Across the globe, drinking tea is second only to enjoying a glass of water. In 2020, according to the Tea Association of the US, American consumers drank more than 84B servings of tea. Tea’s future is also bright; today, US retail market sales for all forms of tea are around $13B. And those numbers are considerably magnified when you count all the beverages that consumers call “tea.”
Technically, true tea only includes what is derived from the leaves and flower buds of the Camellia sinensis shrub. Herbal teas and similar botanical beverages are not true teas. Herbals are made from bark, fruit, flowers, leaves, roots, and seeds.