, causing the release of juice. The substances in the juice interact with oxygen and initiate an oxidation-reduction reaction. Reaction products appear that were not there before.

The same thing happens with tea leaves from the moment they are plucked from the bush. Then they are subjected to crushing, and this process is intensified and accelerated.

The fermentation process of tea is stopped by drying it at high temperatures.