Category:Tea
From Mystic Tea Room
In this installment of "From the Land of Tea," we take a look at a web page that was funded by my Patreon supporters, who had access to it one full year before the public.
- Patreon Release Date: December 28th, 2024.
- Public Release Date: December 28th, 2025
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All About Tea
Greetings, Fellow Tasseomancers!
Without tea, there would be no tea company booklets, no tea leaf reading, no culture of tea rooms, and no beautiful fortune telling cups. Tea has influenced our lives in many ways.
"It's a Camellia, Mom!"
Tea is a beverage made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant in the family Theaceae. The name Camellia sinensis simply means "Chinese Camellia." Yes, this is the same Camellia genus that contains our shrubby, fully flowered ornamental Camellia bushes and trees. (And that means that if we experience a second Carrington Event class world-wide power outage, you can brew tea from your garden Camellias while you wait for the internet to come back online!)
Originally native to East Asia, South Asia, and South East Asia, Camellias are evergreens that tend to begin life as shrubs and grow into the status of trees if left unpruned. Both Tea plants and ornamental Camellias are usually kept to a height of 5 or 6 feet, but will easily grow to 10 feet or, in the case of some ornamental Camellias, to 60 feet or more. There are two major sub-species of tea Camellias -- C. sinensis var. sinensis and C. sinensis var. assamica The ornamental species C. japonica, C. sasanqua and their 26,000 named hybrids and cultivars are our flowering Camellias, and C. oleifera produces tea seed oil for cooking and cosmetics. Ornamental Camellia flowers vary in colour from white through pink to red; tea Camellias only have white flowers.
When harvesting tea, the tip buds and the first two to three leaves on each stem are picked for processing. This work is done by hand, by workers known as tea pluckers. Plucking proceeds at weekly or bi-weekly intervals throughout the growing season.
Varieties of Tea
All products marketed as cha, white tea, yellow tea, green tea, red tea, black tea, oolong tea, pu-erh tea, orange pekoe tea, kukicha tea, matcha tea, and gunpowder tea are made from Camellia sinsesis -- but their finished appearance, aroma, taste, and the colour of their brewed liquids differs due to modifications in how they are processed. Quick drying, controlled oxidation, fermentation, smoking, or bruising of the leaves all develop distinctly different nuances of flavour and fragrance, with varying levels of caffeine content.
In addition to the variety grown and how it is processed, tea is also graded by the leaf size -- such as whole leaf, broken leaf, fannings, and dust. The size of the leaf does not guarantee the quality of the brew or its flavour, but it does affect the look of the tea leaves in the cup when it comes time to read the tea leaves.
The Top Ten Types of Tea
Here are ten of the most popular varieties of tea:
White Tea is made by plucking immature or very young leaves and allowing them to wither slightly around the edges before they are dried. This tea is brewed quickly at a coolish temperature so as to retain the flavour and aroma of the delicate "baby leaves."
Green Tea is made from mature leaves heated shortly after picking, retaining a high level of antioxidants. Any variety can be processed as a Green Tea. Some well-known types are Gunpowder Green Tea, Green Jasmine Tea, and Japanese Sencha, Matcha (Powdered Tea), and Bancha (Coarse Tea).
Oolong Tea is made from mature leaves that are left to sit and wither in the sun for several hours after picking, which allows some oxidation to occur. The half-oxidized leaves are then hand curled, twisted, bruised, and dried. When brewed, they unfold to their original shape.
Osmanthis Oolong Tea consists of a half-oxidized Oolong Tea, mid-way between Green Tea and Black Tea, mixed with dried flowers of the Osmanthus fragrans plant, a sweetly aromatic member of the Olive family. Osmanthus Oolong Tea is steeped lightly to preserve its peachy fragrance.
Black Tea, which has gone through full oxidation, is found in varieties such as Ceylon, Assam, China Black, Orange Pekoe, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, and Spiced Chai. It is most popular as a plain tea, but its strong flavour permits the addition of spices and citrus rind.
Lapsang Souchong, also called Labsang Tuchou or Zhengshan Xiaozhong, is a Black Tea that originated in Fujien Province, China. The leaves are smoked over a Pine wood fire -- either as cold smoked raw leaves or as hot-smoked oxidized leaves -- to produce a unique resinous flavour.
Darjeeling Tea is grown only in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of India, and consists of only the bud and the first two leaves of each stem. Darjeeling leaves are traditionally processed as Black Tea, although some Darjeeling growers also produce White, Green, and Oolong Teas.
Pu-erh, also known as Bo Nay or Po Nay Tea, is traditionally grown in Yunnan Provence, China. After picking, it is dried, rolled, put through a microbial fermentation process, pan-fried to stop the fermentation, and then dried, which gives it a soft, rich flavour and a reddish hue when brewed.
Kukicha, also known as Kuki Cha, Bōcha Tea, or Twig Tea, is a traditional Japanese blend that is made only from the stems, stalks, and twigs of the tea plant. It is most often found in the form of a non-oxidized Green Tea, but it can also be processed as an oxidized Black Tea.
Herbal Teas or Tisanes are brewed from leaves, fruits, roots, flowers, and spices in both single-species selections and multi-species blends, caffeinated or caffeine-free. Popular choices include Chamomile, Mint, Linden, Lemon Grass, Chicory, Rooibos, Osmanthus, Citrus, Hibiscus, and Rose.
Special Tea Blends for Fortune Tellers
Every tea leaf reader known that the reading must start with a good choice of loose-leaf tea, but one secret that professional tea leaf readers have kept to themselves for decades is that they often make their own special blends of tea to facilitate cup reading. This is not done to enhance flavour or aroma so much as it is to bring out shapes. The selected blend provides leaves of varied sizes, textures, and colours, which means that more images will be formed in the cup.
I only know of two companies that have manufactured and distributed special blends of tea designed for cup-reading. The earliest was the Ming-Cha Company of New York, which came out with Tell Your Fortune Tea during the 1930s. The most recent is aromaG's Botanica, which introduced Fortune Telling Tea by aromaG's in the 2020s.
Ming Cha's Tell Your Fortune Tea was sold by Stephen Leeman Products of New York City, New York, and was accompanied by a miniature booklet written by Marcia Benevente that described how to read tea leaves and also contained a short dictionary of tea reading omens and symbols.
AromaG's Botanica of Nashville, Tennessee, describes Fortune Telling Tea by aromaG's as a "mystical blend created just for the art of tasseography ... a perfectly balanced blend of black teas and puerh that is designed for tea leaf reading [because] the variety of leaf helps create a wide range of shapes in your cup." The maker of this tea is Gregory Lee White, my co-author of "The Stranger in the Cup," a book about tea leaf reading which supports the upkeep of this site.
You can read more about “Fortune Telling Tea by AromaG’s” at AromaGregory.com/fortune-telling-tea
Create Your Own Mixture
Take some time to experiment with the the tastes, aromas, and tea-leaf reading properties of individual varieties of teas and tisanes. Select your favourites, and, starting with small batches, blend different teas and tisanes together to create your own one-of-a-kind brew. Keep a record of your work, and photograph the cup readings that result from changes in your blend, noting the shapes, sizes, and textures in your cup. Experiment until you find the blend that best suits your taste and personality.
Thanks to my husband nagasiva yronwode for helping with scans and cleanup. I couldn't have done it without you, dear.
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room
