Commercial Tea

Commercial tea is harvested from two different tea plants, both in the Camellia family. Camellia sinensis originated in China over 5,000 years ago. Thriving in high altitudes and cool climates, this variety of tea produces small leaves whose essence is floral and refined. From these leaves most green teas are made along with some of the black teas.

Camellia assamica is the other variety of tea harvested for making commercial tea. These plants have larger leaves and a higher yield than the Camellia sinensis and are generally found growing in Sri Lanka and India. The tea produced from these leaves has a simple, robust flavor, which is frequently earthy with a hint of malt. Assam and Ceylon teas both come from the Camellia assamica plant.

Even though the highest quality tea is plucked from the Camellia sinensis plant, generally the leaf buds and very young tealeaves from either plant will yield a fine cup of tea. There are some teas like the smoked teas, however, that can only be made from more mature tealeaves. A good quality tea must also be processed correctly whether it is white tea which requires no processing, green tea which requires minimal processing, oolong tea which requires some oxidation or black tea which goes through the complete oxidation cycle.

With the many different options available during the plucking process coupled with the many different options available during the fermentation process, there are dozens of styles of tea available to the tea lover today. While the first tea shrub was grown in China as a medicinal plant in the fourth century, today India produces more tea for commercial use than any other country.