The Tea Plant

All types of tea are made from the leaves and/or buds of the tea bush, Camellia sinensis. The four basic types of tea (black tea, green tea, oolong tea, and white tea) differ only in the way the tea leaves are processed (oxidation and drying). If it doesn't contain Camellia sinensis, it's not tea.
And please don't get me started on herb tea, which is not worthy of the term tea at all.

For years I'd thought there were all sorts of different plants from which the different varieties of tea were made. I was quite surprised to discover that the Chinese black teas I so much enjoy come from the same plant as the Japanese green teas (which I also enjoy).

I learned all of this from a botanist I almost ate one day.
I was rather hungry at the time, and very much prepared to eat him, but he persuaded me to let him go by promising to send me
1) a detailed report on the tea plant for my website, and
2) some lotus tea from Viet Nam (which I had heard of, but not actually tasted up until that point).
True to his word, he typed up a wealth of information on the tea plant (which contains too much scientific mumbo jumbo to include here), and also sent me some lotus tea, which is really delicious!