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  • OUTLOOK

Genomic focus brings tea research to the boil

Genetic manipulation and innovative breeding techniques are paving the way to new tea varieties.
  1. Elie Dolgin

    1. Elie Dolgin is a science journalist in Somerville, Massachusetts.

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The ultimate test of tea’s quality is probably its taste. Credit: Fumiya Taniguchi

When people ask Tony Gebely to recommend a caffeine-free tea, he has a stock reply: “I usually just suggest an herbal tea.” But strictly speaking, herbal tea is not a type of tea at all. It’s a tisane — an infusion of spices, herbs, flowers or roots — rather than a beverage made from leaves of the plant Camellia sinensis, which is the source of true teas, be they black, green, yellow, white, pu-erh or oolong.

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Nature 566, S12-S13 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00400-w

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Tea, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

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