well, it started innocently on a Sunday afternoon 2 days ago. As we were walking towards the bus stop after church service, one of my friends asked another why he looked so tired. To which my groggy-eyed friend said around 2 a.m. in the wee hours of the morning, because he drank too much tea prior in the afternoon. This led to a short debate why tea is not as strong as a stimulant as coffee*, despite having a higher caffeine content by weight.
well, my only contribution to that was there is only ONE kind of tea plant in the world, despite the many kind of varieties and type of teas on the market. It just depends on the processing. Well, the majority of my friends disagreed with me, telling me cannot be la, because of the multitude of tea we get on the market, definitely there has to be more than one kind of tea plant, right? Only one agreed with me that the processing will make leads to different kind of teas. However, there should be more than one kind of tea plant, since she logically puts for the argument that you cannot process the Indian Darjeeling tea leaves as you would for a Chinese Oo-long （乌龙）tea.
well, all this piqued my interest in tea again. I remembered that an old friend told me a very long time ago that there is only one tea plant. So I hit the library in search of an easy-to-read book for all my questions. I got Tea Basics: A Quick and Easy Guide by Wendy Rasmussen and Ric Rhinehart. It's an American publication, and gives a brief introduction to the the coffee-insatiable American** what is the drink all about. Here is what the authors wrote in answer to how many kind of tea plants are there in the world:
" The One True Leaf: Camellia sinensis
When we refer to tea, we are talking about the dried, processed leaves of a single plant, the Camellia sinesis. The tea plant is an evergreen, perennial shrub of the genus Camellia, which thrives in subtropics and highland tropic regions. Camellia sinesis is one of the over 82 species in the genus Camelia. Gardeners and landscapers are very familiar with its cousin, the Camellia japonica, which is often planted in North America as an evergreen hedge in areas that are free of killing frosts. The tea plant is very similar to this ornamental plant, and can be cultivated in most frost-free regions as an interesting addition to the garden. There are four varieties of the tea plant which are cultivated commercially: the China types, Assam (India) types, Hybrid types (a cross of China and Assam types), and Cambodia types."
well, it still did not put the question to rest in my mind. So technically there is only one tea plant (the Camellia sinesis), but there are a few types... So how many kinds are there?? Then I'm reminded of domesticated dogs. Technically there is only "kind" of dog ( the Canis lupus familiaris) but you can have many varieties within that kind ( Chow Chow, Shar Pei, Akita Inu, Shiba Inu, Basenji, Dalmation, Jack Russel, Maltese, Chihuahua, Irish Wolfhound, just to name a few... :p) You can use a sperm from a male Chihuahua and used it to fertilize the egg of a female Shar Pei, and the end product will still be a dog of the Canis lupus familiaris, albeit a very strange hybrid if that works...
So in the end, there can be only One Tea (cue soundtrack from "Highlander"***)... 
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*tea lovers will dispute this...
** a stereotype, which is founded upon the fact on how many Starbucks joint you can find on an American street... :P
*** Too bad the Highlander isn't Irish, because according to the book, the Irish drinks the most tea (per capita consumption) about 3.83 cups. But the book is 7 years old, so it might be outdated by now...
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For more about tea, goto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea
Chinee entry: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8C%B6
For dogs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs
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