Tea Education

The Connoiseur’s Tea.   Like white, green, and black teas, oolong is a product of the Camellia sinensis plant and is prized among tea connoisseurs for the difficulty of creating the tea. In the oxidation spectrum, oolong teas are more oxidized than green but less so than black teas.  Essentially, oolong undergoes a very controlled oxidation where tea processors must...

Tea Of The Empire Black tea was developed in the 1500’s as a method of extending the shelf life of tea. Black tea’s predecessors, green and white tea, were not suited to withstand the long journey from China, and later India, to European nations.  In China, black tea is often referred to as “red” tea for the amber color of...

White, Green, oolong, and black tea all come from the same plant (camellia sinensis) but are differentiated by the level of oxidation they undergo.   What is oxidation? In layman's terms, oxidation is a chemical reaction involving oxygen1.  In tea and food, this reaction results not only in a physical browning of the substance (like the banana peel above) but...