@dannytoro1
C. sinensis ‘Sochi’ was selected from domesticated or feral plants in the greater Sochi area. The political jurisdiction at the time of selection is unclear. The cultivar has been widely distributed, so importation to the U.S. from other countries is not surprising.
‘Sochi’ has been described by some authors and sellers as an “Assam” variety. Others dispute this, believing there is also var. sinensis somewhere in its ancestry. At present the scientific community does not have tools to resolve this dispute from DNA – even though some misinformed investigators believe otherwise. I’d be surprised if such tools become available in this decade.
If you like the flavor of black tea, but want to avoid caffeine, I suspect you’d really like Siberian tea (чигирский чай) made from the desiccated leaves of Bergenia crassifolia (syn. B. cordifolia) which is a very common landscape plant in the US. I actually really love it and can’t wait for my plantings to become established enough for larger harvests.
I would assume there to be minor variations, but I haven’t done a comparison. Some of what is commercially available is actually of hybrid origin with other Bergenia species so I imagine that would add additional variation. I’m not aware of any Bergenia species being unsafe to consume as tea, but prefer to stick with straight B. crassifolia to be safe since it is the one most used in this way. Many of the other species were used for their rhizomes instead of their leaves and I’m not sure if that’s just a matter of chance of if there’s a good reason for it.
I have been growing black tea plants for many years (20?) and making matcha out of it. Several health authorities claim that matcha is better for you than black tea because you get the whole leaf-not just the aquatic extraction. I don’t know. I just try to read what they say.
I harvest the leaves in the summer, dry them and grind them up. I don’t particularly like the flavor of matcha, so I just sprinkle it on my hummus. Hummus is one of my go to’s if something is healthy but not very good tasting. Like amla powder and raw garlic as well.
According to the marvelous teachings of Teavana, all the colored teas (white/oolang/black/green) come from the Camellia sinensis plant and the color just indicates how they long they were fermented for. So technically there’s no such thing as a black tea plant
Most people say black tea so they aren’t confusing it with mint tea, green tea, etc. Some people prefer the flavor of black tea over the flavor of green tea. Also, some people like me prefer the price of black tea when I’m ordering out over the price of green tea, white tea, etc…
It’s true and not true. Camilla sinensis includes large cultivars. Each cultivar has its own product features. Some are larger leaves, some are smaller leaves, some contains more caffeine, some contains less caffeine… different cultivars are suitable for making different types of retail tea products
There is another tea farm in Pickens, SC (Table Rock Tea) about 4 hours inland from Charleston with a growing zone of 7B. You’d be surprised by how cold hardy they are but they need to be grown from seeds and not cuttings
