Do You Drink the Leaf?

Waterfall in Hot Springs, Virginia

While on vacation in the Allegheny mountains of Virginia enjoying nature and waterfall vistas, I had my morning tea at the Omni Homestead Resort.  Room service provided an exquisite tea bag designed to look like a plant.  It looked like a leaf was growing from it!

 

It may come as a surprise for some that all teas (white, green, black, oolong, and pu-reh) come from the same plant.  The tea plant is an evergreen shrub known as the Camellia sinensis.  Its leaves and buds are used to make tea. 

There are two varieties of the tea plant.  Camellia sinensis variety sinensis is considered most likely native to western Yunnan in China. Camellia sinensis variety assamica is native to the warmer parts of Assam (India), Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and southern China. [1]

I'm not sure which of the two varieties was in my morning black tea.  But Tea Forte's exquisite tea bag design was a visual reminder that my choice of morning beverage was from the Camellia sinensis plant. 

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[1]        http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-fungi/camellia-sinensis-tea