Tea, Camellia sinensis, is an evergreen plant that grows mainly in tropical or subtropical climates. It is part of the Theaceae family. One or two varieties can also tolerate marine climates and are cultivated as far north as Pembrokeshire on the British mainland and Washington in the United States.

Interestingly, the name Camellia is taken from the Latinized name of Rev. Georg Kamel,(1661–1706), a Czech-born Jesuit lay brother, pharmacist, and missionary to the Philippines. Carl Linnaeus chose the name in 1753 for the genus to honor Kamel’s contributions to botany, although in actual fact, Kamel did not discover or name this plant, or any Camellia, and Linnaeus did not consider this plant a Camellia but a Thea. Robert Sweet later changed all formerly Thea species to the Camellia genus in 1818. The name sinensis means Chinese in Latin.

Tea plants are propagated from seed and cutting; it takes about 4 to 12 years. Tea plants require a zone 8 climate or warmer (meaning it can tolerate temperatures as low as (-12º to -9.4º C (10-15º F), tea plants require at least 127 cm (50 inches) of rainfall a year and prefer an acidic soil to grow in. Tea plants prefer a rich and moist soil to grow in, in full to part sun. Tea is commercially cultivated from the equator to as far north as the UK mainland. Many high quality teas are grown at high elevations, up to 1500 meters (5,000 ft) or more above sea level, as the plants grow more slowly and acquire more flavour. At such rarified heights, the plants grow more slowly and acquire a significantly better flavour. A tea plant will grow into a trree of up to 16 m (52 ft) if left undisturbed, but cultivated plants are generally pruned to waist height so that they can be picked more easily.

Only the top 1–2 inches (2.54-5.08 cm) of the mature plant are picked. These buds and leaves are called flushes. A plant will grow a new flush every seven to fifteen days during the growing season. Leaves that are slow in development tend to produce better-flavoured teas. Tea’s main pests include mosquitos bugs that tear and tatter the leaves, so they are sprayed with insecticides if there is any danger of this happening.

Just like wine, the provenance of the plant (soil, climate and altitude) radically affects its flavour, the processing or blending of it tends to affect its characteristics. There are some 1500 different varieties of tea on the market today from 36 countries, so we are spoilt for choice.

Tea is grown on estates or small holdings. A small holding may be as small as 0.5 hectares, in which case several smallholders get together and send their tea to a factory en masse. An estate is a much larger enterprise, with its own factory.

Today tea is grown from cuttings or clones in special nurseries, and, when ready to be planted out, is done so 1.5 m apart with a meter distance between each row. In higher altitudes the tea is planted to follow the contours of the mountainside to avoid soil erosion.

The bushes are picked every 7-14 days.
The two factors governing how long the bush is left to regrow are climate and altitude. A tea plant grown at sea level will recover far more quickly than one grown at altitude.

The plucked leaves are placed in a basket on each picker’s back. When full, they are taken to a collection point or straight to the factory, if close by, for weighing before it is processed or ‘made’ as it is known in the trade. On an estate, each plucker is credited with their own weights of tea for subsequent payment. A skilled plucker can gather between 30-35 k of plucked leaf in a day, sufficient to produce about 7.5 to 9 kg of processed black tea.

Two principal varieties of tea are used: Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, which is used in most Chinese, Formosan and Japanese teas, and Camellia sinensis var. Assamica, used in Pu-erh and most Indian teas, with the exception of Darjeeling. Within these two botanical varietials, there are many strains and modern cloned varieties. Leaf size is the chief criterion for the classification of tea plants, with three primary classifications as follows:

• Assam type, characterised by the largest leaves
• China type, characterised by the smallest leaves
• Cambod, characterised by leaves of intermediate size.

There are three main kinds of tea produced in India:

Assam tea comes from the northeastern section of the country. This heavily forested region is home to much wildlife, including the Indian rhinoceros. Tea from here is rich and full-bodied. It was in Assam that the first tea estate was established, in 1837.

The region from which Darjeeling comes is cool and wet, and tucked in the foothills of the Himalayas. The tea is delicately flavored, and considered to be one of the finest teas in the world. The Darjeeling plantations have 3 distinct harvests, termed ‘flushes’, and the tea produced from each flush has a unique flavor. First (spring) flush teas are light and aromatic, while the second (summer) flush produces tea with a bit more oomph. The third, or autumn flush gives a tea that is not so fine in quality.

Nilgiri tea comes from an even higher part of India than Darjeeling. This southern Indian region has elevations between 1,000 and 2,500 metres. The flavors of Nilgiri teas are subtle and very gentle. They are frequently blended with other, more robust teas to give them a rounder, mellower flavour.

Where tea is concerned, you should follow a couple of simple rules:

The smaller the leaf, the more expensive the tea.

Teas can generally be divided into categories based on how they are processed.

There are at least six different types of tea: white, yellow, green, oolong, black (known as red tea in China) and post-fermented tea (or black tea in China) of which the most commonly found on the market are white, green, oolong, and black. Some varieties, such as traditional oolong tea and Pu-erh tea, a post-fermented tea, can be used medicinally, as well as just drunk for pleasure.

Although single estate teas are now readily available, almost all popular teas are available in tea bags and most other teas sold in the West are now blends. Blending may occur in the tea-planting area (as in the case of Assam), or teas from multiple areas may be blended together elsewhere. The aim of blending is to obtain better taste, higher price, or both, as a more expensive, better-tasting tea may cover the inferior taste of cheaper varieties. Some commercial teas have been enhanced through additives or special processing. Tea easily retains odors; this can cause problems in processing, transportation, and storage, but also allows for the design of an almost endless range of scented and flavoured variants, such as bergamot (Earl Grey).