Major Tea Growing Regions of the World

China: the birthplace

China grows more tea types than anywhere else, and regions specialize sharply. Fujian is famous for oolong and white tea, Zhejiang for pan-fired green teas like Dragon Well, and Yunnan for pu-erh made from old-growth trees.

Because China invented most processing methods, a single province can produce green, white, oolong and dark tea from the same bushes, just handled differently after picking.

India and Sri Lanka

Assam, in northeast India, is hot and humid and produces bold, malty black tea. Darjeeling, in the Himalayan foothills, grows more slowly at altitude and gives a lighter, muscatel-scented cup often called the 'champagne of teas'.

Sri Lanka, still widely sold under its old name Ceylon, produces brisk, citrusy black teas, with the best high-grown lots coming from central highland estates like Nuwara Eliya.

• Assam: bold, malty black tea, low elevation
• Darjeeling: light, floral, muscatel notes, high elevation
• Nilgiri: fragrant, fast-brewing black tea from South India
• Ceylon (Sri Lanka): brisk, citrusy, widely blended

Japan and Taiwan

Japan focuses almost entirely on green tea, steaming leaves instead of pan-firing them, which gives sencha and gyokuro their grassy, umami-forward character. Shizuoka and Kagoshima are the largest producing regions.

Taiwan is oolong territory, particularly high-mountain (gaoshan) oolongs grown above 3,000 feet, prized for their creamy texture and floral aroma.

Newer producing countries

Kenya is now one of the largest tea exporters in the world, mostly producing CTC (crush-tear-curl) black tea for blends rather than single-origin leaf.

Nepal, Vietnam and parts of East Africa are increasingly producing orthodox loose-leaf tea aimed at specialty markets, often at lower prices than comparable Chinese or Indian leaf.