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Usually, when Asians refer to tea, they mean brewing dried tea leaflets in a cup or pot. These tea leaves are picked up from tea plants and then processed and dried. The tea tree, Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze in the genus of Camellia, belongs to the family of Theaceae, and it is an evergreen flowering plant.
On the other hand, the Westerners refer tea or tea beverage to the watering tea, which is well-known as English tea, or British tea. The tea bag contains a mixture of a variety of dried powder or small parts of plant parts (root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit). The plant species contained in the mixture come from more than 25 families and 50 species at least; however, not all tea bags include real tea plants. Thus, this kind of British tea is often called herbal tea.
Tea originated from China. There already were records about tea thousands of years ago. Nowadays, tea becomes one of the most common and popular drinks in the world.
Tea-ism, Cha Dao, or tea ceremony investigates planting, picking up, processing, making, and tasting of tea. It also includes the benefits to human health from tea; however, the tea ceremony is more like a traditional etiquette or religious feature rather than science. Globally, especially China and Japan in Asia have set up dedicated tea research institutions, and there are thousands of specialists working in tea research. In the last century, there have been huge developments and progresses made in tea science.