The difference between Chinese and Indian teas

It's the love of tea that unites us all!

The following was featured in a past newsletter, but as we get frequently asked about the differences between the teas produced by India and China, we thought it was worth giving it a permanent home on our website:

The differences between Chinese and Indian tea are vast and varied, and we’d end up with a monthly collectable series of ATTIC magazines (hmm… there’s an idea…) if we wanted to cover all the details fully. So, to keep things easy for you to read, and at our end easier to type, here’s some of the key differences in a newsletter-friendly format!

• Chinese teas come from the Camellia Sinensis variety of tea plant (with the exception of Pu’erh teas), whereas India’s Assam teas, come from the Camellia Assamica variety. The latter wasn’t discovered until the early nineteenth century, in the north-eastern plains of Assam.
• The key difference between these two strands is that the Assamica variety is far more robust than the Sinensis, and is better able to withstand the hotter temperatures and lower altitudes of the region. It also produces a much greater yield than the Sinensis, but doesn’t live as long. These factors, in addition to the broader leaf it produces, gives Assam tea its distinctly strong, robust flavour. It’s closest Sinensis equivalent would be Tippy Yunnan, which is also cultivated from an ancient, broad leaf variety of the plant.
• But what about Darjeeling? Darjeeling is actually produced from the Camellia Sinensis variety. They found their way to India in 1941, after a British civil surgeon based in the region planted some Sinensis seeds in his garden, and was surprised at how well they took to their new location. After successful trials of cultivating the plant, the first tea nurseries for the Camellia Sinensis in India, were established.
• And Ceylon? A similar story to how Darjeeling tea came to be, Ceylon tea is cultivated in Sri Lanka. The first Camellia Sinensis plant made its way there in 1824, as a non-commercial experiment by the British Botanical Gardens. It wasn’t until 1867 however, that the first tea plantation was officially established in Sri Lanka and tea is now one of the country’s greatest economic strengths.
• Economy is one of the important factors for tea-growth in India, with hundreds of large plantations being cultivated. This is why most Indian teas are referred to by the Estate, whereas in China tea is still grown predominantly on small farms, and so named after the region.
• In general, Chinese teas tend to be lighter and have a much smoother flavour than Indian teas, but for us, it’s the sheer variety that’s on offer, which makes Chinese tea stand out. Being such a vast landscape, the Sinensis plant has full scope to discover its possibilities through different climates, landscapes, soils and rains, producing teas as equally varied as the regions they’re grown in.

• With over ten thousand different teas available we may not quite be able to offer you All The Tea In China, but we certainly hope we can give you a glimpse into an amazing world of this very special plant, and understand why in the country of its birth, is still considered a representative of “a way of life, a philosophy and an aesthetic quest”.

Welcome, to the world of Chinese tea. Welcome, to ATTIC!