Thousands of Types of Tea

Many people do not know that for the most part, tea comes from one plant. The plant is called Camellia Sinensis. It’s incredibly that one plant alone can give us thousands of different kinds of teas. The distinct flavors that come from this plant to create different teas depends on many things such as the soil, the weather conditions, and geographic location. It also depends on the way the plants are blended and processed.

While there are thousands of types of teas, they generally fall under three main categories. These categories are black tea, green tea, and oolong tea. Two less common categories are White and Pueth teas. All of these type of teas have their own unique qualities that come from the different processing methods that are used to make them.

Black tea accounts for almost 70 percent of tea consumption in the world. Black teas process involves oxidation for several hours. Some varieties of black tea include English Breakfast, Assam, Darjeeling, and Irish Breakfast.

Oolong tea is the least popular of the main tea categories with less than 3 percent of tea consumption in the world. Oolong teas are partially fermented leaving it with a delicate taste. The caffeine content is much less than that found in black teas but more than what is found in green tea.

Green tea is not fermented at all leaving a leafiness to the quality of the tea. Freshly harvested leaves are rolled and heated without oxidation. Green Tea has a much lighter taste than most other teas, and is well known for it’s health benefits.

White tea is the most delicate of all teas and has its own natural sweetness. White tea is made from young shoots without any kind of oxidation.