What Is Tea? Camellia Sinensis, Herbal Infusions, and the Meaning of Tea
Author: Ukrainian Psychological Hub · Published: September 28, 2026 · Editorial Policy
Tea is, in the technical botanical sense, a beverage made from the processed leaves and buds of Camellia sinensis. Black, green, white, yellow, oolong, and dark or post-fermented teas all begin with this species. Their differences emerge from plant genetics, growing conditions, harvest, processing, storage, and brewing. In everyday English, however, tea also names drinks made by infusing other plants—such as chamomile, peppermint, hibiscus, or rooibos. Those drinks are more precisely described as herbal infusions or tisanes. Both uses of the word are normal; the distinction becomes important when discussing caffeine, chemistry, processing, and scientific evidence.
What Is Tea? The Short Answer
Tea has a narrow technical meaning and a broader everyday meaning. In the narrow sense, tea is a product and drink derived from Camellia sinensis. In ordinary speech, tea can also mean almost any plant infusion prepared and consumed in a tea-like way.
That simple distinction resolves many common questions. Green tea and black tea are different teas from the same plant. Matcha is tea because it is made from Camellia sinensis leaves, even though the leaf is ground into powder and consumed as a suspension. Chamomile tea and rooibos tea are familiar and perfectly understandable names in everyday English, but botanically they are herbal infusions because neither comes from Camellia sinensis. Caffeine does not define whether something is tea: decaffeinated Camellia sinensis remains tea, while caffeinated yerba mate is not Camellia sinensis.
The word tea can also name a social event, a hospitality practice, a daily pause, a ritual, a flavor category, and a cultural institution. That is why the meaning of tea is larger than a botanical definition even though the botanical definition remains the clearest starting point.
Camellia Sinensis: The Plant Behind Tea
Camellia sinensis is an accepted species in the family Theaceae. Kew Science’s Plants of the World Online describes its native range as extending from the eastern Himalaya through southern China and northern Indochina, including Hainan. It is a shrub or small tree, although commercial tea plants are commonly pruned to make repeated harvesting of young shoots practical.
Tea production generally uses tender leaves and buds rather than the whole plant. The familiar phrase “two leaves and a bud” describes one common plucking standard, not a universal rule. Different teas may use buds only, a bud plus one or more leaves, larger mature leaves, stems, or mixtures of leaf grades depending on the product and tradition.
Tea is often explained through two agriculturally prominent cultivated varieties, Camellia sinensis var. sinensis and Camellia sinensis var. assamica. That is useful shorthand for tea agriculture, but it should not be mistaken for a complete botanical inventory. Current Kew taxonomy recognizes additional infraspecific taxa within Camellia sinensis. Tea agriculture also depends heavily on named cultivars selected for traits such as yield, climate adaptation, aroma, leaf chemistry, pest resistance, and suitability for particular processing styles.
The plant therefore does not dictate one inevitable beverage. Genetics establishes a biological starting point; cultivation and craft determine what happens next.
How One Plant Becomes Many Kinds of Tea
Scientific reviews of tea processing describe a sequence of operations that may include plucking, withering, rolling or bruising, heating, oxidation, drying, roasting, shaping, microbial post-fermentation, and aging. Not every tea uses every step, and similar-looking labels can conceal substantial differences in processing.
The central fact is that green, white, yellow, oolong, black, and dark teas are not separate botanical species. They are families of processed products. Processing changes moisture, enzyme activity, leaf structure, volatile aroma compounds, phenolic chemistry, color, and the balance of compounds extracted into the cup.
A 2022 review of differently processed teas also cautions against treating tea categories as perfectly rigid chemical boxes. Processing methods overlap, and chemical composition varies substantially within a category. A label such as “green tea” or “oolong” tells you something important about style and manufacture, but it does not provide a complete chemical fingerprint.
Green tea
Green tea is generally heated early enough in manufacture to limit the enzyme-driven oxidation that rapidly changes damaged fresh leaves. Heating may be done by steaming, pan firing, or other methods, after which the leaf can be rolled, shaped, and dried. “Green” describes a processing family, not one flavor: green teas can be grassy, marine, nutty, roasted, floral, savory, sweet, brisk, or strongly bitter depending on cultivar, origin, process, age, and brewing.
White tea
White tea is commonly made with relatively gentle handling, often emphasizing withering and drying rather than the intensive rolling associated with many other styles. The idea that white tea is simply “unoxidized” is too crude: oxidation can occur during withering and drying. White tea is better understood through its characteristic production approaches than through a single numerical position on an oxidation scale.
Yellow tea
Yellow tea is a distinct traditional category associated especially with Chinese production. It typically includes a controlled yellowing step after initial heating. Because production is relatively limited and methods vary, yellow tea is less familiar in many Western retail markets than green or black tea.
Oolong tea
Oolong covers an unusually broad range. Producers manipulate withering, agitation or bruising, oxidation, heating, rolling, roasting, and sometimes aging to produce styles ranging from light and floral to dark, roasted, fruity, woody, or mineral. Calling all oolong “half-oxidized tea” is an oversimplification: the category contains many processing traditions and oxidation levels.
Black tea
Black tea is typically allowed to undergo substantial enzyme-mediated oxidation before drying. This transforms much of the catechin profile and contributes to new compounds, color, aroma, and flavor. In several East Asian naming traditions, many products that English calls black tea are described as “red tea,” referring to the color of the liquor rather than the dry leaf.
Dark and post-fermented tea
Dark or post-fermented teas involve microbial transformations in addition to earlier leaf processing. Pu-erh is the best-known example internationally, but “pu-erh” and “dark tea” are not interchangeable names for every post-fermented tea. Some scientific and commercial classifications list pu-erh as a major category of its own, while Chinese cultural classifications more often use a broader dark-tea category.
Why the category count changes
There is no single universally used consumer count of tea categories. UNESCO’s description of traditional Chinese tea-processing practices names six categories—green, yellow, dark, white, oolong, and black. Some scientific reviews instead list white, green, oolong, black, and pu-erh as five commonly recognized processing groups. The difference is primarily a matter of classification scheme, not evidence that the underlying teas suddenly changed.
Tea Fermentation and Tea Oxidation Are Not the Same Thing
Tea vocabulary contains a historical trap. Black tea and oolong are sometimes described as “fermented,” especially in older tea literature and traditional trade language. In those teas, the major transformation usually meant by the term is enzyme-mediated oxidation after leaf cells are disrupted and exposed to oxygen. It does not require microorganisms.
Post-fermented or dark teas are different: microorganisms can participate in transformations during controlled piling, storage, or aging. Using “oxidation” for black and oolong processing and reserving “microbial fermentation” for processes that actually involve microorganisms makes the chemistry clearer.
This distinction matters because simplistic statements such as “green tea is unfermented, oolong is semi-fermented, and black tea is fully fermented” can make three different processing realities look like one linear microbial process.
Is Herbal Tea Really Tea?
In everyday language, yes: “herbal tea” is an established name for a hot or cold infusion made from plant material other than Camellia sinensis. In botanical and technical tea classification, it is more precise to call that drink an herbal infusion or tisane.
Herbal infusions may be made from leaves, flowers, roots, bark, seeds, fruits, spices, or combinations of them. Chamomile, peppermint, hibiscus, ginger, and rooibos therefore belong to a different botanical and chemical universe from Camellia sinensis tea. Their ingredients, possible effects, allergens, interactions, preparation methods, and evidence bases need to be evaluated ingredient by ingredient.
The distinction is practical rather than linguistic policing. If someone says “chamomile tea,” there is rarely any ambiguity in ordinary conversation. But if a scientific paper reports an effect of green tea, that result cannot automatically be transferred to chamomile, rooibos, or a mixed herbal blend simply because every product is sold under the word tea.
The same rule works in the other direction: findings about an isolated tea catechin, concentrated extract, caffeine capsule, or L-theanine supplement cannot automatically be treated as evidence about an ordinary brewed cup. The exposure, dose, matrix, and accompanying compounds are different.
Does All Tea Contain Caffeine?
Camellia sinensis naturally produces caffeine, so conventional black, green, white, yellow, oolong, and dark teas ordinarily contain some caffeine. The amount in a cup is highly variable. It depends on the leaf material, cultivar, growing conditions, processing, quantity of dry tea, particle size, water temperature, steeping time, repeated infusions, and serving size.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives typical values of about 37 mg of caffeine for 12 fluid ounces of green tea and 71 mg for 12 fluid ounces of black tea, while emphasizing that actual products and serving sizes vary. These category averages are useful orientation, not a rule that every black tea contains more caffeine than every green or white tea.
A 2025 laboratory study of brewed tea infusions found that caffeine and L-theanine concentrations changed with tea type, brewing time, temperature, and serving form. Longer extraction could substantially increase the amount transferred into the beverage. This is one reason a color-based caffeine hierarchy is unreliable for predicting a specific cup.
Decaffeinated tea remains tea. The FDA notes that decaffeinated coffees and teas usually retain some caffeine, so “decaf” and “caffeine-free” are not equivalent terms.
Herbal tea introduces another useful distinction. Many familiar herbal infusions—pure chamomile, peppermint, hibiscus, or rooibos, for example—do not naturally contain caffeine. Yet “herbal” is not a universal synonym for caffeine-free. Yerba mate and guayusa are caffeinated plants that are not Camellia sinensis, and an herbal blend can also contain true tea or added caffeine. Ingredient lists are more reliable than category assumptions.
Is Matcha Tea? What About Chai, Earl Grey, Iced Tea, and Tea Bags?
Matcha is tea. It is made from Camellia sinensis leaf material processed as green tea and ground into a fine powder. Because the powder is whisked into liquid and consumed rather than removed after steeping, matcha is a different mode of consuming tea leaf material, not a separate non-tea botanical category.
Earl Grey is usually tea when its base is Camellia sinensis, commonly black tea, flavored with bergamot. Jasmine tea is usually tea when tea leaves are scented with jasmine flowers. Adding aroma, flowers, fruit peel, spices, milk, or sugar does not erase the tea identity of a Camellia sinensis base.
Chai simply means tea in several languages. In American English, “chai” often refers more specifically to a spiced tea drink inspired by South Asian masala chai. When its base is black or another Camellia sinensis tea, it is still tea; the spices and milk make it a prepared tea beverage.
Iced tea is tea defined by its ingredients and preparation, not by serving temperature. Tea bags and loose-leaf tea are formats, not botanical categories. A bag can contain Camellia sinensis, herbs, or a blend, just as a loose product can.
The fastest way to know what a packaged product is: read the ingredients. If Camellia sinensis is present, the product contains tea in the botanical sense. If the ingredients are only chamomile, rooibos, mint, fruit, spices, or other non-tea plants, it is an herbal infusion even when the package calls it tea.
What Is Tea Made Of?
Brewed tea is water containing compounds extracted from processed Camellia sinensis leaves. Reviews of tea chemistry describe polyphenols, purine alkaloids such as caffeine, amino acids including L-theanine, volatile aroma compounds, pigments, organic acids, carbohydrates, minerals, and many other constituents whose concentrations differ across leaves and processes.
Processing changes this chemical mixture. Reviews of Camellia sinensis teas describe differences across white, green, yellow, oolong, black, and pu-erh products, while emphasizing that composition reflects both the original leaf and what happens during manufacture.
This is also why “tea contains X” should not be interpreted as “every cup delivers a standardized dose of X.” A commercial tea bag, a whole-leaf tea, a concentrated bottled tea, matcha powder, a standardized extract, and an isolated supplement can produce very different exposures. Human health evidence needs to match the actual form being discussed.
Why Different Teas Taste So Different
Processing matters, but it is only one part of tea flavor. Cultivar, leaf age, season, altitude, soil and climate, shading, harvest standard, processing choices, storage, aging, water chemistry, leaf-to-water ratio, temperature, time, and teaware can all change what reaches the cup.
Oxidation is especially important because it changes phenolic chemistry and contributes to color and aroma development, but tea is not a one-dimensional ladder running from “least oxidized” to “most oxidized.” Roasting, steaming, pan firing, rolling pressure, drying temperature, scenting, microbial activity, and aging can create major sensory differences even between teas with broadly similar oxidation histories.
Bitterness and astringency are also different sensations. Bitterness is a taste. Astringency is primarily a tactile drying, roughening, or puckering sensation in the mouth. A cup can be strongly aromatic yet low in bitterness, or bitter without being highly astringent. Sweetness, savory or umami-like qualities, floral and fruity aromas, roast notes, body, temperature, and aftertaste contribute additional dimensions.
Brewing is therefore part of the final product. The dry leaf contains potential; water and extraction determine which portion of that potential appears in a particular cup. A strong infusion is not automatically a higher-quality infusion, and a pale infusion is not automatically weak in aroma or caffeine.
The Psychology of Tea Taste: Chemistry Meets Perception
Flavor is not read directly from a chemical meter in the mouth. A major review of multisensory flavor perception describes flavor as an integrated experience constructed from signals across multiple senses. Taste, retronasal smell, temperature, texture, visual appearance, and other sensory cues combine into the experience people call flavor.
For tea, the physical beverage sets the sensory possibilities: volatile compounds contribute aroma; dissolved compounds contribute taste and mouthfeel; temperature changes both release and perception; the cup shape affects how aroma reaches the nose; color provides visual information before the first sip. The experience is real, but it is produced by a person interacting with a beverage in a context.
Psychological and neuroimaging research on food and drink shows that external information such as labels, brands, packaging, and price can influence flavor perception through expectation. This literature is broader than tea, so it does not prove that every tea label changes every taster in the same way. It does establish a useful mechanism: what a person expects can shift how a sensory experience is interpreted.
That helps explain why provenance, cultivar names, brewing instructions, packaging, price, teaware, and serving context can matter before the first sip. Expectation does not alter the chemical composition already in the cup, but it can alter attention, interpretation, comparison, and reported liking.
Sensory expertise can also change what people notice. A beginner may experience a tea mainly as “bitter” or “light,” while an experienced taster may discriminate roast, floral character, texture, aftertaste, oxidation style, or brewing faults. This does not require a mysterious new sense; it can emerge from learned categories, attention, memory, vocabulary, and repeated comparison.
Why Tea Becomes a Habit
Habit research shows that repeated behaviors can become strongly tied to recurring contexts. A particular time of day, desk, kettle, mug, meal, work break, or social setting can become a cue for making tea. Once a routine is established, the context itself can help trigger the behavior with less deliberate decision-making.
That gives daily tea a psychological structure beyond thirst. The cup may mark the beginning of work, the transition from lunch to afternoon, the end of a commute, the start of reading, or a pause with another person. The beverage becomes attached to a recurring situation.
This mechanism does not mean tea drinking is automatically beneficial, harmful, or compulsive. Habit describes how behavior can become context-linked. Whether a particular routine supports sleep, interferes with it, increases unwanted caffeine intake, provides social connection, or simply tastes good depends on the person, the beverage, timing, dose, and surrounding behavior.
Tea Ritual: Why Preparation Can Matter
Tea preparation can be minimal—bag, mug, hot water—or highly structured, involving measured leaf, specific vessels, repeated short infusions, prescribed movements, or ceremonial conventions. The psychological function of a sequence can arise from attention, anticipation, repetition, meaning, and participation.
Experimental work on consumption rituals found that structured ritualized actions could increase enjoyment and involvement in foods and drinks used in the experiments. Those studies did not test tea ceremonies specifically, so the evidence should not be converted into a claim that any tea ritual has a guaranteed mental-health effect. The more defensible conclusion is that ritualized action can alter how consumption is attended to and experienced.
A personal tea routine may therefore feel calming, focusing, comforting, formal, nostalgic, or socially meaningful without the drink functioning as a treatment for anxiety, depression, insomnia, or another clinical condition. The subjective experience and the medical claim are different questions.
Tea as Culture, Hospitality, and Social Meaning
Tea is also a social technology: a repeatable way to receive guests, structure conversation, mark status or hospitality, accompany work, celebrate events, or create a pause. These meanings are culturally specific rather than one universal “psychology of tea.”
UNESCO’s documentation of traditional tea processing and associated social practices in China describes tea as part of daily life in homes, workplaces, tea houses, restaurants, and temples, and as an element of socialization, hospitality, family relationships, and ceremonies. The same UNESCO entry recognizes a complex body of cultivation, processing, drinking, and sharing practices rather than reducing Chinese tea to one ceremony.
A separate UNESCO inscription for the culture of Çay in Azerbaijan and Türkiye describes tea as a symbol of identity, hospitality, and social interaction, with its own vessels, accompaniments, preparation methods, and community practices. These examples illustrate why “tea culture” is better understood in the plural: traditions can share a beverage while organizing it through different histories, techniques, objects, and social scripts.
The meaning of a cup can therefore come from at least two layers at once. One layer is material: a particular plant, process, infusion, temperature, aroma, and caffeine level. Another is learned: who serves it, when it is served, what the vessel signals, what memories it evokes, and what the act means in a family or community.
Common Tea Myths and Classification Mistakes
“Green, white, oolong, and black tea come from different plants.”
They can come from the same species, Camellia sinensis. Cultivars and growing regions differ, but the major tea families are primarily processing categories rather than separate species.
“White tea is always the least processed and therefore always the lowest in caffeine.”
Processing intensity does not give a reliable caffeine prediction for a specific cup. Leaf age, cultivar, amount of tea, particle size, infusion time, temperature, and serving size can matter substantially. A laboratory or commercial-product measurement is more informative than a color-based rule.
“Black tea is fermented by microbes.”
The major transformation in ordinary black tea manufacture is enzymatic oxidation. Microbial fermentation is more characteristic of post-fermented dark teas. Historical tea terminology sometimes uses fermentation more broadly, which is why the terms are often confused.
“Herbal tea is always caffeine-free.”
Many herbal infusions are naturally caffeine-free, but the category itself does not guarantee that. Yerba mate and guayusa contain caffeine, and blends can combine herbs with Camellia sinensis or added caffeine.
“If it contains caffeine, it must be tea.”
Caffeine is found in multiple plants and can also be added to foods and drinks. Yerba mate, coffee, cacao, guarana, and some manufactured beverages contain caffeine without being tea in the Camellia sinensis sense.
“Matcha is not tea because you do not steep and remove the leaves.”
Matcha is Camellia sinensis green tea processed and ground into powder. The method of consumption changes the form of the beverage, not the botanical identity of the leaf.
“Herbal tea and true tea should never share the word tea.”
Technical classification and everyday language serve different purposes. “Herbal tea” is a well-established everyday category. The useful move is to clarify the ingredients when botanical identity, caffeine, pharmacology, or scientific evidence matters.
How to Read a Tea Label
A tea package can answer most classification questions if you read it in the right order. First look at the ingredient list. Camellia sinensis means the product contains tea in the technical sense. A list consisting only of chamomile, mint, rooibos, hibiscus, ginger, fruit, or spices describes an herbal infusion.
Next look at the processing or style name: green, black, white, oolong, yellow, dark, pu-erh, matcha, scented tea, or another recognized style. Then look for origin, cultivar, harvest information, and whether the product is flavored. These details help explain what the producer intended the product to be; they do not by themselves prove quality.
For caffeine, rely on the manufacturer’s measured value when one is available, especially if intake matters to you. Category labels alone are rough guides. “Decaffeinated” means caffeine has been reduced, not necessarily eliminated.
Finally, treat health language separately from tea identity. A package can accurately identify a tea while making a health claim that requires its own evidence. Botanical classification does not establish therapeutic effectiveness.
A Practical Definition You Can Use
For everyday decisions, use this rule: if the beverage is made from Camellia sinensis leaves or buds, it is tea in the botanical and technical sense. If it is made only from other plants, it is an herbal infusion or tisane, even though “herbal tea” remains normal everyday English.
Then add the second layer: tea is also a prepared experience. Processing defines the style; brewing defines the cup; perception defines the sensory experience; habit and ritual can define the personal routine; culture can define the social meaning.
That layered definition is more accurate than either extreme. Tea is not merely “hot flavored water,” and it is not one mystical universal tradition. It is a botanical product, a processed food, a beverage, a sensory event, and—depending on context—a social practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is tea, exactly?
Technically, tea is a product and beverage made from the leaves and buds of Camellia sinensis. In everyday English, the word also includes herbal infusions such as chamomile or rooibos and can refer to a social meal or ritual.
What plant does tea come from?
Tea comes from Camellia sinensis, an accepted species in the family Theaceae. Kew Science places its native range across the eastern Himalaya, southern China, northern Indochina, and Hainan.
Are black tea and green tea the same plant?
Yes. Both can be made from Camellia sinensis. The major differences come from cultivar, growing conditions, harvest, and especially post-harvest processing, including how quickly oxidation is limited or encouraged.
Is herbal tea actually tea?
In ordinary language, “herbal tea” is a normal and widely understood term. In botanical and technical classification, a drink made only from non-Camellia plants is an herbal infusion or tisane rather than tea.
What is a tisane?
A tisane is an infusion of plant material other than Camellia sinensis. Chamomile flowers, peppermint leaves, hibiscus calyces, rooibos, ginger, fruit, spices, and many other ingredients can be prepared as tisanes.
Is rooibos tea a real tea?
Rooibos is a real beverage and a legitimate everyday “herbal tea,” but it is not Camellia sinensis. Botanically, it is a rooibos infusion or tisane.
Is chamomile tea a real tea?
Chamomile tea is an herbal infusion made from chamomile flowers. It does not become Camellia sinensis tea simply because it is steeped and served in the same way.
Is matcha tea?
Yes. Matcha is produced from Camellia sinensis leaf material processed as green tea and milled into powder. The powder is whisked into liquid and consumed rather than removed after steeping.
Does all tea have caffeine?
Conventional Camellia sinensis tea naturally contains caffeine, although the amount in a cup varies widely. Decaffeinated tea still may contain a small amount. Many herbal infusions contain no caffeine, but some non-tea plants such as yerba mate and guayusa are naturally caffeinated.
Which tea has the most caffeine?
There is no dependable answer based only on color or category. A specific cup depends on leaf material, cultivar, dose, particle size, water temperature, steep time, and serving size. Product-specific measurement is more reliable than assuming black is always highest or white is always lowest.
Why do green, oolong, and black tea taste different if they come from the same plant?
Processing changes leaf chemistry and aroma. Heating, withering, rolling, oxidation, roasting, drying, microbial activity, and aging can all shape the final product. Cultivar, origin, harvest, storage, and brewing add further variation.
Is tea fermentation the same as oxidation?
No. In black and oolong manufacture, the transformation historically called fermentation is largely enzymatic oxidation. In dark or post-fermented teas, microorganisms can participate, so actual microbial fermentation becomes relevant.
Is tea good for you?
Tea can be part of many dietary patterns, but “tea” is too broad a category to support one universal health claim. Evidence differs for brewed tea, specific tea types, isolated compounds, extracts, supplements, and individual herbal ingredients. A definition of tea should not be treated as proof of treatment or prevention for a medical or mental-health condition.
Why does tea feel comforting or calming to some people?
Several mechanisms can contribute: warmth, familiar aroma, learned associations, a predictable break, reduced task demands, social context, ritualized preparation, and personal memories. Caffeine can also produce stimulation and, in sensitive people or at higher intakes, unwanted effects. The subjective feeling of comfort is psychologically real without implying that tea is a treatment for an anxiety or sleep disorder.
Related Articles
References
Ayakdaş, G., & Ağagündüz, D. (2025). Determination of L-Theanine and Caffeine Contents in Tea Infusions with Different Fermentation Degrees and Brewing Conditions Using the Chromatographic Method. Foods, 14(13), 2313. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40647065/
Bortolini, D. G., Haminiuk, C. W. I., Pedro, A. C., Fernandes, I. A. A., & Maciel, G. M. (2021). Processing, chemical signature and food industry applications of Camellia sinensis teas: An overview. Food Chemistry: X, 12, 100160. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34825170/
Kew Science. Plants of the World Online: Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/828548-1
Okamoto, M., & Dan, I. (2013). Extrinsic information influences taste and flavor perception: A review from psychological and neuroimaging perspectives. Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology, 24(3), 247–255. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23182900/
Spence, C. (2015). Multisensory flavor perception. Cell, 161(1), 24–35. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25815982/
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine is Too Much? https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/spilling-beans-how-much-caffeine-too-much
UNESCO. (2022). Culture of Çay (tea), a symbol of identity, hospitality and social interaction. Intangible Cultural Heritage. https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/moutya-01685
UNESCO. (2022). Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China. Intangible Cultural Heritage. https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/traditional-tea-processing-techniques-and-associated-social-practices-in-china-01884
Vohs, K. D., Wang, Y., Gino, F., & Norton, M. I. (2013). Rituals enhance consumption. Psychological Science, 24(9), 1714–1721. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23863754/
Wong, M., Sirisena, S., & Ng, K. (2022). Phytochemical profile of differently processed tea: A review. Journal of Food Science, 87(5), 1925–1942. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35368105/
Wood, W., & Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 289–314. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26361052/
Zhang, L., Ho, C.-T., Zhou, J., Santos, J. S., Armstrong, L., & Granato, D. (2019). Chemistry and Biological Activities of Processed Camellia sinensis Teas: A Comprehensive Review. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 18(5), 1474–1495. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33336903/