It all begins with the tea plant and the chemistry of its leaves — the material basis of flavour.
In this chapter
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The Botany of the Tea Plant
Every tea — green, white, yellow, oolong, black, dark — comes from one plant — the evergreen woody Camellia sinensis of the Theaceae family. Meet the plant itself: its form, flowers, and the two varieties that decide everything.
The Flavour Chemistry of the Fresh Leaf
A single leaf holds two opposite kinds of substance — polyphenols that make tea astringent and bitter, and theanine that makes it fresh and sweet. Know these molecules, and how shading quietly rewrites their balance, and you hold the key to tea's taste.
Planned
- A map of tea cultivars and notable clones
- A deeper look at the key taste and aroma compounds