Plant

Tea

Camellia sinensis

Also known as: Camellia sinensis

An evergreen shrub native to the borderlands of southwestern China, northern Myanmar, and northeastern India — the plant whose young leaves, processed by different oxidation methods, produce white, green, oolong, black, and pu-erh teas. The world's most-consumed manufactured beverage after water; cultural foundation of the tea ceremonies of China, Japan, and Korea, and of British, Russian, Turkish, Iranian, and Indian afternoon-tea cultures.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons — see source for license.

Scientific

Camellia sinensis has two principal varieties: sinensis (smaller-leaf, cold-tolerant, the classical Chinese tea plant) and assamica (larger-leaf, warmth-loving, native to Assam and southern China; the basis of most black tea production).

All “teas” — white, green, yellow, oolong, black, pu-erh, dark tea — come from the same plant; the differences emerge from oxidation, withering, rolling, and fermentation steps applied to picked leaves.

Cultural

Tea has been continuously cultivated and consumed in China for at least 2,000 years; the Tang-dynasty Classic of Tea (Lu Yu, 760 CE) is one of the world’s oldest agricultural and culinary treatises. From China the plant and the practice spread:

To Japan via Buddhist monks (8th–9th c.), eventually producing the chanoyu tea ceremony
To Korea (5th–8th c.) and Vietnam
To Tibet via the ancient tea-horse trade
To Russia via the Siberian caravan route (17th c.)
To Britain via Portuguese and Dutch trade (17th c.), eventually producing the British East India Company tea trade and its colonial-economic infrastructure

Global production

Top producers: China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Turkey. The Kenyan and Sri Lankan industries are 19th-century British plantation systems; Indian Assam and Darjeeling production is similarly colonial in origin. Chinese tea production remains the most varietally diverse — the country’s traditional tea-mountain regions still produce small-batch specialty teas with deep historical lineages.

Sources

FAO Crop Statistics
Wikipedia — Camellia sinensis

A plant entry in the 0mn1.one [[directory]].

What links here, and how

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Scientific

cousin of

Camellia auto-linked from body mention

substrate of

Yangtze Basin tea cultivation originated in the Yunnan-Sichuan region at the upper Yangtze and spread from there

Practical

produces

Cultural

shares approach with

Holly auto-linked from body mention
Kola nut auto-linked from body mention
Sugarcane British industrial-era kin — sugar made tea palatable for working-class British consumers, and 'tea with sugar' became the foundational caloric-and-stimulant pair of the industrial-revolution working diet.
Tea tree (Australian) auto-linked from body mention
Yerba mate auto-linked from body mention

General

shares approach with

Avocado auto-linked via shared tag: domesticated
Cabbage auto-linked via shared tag: china
Cotton auto-linked via shared tag: domesticated
Ginkgo auto-linked via shared tag: china
Grape auto-linked via shared tag: domesticated
Honeysuckle auto-linked via shared tag: asia
Hydrangea auto-linked via shared tag: asia
Kiwifruit auto-linked via shared tag: china
Lychee auto-linked via shared tag: china
Mulberry auto-linked via shared tag: china
Olive auto-linked via shared tag: domesticated
Raspberry auto-linked via shared tag: asia
Rose auto-linked via shared tag: china
Rubber tree auto-linked via shared tag: global-commodity
Sweet potato auto-linked via shared tag: domesticated

32 inbound links · 8 outbound

Scientific

Cultural

Global production

See also

Sources

What links here, and how