Technically, only drinks made from the leaves of the tea plant can be called tea. Everything else (peppermint, chamomile, rooibos, mate, etc) is not tea. These are infusions, though it is common practice to call any drink that involves the steeping of plant matter "tea".
The tea plant can be "processed" to produce three types of tea leaves: white, green, and black. All three processes involve the picking of the tea leaves (specific parts are plucked for different kinds of tea), rolling, allowing the leaves to oxidize (this is the crucial factor), and stopping the oxidization through the application of heat (this is very different depending on where the tea is made).
When the leaves are plucked, rolled, and immediately exposed to heat, very little oxidization occurs. The leaves retain almost all of their original colour, and create an incredibly delicate tea. White tea is extremely good for your skin. You should also NEVER EVER EVER use boiling water over white tea leaves. This scorches the leaves and immediately creates a bitter liquor. If you do not have a kettle that can precisely raise water temperature, you're best bet is to let the water reach a boil and then let it sit for 8 minutes. This allows the water to lower to a more appropriate temperature so you don't burn the leaves. White tea is often much subtler in its flavour, and unflavoured white tea is probably better left to people with a broader tea pallet. It also costs more, because the leaves are harder to transport and are much more selective in the picking process.
Green tea is created by allowing the leaves to oxidize slightly, so the leaves darken to deeper shade of green, and then have heat applied. Depending on the way that the heat is applied changes the way the tea tastes. In Japan, the tea is often exposed to steam as a heat source. This creates a grassier, sweeter tasting tea. They also create some teas by heating them in a dry wok, making a much darker, nuttier tasting tea. In China, green tea is exposed to different kinds of smoke. As such, Chinese green tea is much smokier in flavour. When brewing green tea, it is again crucial to NOT use boiling water. Allowing boiling water to cool for 5 minutes should let you make your tea without making it bitter. Green tea has been the focus of many studies regarding cancer prevention, prevention of mental diseases, and improved daily mental ability. Both flavoured and straight green teas are fairly friendly to new tea drinkers, just make sure you don't use too hot water or steep the tea for too long.
Finally, black tea gets it appearance from allowing the leaves to fully oxidize before having heat applied. Black tea has an extremely wide variety of flavours naturally, as well as being extremely friendly to having flavours added to it. Black tea is often smokey, tart, or full bodied. Black tea can easily stand up to boiling water, but steep time should be carefully watched. Different teas have drastically different steep times. One tea I own has a very precise steep time of one minute. Any longer and it becomes undrinkable and bitter. Another I own uses a different strain of tea leaf, and can be left to steep for hours without getter bitter. Black tea is believed to help your cardiovascular system, as well as to help kill bacteria that causes bad breath. As it is the easiest to ship and uses lesser quality leaves, black tea tends to be the cheapest of the three types of tea.
I hope that this post has helped some of you get a little better at making tea, or served as a refresher for what you already knew. If you have any questions about the types of tea leaves, leave it in the comments below. I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU ALL
Toodles!
