tea for how you are feeling?

Why not pick a tea to suit your mood using our 'mood-o-matic teafinder'

submit

"Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea."
Henry Fielding

home / about tea / getting to know tea / tea types /

Tea Types

As they all come from the same tea bush, Camellia sinensis, the difference comes down to how they’re treated.
 
White tea
 
 
Considered by some as the purest of tea. The leaf is picked in the spring, and the early morning shoots are plucked and left to dry in the fresh air.
 
Green tea
 
 
The leaf is plucked from the bush and then either roasted (in something resembling a giant wok) or steamed like your veggies (in a big cylinder.) The leaf is then dried, sealing in the greenness of the leaf. Steamed green teas tend to have a more delicate taste than the roasted version.
 
Oolong tea (blue)
 
 
The leaf is plucked from the bush and allowed to wither. It’s then twisted and allowed to part-ferment, that is it’s allowed to turn slightly from green to brown but not all the way. Then it’s dried in a giant oven. Oolong or blue tea is said to be between green and black – having the flavour of a green tea (and some) and some of the strength of a black tea
 
Black tea
 
 
Black tea is plucked from the bush. Withered in the open air, when the leaf becomes soft. Twisted and then fermented. The fermentation is the most important and skilled stage, this is when the leaf oxidizes. Finally the leaf is cooked in a giant oven to seal in the flavour.
 

Find out more about Herbals

  
 plucking   steaming / roasting   withering    rolling   semi-fermenting  fermenting   drying
 
 
tea shopping basket
  • 0 product
  • total:£0.00

  • FREE POSTAGE if you spend over £25 (UK only). CLICK HERE for other rates