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All tea essentially comes from the same plant, the Camellia Sinensis, a tropical relative of the Camellia Japonica. The differences between the four major categories - black, green, oolong and white - are a result of variations in the processing of the leaves after picking. For the manufacturing of fine quality tea, only the top two leaves called pekoe (P) and orange pekoe (OP), and the not yet fully open leaf bud called flowery orange pekoe (FOP) are used.

The production of tea is labour intensive, with every step essential to achieve superior quality.

During the production process, the tea leaves may be broken or crushed so that the unsorted, but otherwise finished tea consists of full leaves, broken leaves and smaller particles called fannings. As the steeping time of tea increases with the size of the leaves, the tea must be sorted by size before it can be packed and sold. The teas brewed from different sized leaves will generally have different characteristics. Whole leaves are generally more delicate and aromatic with a lighter infusion, broken teas are usually stronger or heartier with a darker infusion.

The small particle (fanning) and the even smaller tea dust are usually the result of a fully automated production process and used for commercial grade tea bags. While these have the advantage of requiring only a short infusion time, the aroma and flavour of these teas cannot be compared to finer teas.