Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northern Myanmar. Tea is also made, but rarely, from the leaves of Camellia taliensis. After plain water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many different types of tea; some have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes. Tea has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine content.
A tea bag or teabag is a small, porous, sealed bag or packet, typically containing tea leaves or the leaves of other herbs, which is immersed in water to steep and make an infusion. Originally used only for tea, they are now made with other tisanes as well.
Pu'er or pu-erh is a variety of fermented tea traditionally produced in Yunnan Province, China. In the context of traditional Chinese tea production terminology, fermentation refers to microbial fermentation, and is typically applied after the tea leaves have been sufficiently dried and rolled. As the tea undergoes controlled microbial fermentation, it also continues to oxidize, which is also controlled, until the desired flavors are reached. This process produces tea known as hēichá (黑茶), literally "black tea", though the term is commonly translated to English as "dark tea" to distinguish it from the English-language black tea.
The J.M. Smucker Company, also known as Smuckers, is an American manufacturer of food and beverage products. Headquartered in Orrville, Ohio, the company was founded in 1897 as a maker of apple butter. J.M. Smucker currently has three major business units: consumer foods, pet foods, and coffee. Its flagship brand, Smucker's, produces fruit preserves, peanut butter, syrups, frozen crustless sandwiches, and ice cream toppings.
Decaffeination is the removal ("de-") of caffeine from coffee beans, cocoa, tea leaves, and other caffeine-containing materials. Decaffeinated products are commonly termed by the abbreviation decaf. Decaffeinated drinks contain typically 1–2% of the original caffeine content, but sometimes as much as 20%.
PG Tips is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom manufactured by Lipton Teas and Infusions.
American tea culture encompasses the methods of preparation and means of consumption of tea within the context of the culture of the United States.
Tea blending is the act of blending different teas together to produce a final product that differs in flavor from the original tea used. This occurs chiefly with black tea, which is blended to make most tea bags, but it can also occur with such teas as Pu-erh, where leaves are blended from different regions before being compressed. The most prominent type of tea blending is commercial tea blending, which is used to ensure consistency of a batch on a mass scale so that any variations between different batches and seasons of tea production do not affect the final product. However, it is also common to blend tea leaves with herbs and spice, either for health purposes or to add interesting and more complex flavor notes. It is important that any one blend must taste the same as the previous one, so a consumer will not be able to detect a difference in flavor from one purchase to the next.
Good Earth Tea is a tea and herbal tea company. Founded in 1972 under the name Fmali Herb Company and based in Santa Cruz, California, it was one of the first American herbal tea companies during the early 1970s. In the late 1970s, it began to develop trademark teas for Good Earth Restaurants, and launched Good Earth teas in tea bag form to the California grocery market in 1988.
Bogawantalawa, also spelt Bogawanthalawa, is a small town in the Central province of Sri Lanka. It is at 1514 m elevation above sea level, about 150 km (93 mi) east of Colombo, famous for its tea estates. Most refer it to as Bogawantalawa - however the correct spelling and pronunciation is Bagawantalawa - meaning place where the blessed lived.
Monster Beverage Corporation is an American beverage company that manufactures energy drinks including Monster Energy, Relentless and Burn. The company was originally founded as Hansen's in 1935 in Southern California, originally selling juice products. The company renamed itself as Monster Beverage in 2012.
Alter Eco refers to two alternative trading organizations, founded in 1998 by Tristan Lecomte in France, and followed by Mathieu Senard and Edouard Rollet in the United States, and Ilse Keijzer in Australia.
A single-serve coffee container is a container filled with coffee grounds, used in coffee brewing to prepare only enough coffee for a single portion. They come in various formats and materials, often either as hard and soft pods or pads made of filter paper, or hard aluminium and plastic capsules.
Teavana Corporation is an American tea company, which previously had locations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East. Starbucks acquired Teavana in 2012, and in 2017, Starbucks announced it would close all Teavana locations by 2018. As of 2022, a very limited variety of Teavana products continue to be sold at Starbucks.
Honest Tea (U.S.) was a bottled organic tea company based in Bethesda, Maryland. It was founded in 1998 by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company.
Sweet Leaf Tea Company is a producer of ready-to-drink organic branded teas and lemonades owned by Nestlé. It was founded in Beaumont, TX in 1998 by Clayton Christopher and David Smith.
Steaz, a brand of organic green tea-based beverages, was established in 2002 by co-founders Steven Kessler and Eric Schnell. The Steaz brand, headquartered in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, is currently owned by the privately held Healthy Beverage Company.
Zevia is a Los Angeles based company that produces soft drinks, organic tea, energy drinks, and mixers sweetened with stevia. All Zevia products are zero-calorie, sugar-free, gluten free, vegan, certified kosher, and certified by The Non-GMO Project. In June 2021, Zevia filed to go public with an IPO.
Teatulia is a privately owned tea company based in Denver, Colorado. Teatulia is named after the Tetulia region in Northern Bangladesh where the company grows and produces its teas. It is the first USDA-certified organic tea garden in Bangladesh and the first tea in the United States that is imported from Bangladesh.
The Organic Herb Trading Company is a supplier of organic herbs and spices. It was founded by Mike Brook in 1982 in a small village called Hambleden near Henley-on-Thames. Over the last 30 years, the company has grown and sourced the UK's largest range of ingredients for a diverse range of customers in the herbal tea, food, health, and beauty markets. Their customers are based both in the UK and worldwide and include brands such as Pukka Herbs, Neal's Yard Remedies, and River ford.
