Question about growing tea

Dunno ... I used to have some kind of Camellia bush/tree growing in my front yard (Everett, Washington, USA) but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Sinensis. It bloomed red flowers in the spring. Wonder if I could have used its leaves to drink? Is every species of Camellia non-toxic?

stePH in cup: Frontier English Breakfast (bulk purchased at Fred Meyer)

Well, I found a decent bit of information at:

and a link to an online store called seedrack where I purchased a pack of seeds for under $5. It seems like it should actually be very easy to grow and dry based on that link above, I can't believe I never thought of doing this before! I'm even thinking of creating a few bonsai tea plants as well just for kicks... and very small teacups.

I checked for you and it seems that, yes, all forms of camellia are able to be used for tea... but that it is not as desirable. No mention is made of the tastes, but the other forms seem to be more flowery so I'm thinking the taste may follow suit to some degree.

- Dominic Drinking: Second brewing of my PG Tips teabag, because I ran out and I'm at work :(

I live in Los Angeles, and there is a nursery just north of Pasadena that sells Camellia Sinensis. Last year, I bought four plants. The nursery cautioned me not to plant it directly in the sun, so they are in a fairly shady part of my vegetable garden, and appear to doing quite well. I did actually make a very nice green tea from the leaves when they first came home, but only tried this once, and am letting the plant "dig in" a little before harvesting further. It is my understanding that while you can possibly brew an infusion from the leaves of camellia japonica, it would not taste very delicious. According to James Norwood Pratt (New Tea Lover's Treasury), camellia sinensis is the only camellia that contains caffeine. I guess that is a big reason why japonica is not cultivated for tea.

??? I don't really drink tea for the caffeine, apart from my usual two or three morning cups of English Breakfast. But if C. Japonica doesn't taste good, I wouldn't care to drink it with or without caffeine.

stePH in cup: pinhead gunpowder, first infusion -- it's really not that bad, it's just that the second is better.

-- "And for a second verse / Of terse economy / I'll brew another pot / Of ambiguity"

-- King Crimson, 2002

Camellia assamica is native to the Assam district of India (also grown in Sri Lanka), and contains caffeine. However, Mr. Pratt may classify this as a vareity of camellia sinensis.

As far as growing tea, I too have purchased seeds from Seedrack and had a good experience from this vendor. Getting the seeds to germinate is tricky though, but if you have green thumb then you should not have any problem. Most articles on the topic suggest a allowing 2-3 years of growth before harvesting leaves.

Jeremy

Despite the name, there's a body of opinion holding that C. assamica originated in what's now Yunnan province in China.

I think most botanists agree it isn't a separate species.

/Lew

I always recommend camforest.com for tea seeds. They carry more varietals and they store and ship their seeds wet. My dry seeds from seedrack never germinated, but I just got one white tea seedling and three rosea tea seedlings in the last few days from my purchase at camforest.

~j

If I actually wanted to make to make green tea from my plants, does anyone have any guidelines as to how best to do this?

e.g. How long do I wither for? Does it matter if I pan fry in a regular saucepan? And for long? Can I dry in something like a food dehydrater? And for long?

Keep in mind, this is just my own personal experiment : ) I didn't follow any of these steps last time, except for a misguided attempt at withering, and the brew was pleasant.

Any suggestions? thx!!

Linda

is a recipe for making green tea from your own camellia plants.

Hou De also sells a tea leaf roaster that can be used to roast your tea. I believe it comes with instructions.

I'd be very curious to hear how it all turns out, so please post it!