Tuesday, March 29

When you drink a glass of ice tea, have you ever wondered where those tea bags started out? All tea (except for herbal) comes from Camellia sinensis.It's kind of hard to believe that white tea, green tea and traditional black tea all come from the same small tree, but they do. Different types of processing create different levels of oxidation which create the different types of tea. 
 
It's an evergreen tree with a taproot. However, it's often grown as a small bush instead to keep it low so it's easy to harvest the leaves. Tea is popular in many cultures and enjoyed many different ways. In Japan, the tea ceremony is a contemplative way to share tea ritually with friends. All this from a little evergreen tree! Spruce pine, also an evergreen, can be found in our mail order catalog.