Discover tea
“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground
Tea is one of the most well known (and loved) beverages, produced by steeping in freshly boiled water the young leaves and leaf buds of the tea plant, Camellia
sinensis. Two principal varieties are used, the small-leaved China plant (C. sinensis sinensis) and the large-leaved
Assam plant (C. sinensis assamica). According to legend tea has been known in China since about 2700 BCE. For millennia it was a medicinal beverage obtained
by boiling fresh leaves in water, but around the 3rd century CE it became a daily drink, and tea cultivation and
processing began.
The most important classification is by the manufacturing process, resulting in the three categories of:
Flavours are created by adding dried flower petals (like rose and cornflower) to the tea leaves.