By Perry Luckett, TeaManToo

All classic tea varieties devolve from one plant: Camellia sinensis. The Camellia genus has about 200 species, but only the sinensis is used to produce tea. That fact is why “true tea” differs from herbals or tisanes, which don’t come from Camellia sinensis. The latter may taste great but aren’t truly tea. [EH] Similarly, two plants native to North America produce a kind of tea when brewed but aren’t considered to be tea by classic standards. (I’ll write about them in a later blog post.)

Camellia sinensis tea plant covers three main varieties: sinensis, assamica, and combodiensis

Growers of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis from China typically use it to make green and white teas, but tea gardens in India also produce fine black and oolong teas from this variety. The Camellia sinensis var. assamica strain is native to the Assam region in India. It usually yields black tea, as well as pu'erh tea in Yunnan province, China. Ancient tea trees in Yunnan are also of the Assamica variety. [Wiki2]

Note: Oxidation (exposing rolled tea leaves to the air) determines whether a tea plant will become white, green, oolong, or black tea. Oxidation begins after the leaf has been plucked from the plant and begins a process of being dried, withered, rolled, and heat treated. For green tea, the tea leaves are harvested and then quickly heated—by pan firing or steaming—and dried. This heating keeps too much oxidation from occurring, which would turn the green leaves brown and alter their fresh-picked flavor.

The third variety is Camellia sinensis var. cambodiensis, often called the "Java bush." Tea producers sometimes crossbreed it to achieve certain traits in other plants but typically don’t use it in commercial tea production. You may run across a tea retailer selling “Java teas,” but they usually mean grown on the island of Java, not harvested from var. Cambodiensis. Because we’re focused here on plants that directly give us delightful teas, I won’t talk further about the Java bush.

The sinensis tea variety covers commonly known tea names

The Camellia sinensis var. sinensis (as it’s officially called) is native to China’s Yunnan province (“sinensis” means “from China”). Wild plants can grow to a height of 20 feet, but when tea farmers use this variety to create other tea plants for production, they trim them to resemble the tea bushes with which you may be more familiar. But you can find a lot of these plants in the wild in China. Some have tiny leaves and are two feet tall, such as in the Lapsang growing area. Others have large leaves, such as those found in the Fenghuang area, and grow so high that workers need ladders to harvest them. [EH]

Var. sinensis is a sturdy plant that has greater resistance to cold and drought than other varieties. It has small, dark leaves that are light in body. It’s one of the most widely used plants in tea production worldwide. [EH] This variety thrives in cool, high altitudes, such as the mountain slopes of northeastern India’s Darjeeling region or the Wuyishan mountains in Fujian, China, as well as in regions with harsher climate conditions.

Darjeeling is one of the world’s best known tea types.

Darjeeling tea originated in China but is now grown and processed mostly in the Darjeeling or Kalimpong District of West Bengal, India. In 1848, the British East India Company gave botanist Robert Fortune a mission: smuggle live tea bushes out of China against the emperor’s strict laws and plant them in the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal to start a new tea industry under British control. [MaxF]

At first, the plants didn’t flourish in Indian soil at 6,000 feet above sea level. But by the close of the 19th century, Darjeeling plantations were growing some of the best teas in the world. They reflected the region’s fruits and flowers, with a refined taste that set them apart from India’s lowland teas. Darjeeling quickly earned the nickname “Champagne of teas,” and its fame grew as the British relinquished their colony to native independence. [MaxF] The tea leaves are processed as black tea, though some estates have expanded their product offerings to include leaves suitable for making green, white and oolong teas.

Workers harvest Darjeeling tea leaves by plucking the plant's top two leaves and the bud, from March to November, which covers four “flushes”:

• The first flush consists of the first few leaves grown after the plant's winter dormancy and produce a light, floral, slightly astringent tea or sometimes a white tea.

• Second-flush leaves are harvested after leafhoppers and the camellia tortrix (a type of moth) have attacked the plants, which results in a tea with a muscatel aroma. Its flavor is distinctly sweet but with a unique musky spiciness that has been described as “dried raisins with a hay-like finish."

• The warm and wet weather of the third (monsoon) flush quickly produces leaves, but they’re less flavorful and often used for blending.

• The autumn flush produces teas like those of the second flush but with more subdued flavors. [Wiki1]

Sadly, Indian Darjeeling is suffering today because 150 years of rigid plantation agriculture has caused the soil to erode, become less fertile, and otherwise suffer from pollution and loss of carbon. Switching to organic growing methods can reclaim soils and meet consumer demand, but it’s expensive. The skilled work of overseeing an estate’s production, once a prestigious career for Indians raised in the colonial system, is losing its appeal, and decades of disputes with labor unions have cut harvests dramatically during strikes. [MaxF]

Luckily, Nepal’s tea community, which lies a few hours across the Indian border, is beginning a loose-leaf revolution. Growers are planting tea bushes in the same kind of steep, high-elevation fields that gave Darjeeling its unmatched reputation. Farmers and factory owners are developing remarkable styles of tea all their own at a much lower price, often with younger, more robust bushes growing in richer soil. [MaxF] These developments have great promise for discerning tea consumers.

China’s Wuyishan tea region covers at least ten tea varieties

Tea types in Wuyishan include popular Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe), Lapsang souchong, and Jin Jun Mei (Golden Beautiful Eyebrow). The latter comes from Tongmu Village—about 4,500 feet above sea level in the Wuyi Mountains. It’s one of the most sought after teas in the world because of its malty, honey finish, punctuated by the subtle fruity aroma of oranges.

The Wuyishan area has been one of the major centers of tea production in Fujian province and globally. Black tea (excluding brick tea) and oolong tea were likely invented in the Wuyi region, which continues to produce both styles today—usually in darker varieties. [WTA] Tea producers typically twist them into thin strips rather than curling them into a ball shape like Taiwan oolong teas. They’re roasted heavily and have a smoky flavor with notes of stone fruit. [Wiki3]

Wuyi teas are prized because of the distinctive soil and growing conditions of the mountainsides where they’re grown. Tea bushes in such terrain have a lower yield, so the resulting tea can be costly. Tea made from the leaves of older bushes is particularly expensive and limited in quantity. For example, Big Red Robe, collected from the original bushes of its variety, is among the most expensive teas in the world (more valuable by weight than gold). On the other hand, most Wuyi tea is commercial grade; it covers lower elevations in the area and is made from cuttings of the original plants. [Wiki3]

Assamica variety graces your teapot with a cozy malty flavor

Assam tea is a black tea named after the region of its production: Assam, India. Producers manufacture it specifically from the plant Camellia sinensis var. assamica. It’s native to Assam, grown mostly at or near sea level, and is known for its body, briskness, malty flavor, and strong, bright color. [Wiki4] Besides having larger leaves (usually), the assamica variety is less aromatic than sinensis and produces a liquor that is robust and dark when oxidized. [EH]

Though Assam typically represents distinctive black teas, the region produces smaller quantities of green and white teas as well, with their own characteristics. Historically, Assam has been the second-ranked region for commercial tea production—after southern China—and joins China as the only two regions in the world with native tea plants. [Wiki4]

The state of Assam is in a part of India that is perfectly suited to growing this type of tea. It experiences high rainfall during the monsoon period: as much as 10 to 12 inches per day. The daytime temperature rises to about 96.8 F, which creates greenhouse-like conditions of extreme humidity and heat. This tropical climate contributes to Assam's unique malty taste, for which it’s well known.

As an interesting side note, tea gardens in Assam don’t follow Indian Standard Time (IST), which is the time observed throughout India and Sri Lanka. The local time in Assam's tea gardens, known as "Tea Garden Time" or Sah Bagan Time, is an hour ahead of the IST. This system began under the British, who established it to take advantage of the daylight in this part of the country. As a result, tea garden workers have been more productive because they finish the work entirely during daytime without having to rise too early in the morning. Working time for tea laborers in the gardens is usually between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (4 p.m. IST), though it may vary slightly from garden to garden. [Wiki4]

History of Assam tea covers just 200 years for Westerners, many more in China

Robert Bruce, a Scottish adventurer, introduced Assam tea to Europe after encountering it in 1823. Bruce reportedly found the plant growing wild in Assam while trading in the region. He noticed local Singhpo people brewing tea from the bush’s leaves and arranged with local chiefs to provide him with samples of the leaves and seeds, which he planned to have scientifically examined. But he died shortly afterward, without having seen the plant properly classified.

In the early 1830s his brother Charles arranged for a few leaves from an Assam tea bush to be sent to the botanical gardens in Calcutta for proper examination. There, the plant was finally identified as a variety of tea, or Camellia sinensis var. assamica, but different from the Chinese version (Camellia sinensis var. sinensis). [Wiki4]

Of course, this discovery by Westerners took place long after it was known in the east. In fact, we now know it’s one of the oldest varieties, having been cultivated for centuries in Yunnan, China. Like the sinensis variety, if left in the wild, assamica grows quite tall, reportedly up to 98 feet, and can live for many centuries. But in tea plantations the plants’ productive life averages only 30 to 50 years because of soil degradation and overplanting. [EH]

Assam teas, or blends containing Assam, are often sold as "breakfast" teas. Assam, Irish, and Scottish breakfast teas—containing varying amounts of small-sized Assam tea leaves—are maltier and stronger than English breakfast tea. Because of Assam teas’ more robust flavors, many tea drinkers combine them with a cozy dollop of honey and a bit of milk, half-and-half, or cream. Coffee drinkers in particular often find Assam teas closer in character to coffee than those made from Camellia sinensis var. sinensis. So they cozy up first to Assam varieties before trying Darjeeling, Wuyi, or the even more distinct green teas touted by health advocates around the world.

Whichever tea variety you prefer, I’m sure you’d like to keep it hot and flavorful as long as possible, right? So drop by our website at www.koffeekompanions.com and check out our Tea Tabard™ teapot cozy, Kup Kap™ cup cover, and Kup Kollar™ (for takeout cups of tea or coffee). If you buy pints of ice cream and want a great way to enjoy their contents without a bowl, try our Kream Kollar™ ice cream pint cozy. We’ve been taking tea drinkers (and ice cream eaters) to their cozy places since 1996!

References

“Assam Tea,” Wikipedia, https://bit.ly/3gx6tRz, May 24, 2021.  [Wiki4]

“Darjeeling tea,” Wikipedia, https://bit.ly/3vwewSZ, May 1, 2021. [Wiki1]

“Camellia sinensis,” Wikipedia, https://bit.ly/3gvFFRG, June 14, 2021.  [Wiki2]

Max Falkowitz, “Don’t Call It Darjeeling, It’s Nepali Tea,” https://nyti.ms/3pYpaAM, May 28, 2019.  [MaxF]

Emeric Harney, Tea Bushes 101, https://bit.ly/3gyQmmk, March 11, 2021. [EH]
Wuyishan: The Tea Archive, https://bit.ly/3cNmXmc, November 2018. [WTA]

“Wuyi Tea,” https://bit.ly/3iLbsj9, May 29, 2021. [Wiki3]