Chuchu Liu

Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, China
Author    Correspondence author
Journal of Tea Science Research, 2023, Vol. 13, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2023.13.0003
Received: 14 Aug., 2023    Accepted: 25 Aug., 2023    Published: 01 Sep., 2023

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Liu C.C., 2023, The Domestication process of tea and the formation of tea varieties, Journal of Tea Science Research, 13(3): 1-11 (doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2023.13.0003)

China, as the homeland of tea, is one of the earliest countries to discover and utilize tea. The domestication of tea and the formation of tea varieties are reflections of ancient Chinese wisdom and labor, and they play a crucial role in the development of Chinese tea industry. This review provides an overview of the origin of tea and the interaction between wild tea trees and humans, as well as the preliminary domestication practices. It explores the biological mechanisms of tea tree domestication, including artificial selection and breeding, genetic variation within tea tree individuals, and hybridization of different tea tree varieties. The domestication process of tea and the formation of different tea varieties are systematically examined, and the impacts on the tea industry are analyzed. The paper concludes by emphasizing the historical significance of tea domestication and the formation of tea varieties in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of their importance.

Tea domestication; Tea variety formation; Wild tea tree; Tea industry; Tea culture