If you sit down with a rabid tea-aholic, you will quickly learn that the only real tea is the traditional black or green tea made from leaves of the plant Camellia sinensis. All herbal teas are more properly called tisanes or infusions. But as the popularity of herbal teas skyrockets, the word tea has come to mean any drink made by steeping plant parts in water.
There are three main types of teas. Traditional tea is made from Camellia sinensis and comes in many varieties, depending on the region in which the tea was grown, as well as three classifications, depending on the level of fermentation. Herbal tea contains no traditional tea but is made from one or a blend of more than one other plant — like chamomile. Flavored teas fall between these two categories. They are usually part black tea and part other plants or flavorings. Earl Grey is black tea flavored with the oil of bergamot.
Grown in tropical regions on shady, rainy hillsides, the plant Camellia sinensis was first cultivated in China; cultivation then spread throughout the Far East and India. The different varieties of traditional tea, such as Darjeeling, Ceylon, Chinese, and so on, are named for the geographic region each is grown in. The climate and growing conditions produce the differences in taste that are hallmarks of each variety.
Also a factor in the quality of tea is what part of the plant is harvested. The youngest, tender topmost leaves are picked by hand and cost the most. As the older leaves are plucked, medium- and coarse-grade teas are produced. Machine-harvested leaves may bear the initials CTC, meaning “cut — torn — crushed.”
Tea leaves are further classified as green, black, or oolong, depending on whether they have been fermented. Fermenting occurs when wilted, rolled tea leaves are spread out in a cool humid room to “ripen,” or acquire a softer taste and deeper color. They are monitored for several hours for the proper flavor and color; the fermentation is then stopped by firing them in 120°F dryers. Unfermented tea is green tea; partially fermented tea is oolong; black tea is fully fermented. The more fermented the tea leaves, the more caffeine they will contain. Green tea, therefore, has about one-third the concentration of caffeine that black tea has, while oolong has about half. And a cup of black tea, as a comparison, has slightly more than half as much caffeine as a cup of coffee.
Recently, much has been written about the health benefits of tea. Medical research conducted in China and the United States is showing that the polyphenols in green tea act as antioxidants and reduce the incidence of skin, lung, stomach, and liver cancers. Polyphenols are one of the chemical constituents found in tea. (The other two principal chemical constituents are caffeine and essential oils.) Polyphenols create the tea’s pungency and flavor through the oxidation process that occurs during fermentation. Since green tea is not fermented, its polyphenols are kept intact in the leaf; green tea, therefore, has the least color and flavor of the teas, but the most medical benefits. Further studies are being conducted along these lines. Other tea constituents that may contribute to health benefits are vitamin C (which is found in significant quantities in green tea only); naturally occurring fluoride, to battle cavities; and essential oils and polyphenols, which aid digestion by stimulating digestive enzymes and peristalsis (the contractions of the intestines that move food along).
So after examining all the benefits of traditional tea, maybe instead of throwing out the tea bags in the pantry, we should place our herbal blends next to the traditional tea bags! We can also add herbs to traditional tea to make flavorful blends.