Tea

What it is

Tea comes from Camellia sinensis. Kew notes that green, black, white and other traditional teas are produced from the same tea plant, with differences created through cultivar, growing conditions, harvest and especially post-harvest processing.

That makes “tea” one of the clearest examples of a scent category that cannot be reduced to one fixed note.

What to notice

Tea references can range through:

• fresh green leaves
• dry herbs
• flowers
• citrus
• tannic dryness
• malt
• apricot or dried fruit
• smoke
• earth
• leather or tobacco facets

Green tea, black tea, oolong, matcha, pu-erh and smoked tea can therefore point in very different directions.

Processing is central

Oxidation, heating, rolling, drying, roasting and fermentation-like microbial processes can all change tea aroma substantially.

The archive should preserve the named tea type whenever possible rather than flattening every reference into generic “Tea.”

Tea extracts and tea accords

Natural tea leaf absolutes exist, but tea is also commonly represented through constructed accords. A perfume’s tea note can therefore be a sensory reconstruction rather than a literal tea extract.

As elsewhere, the material link should follow source information, not inference from dryness or tannic character alone.