Tea or Tisane?
I have been asked what is the difference between a Tea & a Tisane. For the sake of simplicity and ease I usually just refer to any of the dried plants or blends that we stock, serve, and drink as Tea, because that is the more common understanding of the word - tea. That is, any hot drink made with dried leaves, flowers, or spices. People will say herbal tea, fruit tea, and chai tea. By the way, when people say 'chai tea' they are effectively saying 'tea tea'. But properly any hot beverage made with plants that does not contain tea (camellia sinensis) is technically a Tisane (pronounced tee-san). But most people have not heard the word tisane or, if they have, do not know what it means. Let me explain. Tea is made from the plant Camellia Sinensis, and any dried part of this plant, in any way that it is processed, is properly Tea. There are many different types of tea that are created by a variety of ways of picking and processing the leaf from the tea plant, like black tea, red tea, oolongs, and more. Then within those types are countless varieties from different countries, regions, and plantations, such as darjeeling, sencha, ceylon, and so on; then within these they are countless more varieties (the types of tea available seems truly endless!). These varierties are then used to make the hot (or cold) beverage called Tea. While any other plants that are used to make hot beverages fall into the category of tisanes. Some may think this is pedantic but it is a subject worth having a look at. The original Chinese character was for the word Tu, and some say this referred to any drink made with plants, though also referred to the tea plant. Later the character was slightly changed and created the word Cha, and it is believed this referred to the tea plant alone. I find it interesting that the original term actually referred to any hot drink made from plants, including the tea plant, and now we again use the word Tea commonly to refer to any hot drink made from plants. There is a belief, perhaps not entirely correct, that as tea began travelling around the world from China when it was brought by sea it retained the name 'tea', and when it travelled by land it kept the name 'cha'. But it is more likely that the change in name was due to slight differences in various languages of the characters that meant 'tea', sometimes pronounced something closer to 'cha' and in other languages it was pronounced 'tea'. Now to Tisane. The word tisane generally means - a beverage made by infusing with hot water particular types of dried or fresh flowers or leaves, it can also mean a medicinal beverage. The origin of the word Tisane is said to come from the 14th century Greek word Ptisan, which meant a drink made from steeping crushed barley. But there is another possible origin, perhaps incorrect but I like this one, that it could come from the French for Ti (tea) and Sans (without), which essentially means 'tea without tea,' seems to the point with me! When it comes down to it a hot or cold drink made by some way of infusing the dried or fresh parts of the plant Camellia Sinensis is Tea, and any hot drink made by infusing parts of any other plant is called a Tisane. But try asking most people, 'Would you like a cup of tisane?' and you will likely be met with a baffled look and then, after explaining, probably thought to be a bit of a snob. I personally like the differentiation as it keeps the preciousness of Tea (Camellia Sinensis) into a field of it's own. But for ease it's all Tea to me.