Types of tea
White tea, green tea, red tea, black tea, hot tea, cold tea, herbal tea, infusions, tissanes, blooming tea, flowering tea, brick tea, tie kuan yin, assam, there are a lot of teas out there! What does it all mean??
Let's start with the basics: "Tea" in the traditional sense, comes from only one family of plant -Camellia Sinensis. In the US, we use "tea" to also describe any herbal infusion of basically leaf or flower or fruit that you can put in hot water and steep. However, in the rest of the world, "tea" means only our good friend, Camellia Sinensis.
Once the leaf is plucked, it can then become many different things. Primarily, we sort into different types of processing: White tea (the least processed) to black tea (the most.)
White Tea
So called because of its very light color in the cup, white tea is air dried and fired (or fixed) at a low temperature. True white teas are long-leafed, often including just the buds or "tips" of the tea plant. These are the buds of the plant. (Those dust tea bags which call themselves "white tea" are usually the dust from the processing of the higher quality teas.)
Green Tea
Green teas are steamed or "roasted" or "fried" after they are plucked. In Japan, tea is steamed (yes, just like in a steam bath) when it comes into the tea factory. There it is lightly rolled and then fired. This gives them a very light green color and a light flavor. In China, most green tea is pan roasted instead of steaming. For this reason, Chinese green teas are less green in leaf color and in the cup, than Japanese teas. Because green teas are processed less than black teas, the "fermentation" process is less complete, they tend to have less caffeine.
Black Tea
The most complex of the tea processes, black tea begins with the fresh leaf being withered. It is dried for up to 8 hours on a bed of forced,
blown air. This literally speeds withering, removing just enough of the moisture to allow the leaf to be rolled without it breaking. After withering, the tea is rolled on rolling tables that curl the leaf and speed the "fermentation" process. After rolling, the alkaloids and flavenoids (and therefore caffeine and anti-oxidants) are rushing through the leaves. The tea is spread out in slightly humid "fermentation rooms" while the flavor increases. The "tea makers art" is to judge the fermentation time correctly so the tea can be fired at its most flavorful moment. Firing is done at the end of the process to stop the fermentation and "fix" the tea.
