The plant has shiny green leaves and small white flowers. Like coffee plants, the plants can grow to 30 feet in the wild, but they tea trees are pruned to around 3 feet for cultivation. Actually, the tea tree's leaves and the coffee plant's leaves look somewhat similar, only the tea leaves are smaller. Black tea undergoes a complete fermentation process. Leaves are picked, left to wither slightly, then they are rolled.
Internal enzymes cause fermentation.
The tea is then sorted and packaged. Oolong tea is semi-fermented tea, produced with larger leaves. The fermentation process is stopped by firing the tea earlier than black tea. Green tea is produced by steaming the leaves right away, thus destroying the enzymes that would begin the fermentation process. The tea is then dried in the sun, fired, sorted and packaged.