The Tasting Panel

Fordham's unofficial fan club for all things tea. Because tea is more than a science, it is an art.

What exactly is tea?

We speak of tea, largely colloquially, as a beverage made by infusing something in water. Anyone who knows a thing or two about tea will tell you that the way we use the word "tea" in daily life is mostly incorrect. All tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, and anything else is correctly referred to as a tisane or herbal infusion, though some people will call it "herbal tea."

What kinds of teas are there?

All tea is a result of raw material that has undergone some kind of processing technique to turn it into a final product. The following processing types exist canonically.

White tea

Green tea

Oolong

Black tea

Yellow tea

Dark tea

Puerh