1840s specifically for export to the West.
The Spread of Tea Production Until the late
19th century, all tea in world trade was China
tea. But when China began to resist Britain’s
practice of paying for its expensive tea habit
with opium, the British intensified tea
production in their own colonies, particularly
India. For warm regions they cultivated an
indigenous variety, Camellia sinensis var.
assamica, or Assam tea, which has more
phenolic compounds and caffeine than China
tea and produces a stronger, darker black tea.
They planted the hardier China types in the
Himalayan foothills of Darjeeling and at high
elevations in the south. India is now the
world’s largest tea producer.
Today about three-quarters of the tea
produced in the world is black tea. China and
Japan still produce and drink more green tea
than black.
The Tea Leaf and Its Transformation A