For many of us, tea is a word that can be tossed around rather loosely, in the sense that it can be used to describe a wide variety of leafy plant matter that’s typically prepared by steeping it in hot water. In the strictest sense of the word, however, as any self-respecting nitpicker will be glad to point out, tea should only be used to designate a specific kind of leafy-type plant matter, of the sort that is derived from the Camellia sinensis plant.

This can cover quite a bit of territory, since there may be thousands of different varieties of tea. If we include all of the cousins to “real” tea then the playing field expands considerably.

One tea-related beverage that has gotten a fair amount of press lately is kombucha, a beverage brewed using a mushroom-like chunk of yeast and often mixed with actual tea. While bottled kombucha is becoming more popular these days, at least one major tea maker – Honest Tea – has suggested that they might be getting out of this business before long. More on the reasons for their decision here.

Guayusa has been getting some notice lately in this part of the world. It’s an herbal beverage that hails from South America and which is not unlike yerba mate, its much more popular cousin. More about guayusa in this article.

Here’s some information on an interesting twist on green tea. GreenTea Hawaii is combining it with a Hawaiian fruit known as the noni. More on this unusual blend in this article from their local press.

If you’ve ever been unable to decide between coffee and tea (no problem here) you might want to give cascara a try. It’s a tea-like beverage that’s made from the “cherries” that surround the actual coffee bean and which might otherwise be discarded during processing.

Make sure to stop by William’s blog, Tea Guy Speaks!

[Editor’s note: Our blog is chock full of great articles on this topic. Use our search feature to find them!]

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