Tagged: camellia sinensis

The Plant the Company's Own Scientists Called Savage

When the East India Company sent three scientists to certify the wild Assam plant as real tea, two of them said no. One called it savage and demanded Chinese seed instead. The plant he doubted is what grows in Assam's gardens today.

Assam Grew the Purple Tea Everyone Else Is Selling

Kenya built a global purple tea business on a clone traced back to Assam tea plants exported early last century. Assam itself still has no commercial purple tea plant, only wild finds in Karbi Anglong and a germplasm bank holding the chemistry that could change that.

The Assamica Plant

The complete reference on Camellia sinensis var. assamica, the large-leaf tea plant every cup certified by this office is made from. What it is, where it grows wild, the naming dispute that took taxonomists a century to settle, and how its chemistry builds the strong cup.