Tea comes from the plant Camellia Sinensis, a hardy evergreen shrub. It grows in warm and humid sub-tropical climates, and at a high altitude of 1,200 to 2,200 meters, in the tropics. Tea plants can grow up as high as 30 feet but are usually kept pruned to bush size to make picking easier.
It takes about four years for a tea plant to mature and start producing harvestable leaves. There can be as many different teas as there are wines, as soil and climate conditions influence the final flavour of the tea as much as the processing it undergoes.
No two vintages are quite the same; thus teas are blended not only to produce special flavours but also to ensure consistent quality and flavour in each individual blend.
Besides China, its country of origin, tea is also grown in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey, Kenya and other African countries. Kenya, China and India are the three main sources for Bewley's tea.
