Tea, Camellia sinensis

Peppermint, chamomile and spice teas are popular, but ‘real’ tea is made exclusively from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis tea plant. Although the tea plant is actually a tree several meters high, only waist-high bushes can be seen on tea plantations. The plants are kept low by regularly harvesting the top tips of the shoots, which makes harvesting easier and prevents the plants from starting to flower.

How does our popular drink grow?

The tea plant is a perennial evergreen shrub or tree. Depending on the variety, it can grow up to fifteen meters high, although the plant usually reaches heights of five meters when growing naturally. If you take a closer look at the tea plant, you will see a reddish bark on its trunk at the beginning, which turns yellow over time. The leaf buds at the tips of the branches have silvery hairs, while the leaves later turn dark green and smooth. When the tea plant flowers, one to three white flowers appear in the leaf axils. As soon as these are pollinated, the fruits of the tea plant develop. These are 3 cm large, roundish, woody capsule fruits in which the camellia seeds ripen. ‘Camellias’ are the plant genus of evergreen trees and shrubs from the tea shrub family.

Cultivation at great heights

It is not yet sufficiently clear where the tea plant originally came from. The most likely regions of origin are in South East Asia or China, although no wild relative can be found in China. The cultivation and consumption of tea was first described in China. Brewed tea leaves were already being drunk 5,000 years ago. Today, the tea plant is cultivated in many countries around the world, mostly at high altitudes in the tropics and subtropics. Tea pickers still harvest leaf after leaf at an altitude of 2,200 meters. Particularly famous tea-growing regions are Assam (India), Darjeeling (India), Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and various areas in Japan.

High-quality tea is usually harvested by hand by women. The pickers selectively harvest the leaves and young shoots. However, there are also harvesting machines that ‘mow’ the top tips of the plants. The tea plants can either be harvested continuously or can be harvested during several time windows for harvesting throughout the year. First flush, for example, is harvested in spring; these teas are usually lighter in color and milder. Second flush is harvested in summer; these teas are stronger and darker.

What is the difference between green tea and black tea?

Tea is popular all over the world. Brewed with hot water, it is a stimulating drink. The quality of tea depends heavily on various factors. In addition to the growing region, altitude, soil conditions, climate and harvesting method, processing also plays a major role. Black tea, green tea, white tea and oolong; the leaves and buds of the tea plant always serve as the basis, only the further processing differs and shapes the various properties of the tea infusions. Black tea is harvested and spread out to wither. The leaves are then rolled so that the cell walls break open, which triggers oxidation with the oxygen in the air. In tea production, this stage is known as fermentation. The tea leaves are then dried with heat and sorted for storage. If the oxidation is temporarily stopped so that the tea is only semi-oxidised, the result is oolong tea with a yellowish color. Green tea, on the other hand, is treated with heat immediately after withering and rolling so that no oxidation takes place. This is why the green colour is so beautifully preserved. For white tea, on the other hand, one less step is necessary. The leaves are dried for storage immediately after withering.

Tea from the tea plant is said to have various health benefits. Tea contains many polyphenols, which are said to act as antioxidants. Like coffee, tea contains caffeine, which is not released quite as quickly in tea due to the polyphenols – this means that the caffeine has a slower and longer-lasting effect.

India’s tea crisis

Tea is a very cheap and popular drink all over the world these days. After water, it is probably the cheapest drink of all. However, growing tea is quite costly, especially as the plants require care all year round. Due to increasing competition on the global market and an oversupply of tea, many long-standing plantations are falling into economic crisis and having to close down.

India is famous for its tea. Tea from Darjeeling or Assam is popular worldwide, but only accounts for a small part of India’s tea production – the majority of Indian tea is marketed and consumed domestically. While India used to be the global market leader in the tea trade, it was overtaken by China as the largest exporter as early as 2004, and other nations such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Kenya have also established themselves on the market. Competition is therefore growing and at the same time Indian plants are getting older and losing quality as a result. Restoring the plantations is complex and expensive. Low quality and comparatively high production costs are even threatening the national market for Indian tea, as products from abroad are beginning to establish themselves here too. Another factor contributing to the decline in Indian tea is that it is not so suitable for tea bags. Despite these challenges, the demand for the tea continues to rise.

The oversupply on the global market, coupled with a declining quality of Indian tea, means that many Indian plantations can no longer survive. This is also due to the fact that smallholders (98 percent of Indian tea plantations are owned by smallholders with less than 10 hectares) have no say in the pricing. Much of the tea is sold at auctions, where brokers sell on behalf of the smallholders. They often cooperate with large buyers such as Tata Tea or Hindustan Lever Ltd. and deliberately keep prices low.

If plantations have to close, this does not ‘only’ mean the loss of work for the workers. The plantations are also a place of residence and education for the children, forming an entire social system. Indian tea cultivation therefore needs extensive reforms and restructuring in order to become globally competitive again. The tea industry, which is the largest private employer in the world’s most populous country, needs to reinvent itself. A key step for farmers is to supplement their tea cultivation with other arable crops and not rely exclusively on tea.

Sources

Oxfam: Black tea white vest
Zhang et al. (2023): Understanding the Origin and Evolution of Tea(Camellia sinensis [L.]): Genomic Advances in Tea. Link.
Shua et al. (2022): Recent techniques for the authentication of the geographical origin of tea leaves from camellia sinensis: A review. Link.
Xia et al. (2020): Tea plant genomics: achievements, challenges and perspectives. Link.
Shah, S. K. (2013): Prospects of Indian Tea Industry. In: International Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, 1 (1). P. 18-25.
Goddard, S. (2005): Tea break: a crisis brewing in India. ActionAid UK, London. 11 pp.