Since you have spent time and money finding the best product you can lay your hands on, it stands to reason that you should prepare that fine cup of tea in just the right way. Since few of us have the time for the full five-hour ritual of a Japanese tea ceremony, here are some tips to brew the perfect cup of tea but in a little less time.

Regardless of what some folks may think, white tea is not black tea with too much milk added to it. Instead, the name refers to leaves that are picked from the same plant as green tea, but which undergo a very different process. It begins with the rolled buds of the Camellia Sinensis plant, but suffers no oxidation.

Traditionally, especially in the old cowboy westerns, the good guy always wore a white hat but not so when it comes to tea drinking as black is definitely the good guy. All true tea is the product of the leaves of the Camellia Sinensis plant. However, what a difference a little oxygen and sunlight can make. Green tea is very lightly oxidized with Oolong moderately so and black tea the most heavily oxidized of them all. There is even a fourth variety, white tea, which rarely makes it to western shores.