Chinese Tea Culture and Herbal Infusions

By Ella Leung · Written October 2026

In English, "tea" means a drink made from one plant's leaves. In Chinese, 茶 (chá) is wider: it covers tea from the tea plant Camellia sinensis, and it is also used loosely for many drinks that Chinese people steep from other leaves, flowers, seeds and roots. Those second drinks are herbal infusions, or tisanes — they are not tea from the tea plant at all. This page explains the difference, the names on both sides, and where each appears in daily life and regional practice. It treats all of this as food culture, not as health advice.

1. Tea from the tea plant, infusions from other plants

True tea comes from one plant: Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub in the family Theaceae [S2]. Its young leaves are processed into the drink the English-speaking world calls tea and Chinese calls 茶 (chá). The plant's scientific name is Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, and its taxonomy is well settled [S2]. Within the species, two main cultivated varieties are usually recognised: the small-leaf var. sinensis (the China variety) and the large-leaf var. assamica (the Assam variety) [S3].

Almost everything else that gets poured over hot water is something different. Chrysanthemum flowers, dried goji berries, red dates, mint and rose buds do not come from the tea plant. In English these drinks are called herbal teas, herbal infusions, or tisanes; a tisane is defined as an infusion of plant material other than Camellia sinensis [S11]. So a shelf labelled "tea" can hold two different categories of drink, and the everyday words do not always put the line in the same place.

The Chinese word 茶 (chá) is the reason the two get tangled. Dictionaries define 茶 both as the tea shrub and as the drink made by steeping its leaves, and 茶 also serves as a general word for a brewed drink [S1]. A careful English reader therefore has to watch not only the word "tea" but also, in Chinese, the word 茶.

2. The names, and the traps in them

The vocabulary is worth laying out, because similar names sit on opposite sides of the line.

• 茶 (chá) — tea from Camellia sinensis; also, loosely, any daily brewed drink.
• 花草茶 (huā cǎo chá), also written 草本茶 (cǎo běn chá) — literally "flower-herb tea"; this is the Chinese term normally used for an herbal infusion or tisane, with no tea leaves in it [S12].
• 花茶 (huā chá) — "flower tea"; despite the similar name, this usually means a drink whose base is tea, scented with flowers. 茉莉花茶 is the best-known example [S12].
• 茉莉花茶 (mò lì huā chá) — jasmine tea. It is a scented (reprocessed) tea: a tea base, almost always green tea, is layered with fresh jasmine blossoms so the leaves take on their aroma, and the flowers are usually sifted out before sale [S9].
• 菊花茶 (jú huā chá) — chrysanthemum tea; a tisane, made with flowers and no tea leaves [S14].
• 凉茶 (liáng chá) — "cooling tea"; in Guangdong and Hong Kong, a decoction of Chinese herbs rather than a delicate infusion [S13].
• 普洱茶 (Pǔ'ěr chá) — pu-erh; a dark, post-fermented tea from Yunnan province, usually pressed into cakes and made from large-leaf trees [S10].

The English word "tea" itself has a telling history. It came into English by way of Dutch thee, after Malay teh, ultimately tracing to the Min (Amoy) pronunciation tê; the Portuguese route through Macao gives the form "cha", still used in some languages today [S4]. According to some accounts, the modern character 茶 was created in the mid-Tang period from the older character 荼 (tú), which once meant "bitter vegetable"S5.

There is also a category trap inside tea itself. China's national standard for tea classification, GB/T 30766-2014, sorts tea by processing into six families: green 绿茶, yellow 黄茶, white 白茶, oolong 乌龙茶, black 红茶, and dark 黑茶, plus "reprocessed tea" such as scented jasmine tea [S7]. The surprise for English readers is the naming: Chinese 红茶 is written "red tea" but is exactly the drink English calls black tea, while Chinese 黑茶 ("dark tea") is a different family again [S8].

3. Tea in daily life

In China, tea is less a special-occasion drink than a household and social routine. At home it may be a plain green or oolong tea re-steeped through an afternoon; at an office, a vacuum flask or lidded mug (保温杯) may hold goji berries and chrysanthemum instead of tea leaves. Restaurants bring a pot and refill it without being asked, and pouring for someone else is a small act of hospitality.

In Guangdong and Hong Kong, drinking tea is a named social event. 饮茶 (yǐn chá, Cantonese yum cha, often called "morning tea" or 早茶) means gathering to drink tea and eat dim sum, usually in the morning; the phrase is about the company as much as the drink [S16]. In the same region, small 凉茶 (liáng chá) shops selling herb decoctions have long been neighbourhood fixtures, and are officially recognised as a form of folk heritage [S13].

Tea also carries a hospitality etiquette: on the table, a guest's cup is meant never to sit empty for long, and in some settings tapping two fingers on the table is a quiet way of saying "thank you" to the person pouring. These are conventions of a living culture; this page records them as such.

4. Regional forms

The same country holds several different "tea cultures," and they do not resemble one another.

In southern Fujian and the Chao-shan area of Guangdong, the local style is 工夫茶 (gōngfu chá): a small pot or covered bowl (盖碗), tiny cups, and many short successive steeps of one batch of leaves, with an elaborate, formal sequence of steps [S15]. In Guangdong and Hong Kong, tea is bound up with yum cha and dim sum [S16], and with the bitter herb decoctions of 凉茶 [S13]. In Yunnan, the signature tea is the fermented, pressable 普洱茶 [S10].

Further north and west the drink changes with the climate. In the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, herders boil brick tea (a form of dark tea) with milk and salt to make a savoury milk tea [S17]. On the Tibetan plateau, 酥油茶 (sū yóu chá, butter tea) mixes strongly boiled tea with butter and salt and is churned in a wooden cylinder [S17]. In parts of the northwest — Ningxia, Gansu and Sichuan — the 盖碗茶 (gài wǎn chá, covered-bowl tea) is a blend that may add goji berries, red dates, longan and rock sugar to the tea [S17]. The same three-item idea — leaf, water, vessel — turns into a sweet drink in one place and a salty one in another.

5. Keeping culture and health claims apart

Popular writing about tea often blends two things that should be read separately: what tea means in a culture, and what it does to the body.

The cultural side is describable from texts, places and habits: tea as hospitality, as a morning social ritual, as a regional and even historical marker. That is the kind of material this page draws on.

Traditional attributions are a third thing. In traditional usage, chrysanthemum is described as cool in nature and said to "clear the liver and brighten the eyes", and 凉茶 is described by its very name as "cooling" [S14][S13]. These are statements within a traditional framework; they describe how plants were historically spoken about, not measured findings, and they are not a basis for deciding whether to drink something.

Modern research on tea and health exists, but it is a separate conversation, with its own questions and limits, and this page does not review or rank it. The key point for a reader is simple: a cultural account of tea, a traditional attribution, and a scientific finding are three different kinds of statement. A page that slides from "this is how tea is used" to "this is good for you" has crossed between them. Being plant-based does not by itself make a drink risk-free, and much of the vocabulary here — "cooling", "clears heat", "brightens the eyes" — belongs to tradition rather than to medicine [S14].

6. What this page does not claim

This page explains a set of drinks and the words used for them. It does not give brewing instructions or quantities, does not recommend any herb, tea, blend, brand or shop, and does not claim that any drink treats, prevents or improves any condition. Terms such as "cooling" or "clearing heat" describe traditional attributions, not findings of modern medicine. For anything to do with your own health or diet, consult a qualified professional.

Sources

1. [S1] 茶 defined both as the tea shrub and as the drink brewed from its leaves. 教育部《重编国语辞典修订本》（2021），茶条；《国语辞典简编本》茶条.
2. [S2] Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, family Theaceae. ITIS report (TSN 506801); NCBI Taxonomy (ID 4442); 科普中国.
3. [S3] Cultivated varieties var. sinensis (small-leaf) and var. assamica (large-leaf). JIRCAS, Differences in Caffeine and Tannin Contents between Tea Cultivars; tea-plant explainers.
4. [S4] English "tea" via Dutch thee and Malay teh, from Min (Amoy) tê; the Portuguese–Macao route gives "cha". Etymonline, "tea."
5. [S5] The character 茶, mid-Tang, from the older 荼 (tú). Kiddle, "Etymology of tea" (paraphrased; not checked against a dictionary).
6. [S6] Lu Yu (c. 733–804), Cha Jing (《茶经》), the earliest known monograph on tea; dated to c. 760–762 or 780 depending on the source. Chinese Text Project, "Chajing"; China Daily, "The Classic of Tea"; 天门市政府《论陆羽〈茶经〉的历史价值》.
7. [S7] GB/T 30766-2014《茶叶分类》: six processing families — green, yellow, white, oolong, black, dark — plus "reprocessed tea". GB/T 30766-2014 text; 厦门市产品质量监督检验院 report; 全国茶叶标准化技术委员会.
8. [S8] Chinese 红茶 = English "black tea"; 黑茶 = "dark tea", a different family. GB/T 30766-2014 terms; Tatler Asia, "What are the six types of Chinese tea?"
9. [S9] Jasmine tea as a scented/reprocessed tea with a (usually green) tea base; blossoms often sifted out. GB/T 34779—2017《茉莉花茶加工技术规范》; 海关科普《茶如人生》; floral-tea explainers.
10. [S10] Pu-erh: post-fermented dark tea from Yunnan, large-leaf trees; named after the old Pu'er trading centre; GI standard separate from the six-category classification. Pu'erh Tea (ESTA) article; Path of Cha; AO Tea, "Hei Cha."
11. [S11] "Tisane / herbal tea" = infusion of plants other than Camellia sinensis. FSN3 review, "Exploring the ancient roots and modern global brews of tea and herbal beverages" (PMC11521711); multiple terminology explainers.
12. [S12] 花茶 is tea-based; 花草茶 (Herbal Tea/Tisane) contains no tea leaves — the distinction is the raw material. 环球人物网《"花茶"不等于"花草茶"》；古夫古茶《制茶工艺百科》.
13. [S13] Liáng chá (凉茶, "cooling tea") as a herb decoction in Guangdong and Hong Kong; national ICH list 2006, Hong Kong 2014, Macao 2017/2019; Ge Hong origin story. 中国非物质文化遗产网（凉茶）；香港非遗办事处 "Herbal Tea"；澳门文化遗产 "Herbal Tea Brewing"；PMC3926322.
14. [S14] Chrysanthemum tea as a tisane; in traditional usage chrysanthemum is described as cool and said to "clear the liver / brighten the eyes". 广东省中医药局《秋天的菊花…》；光明网《春饮花茶正当时》.
15. [S15] Gongfu tea in southern Fujian and Chao-shan; small pot / covered bowl, many short steeps; local standard DB4451/T 4—2023《潮州工夫茶艺技术规程》. 潮州市侨联《潮州饮食习俗之工夫茶》；DB4451/T 4—2023.
16. [S16] 饮茶 / yum cha (morning tea) as the Cantonese custom of tea with dim sum. 华南理工大学《Cantonese cuisine》讲义；南方网 "A food lover's guide to Guangdong yum cha."
17. [S17] Regional forms: Inner Mongolian salted milk tea (brick tea + milk + salt); Tibetan butter tea (酥油茶, tea + butter + salt, churned); northwest 八宝茶/盖碗茶 with goji, red dates, longan, rock sugar. 《生命时报》"各地早上都喝什么茶"; 中国新闻网《蒙古奶茶》; 中国网文化 "Tibetan Tea Culture"; China Dragon Tours "Gaiwancha"; 甘肃省八宝茶企业标准 Q/YYF0001S—2021.
18. [S18] "药茶 / 代茶饮" — herbal drinks taken in place of tea, e.g. goji berries with chrysanthemum. 北京市卫健委科普《六款代茶饮》; 光明网 related explainer.

Selected source links

• UNESCO: Traditional Tea Processing and Social Practices

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