Tagged: camellia sinensis

The Spy Sent to Steal a Secret He Had Already Proven

In 1848 the East India Company sent a disguised botanist into the same Wuyi cliffs this site calls home, hoping to break China's grip on tea. He had already spent years proving green tea and black tea come from one plant; what Wuyi's closed factories still held was the plants and the method, and he shipped cuttings toward the Himalayan gardens meant to rival Wuyi itself, though the plant behind India's biggest tea region was never his to take.

Why one plant makes green, oolong, and black tea

Green, oolong, and black tea are the same leaf from Camellia sinensis. What separates them is processing, above all how much enzymatic oxidation the maker allows before heat arrests it.

What Is Oolong Tea

Oolong is partly oxidized Camellia sinensis, made to a chosen point between green and black. This is the canonical account of what it is, how it is made, the major style families, how it tastes across the spectrum, and why it is brewed gongfu.