Chinese tea bush

When you read books that have been written in England or other parts of the U.K., especially Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novels you might read a passage where a host or hostess serving tea asks a guest if they want China or India.  What they mean by this  is do you want Chinese or Indian tea. 

This is because  true teas mostly come from two different  varieties of the tea plant and which one it comes from affects the taste of the tea.  Camellia sinensis var. sinensis,  is Chinese tea. Camellia sinensis var. assamica, is Indian tea.  The names are indicative of the variety of plant and where it originated rather than where it is currently grown.

The buds and leaves of both plants are harvested for tea, but the plants themselves are different. The Camellia sinensis var. sinensis is a many-stemmed bush with smallish leaves. It grows to about nine feet high. It is resistant to cold weather and can live for as long as 100 years.

Generally speaking, China tea has a brisker and lighter flavor than India tea, but variety of species is not the only factor affecting the flavor of tea. The climate of the area where the tea plant grows makes a significant difference in the taste. Darjeeling is a China tea grown in the lower levels of the Himalaya Mountains in Western Bengal India. While the first flush (first picking of the new growth) produces a mild tea, but the second flush produces a deeper flavor reminiscent of muscatel grapes. When China tea is grown in Sri Lanka, it has a flavor rich enough to rival any India tea.

China tea is the species used most often to produce green and oolong teas, but both varieties of Camellia sinensis are used to make black tea. Some types of black China tea are Lapsang Souchong, Keemun, and Dian Hong.