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What Tea is or What it is Not

And it gets worse. Most consumers don’t even know what tea is, or what it is
not.

So, for anyone who doesn’t know, there are six categories of tea, all coming
from the Camellia sinensis plant: white, yellow, green, oolong, black and dark
or fermented. Same bush, different processing methods. And following on
from that, camomile, peppermint rooibos etc. are not tea, we call them

botanicals.

Quality Starts at the Tea Plantation

Tea should be handpicked with only the bud & top two leaves
David Pogson, MD of Northern Tea
collected.
Merchants said “By preparing good teas
In India it is recognised that women from the south are the very best and adding value as an operator of a
tea pickers. They will move around India moving to Sri Lanka for six to coffee shop, hotel or similar catering
eight months of the year. establishment you can serve your
customers a choice of many different
Several criteria should be considered when choosing leaf tea and
teas from around the World”.
these include.
Great tea comes from a well-established tea plantation
He continued, “The marketing and sales
Ensure the plantation has a robust and contented growing system
of leaf tea out of home is different to
and
the ‘builders’ tea you might drink at
That rolling and withering is not rushed and
home. Therefore, research is important
The tea pickers wages are fair.
and ensure supplier has a very good MARCH/APRIL 2023 | ISSUE 29
Therefore, it is important to work with a tea business that has good understanding of leaf tea and how to

working relationships with plantations. prepare it”.

www.beveragestandardsassociation.co.uk