I am sure this has been dealt with before on the boards, but the hamsters don’t seem to like the word tea today, so I thought I’d ask just what is the difference between green tea and black tea (besides the color), and which one, if not both, has all those supposed cancer-fighting qualities? And if one is just buying Lipton or any other regular tea, is that black or green? The boxes don’t always say one way or the other. Thanks for any info.
There are many differences between green and black tea.
First, green tea and black tea taste very different. To my palette, green teas are usually a little blander, and if steeped too long can become quite bitter. I’m not really sure what the rest of the differences are, although I’d wager that it has something to do with the family of plants that the tea leaves are prepared from.
As for lipton, those would definitely be black teas. Generally, if your tea is brownish, then it came from a black tea leaf. If it is greenish, or clearish, then it probably came from a green tea or an herbal tea. Of course, there are always exceptions.
Darkness in tea is caused by a process called “fermentation.” It’s actually more aptly called oxidization. The longer the tea sits after it is picked, the more it oxidizes. The process of oxidization is halted when the leaves are dried, often by heating them.
Black tea is the most highly oxidized, and contains the most caffeine. The next most oxidized is oolong, followed by green, and the least oxidized is white tea.
Most tea is black. If you want green tea, you should make sure that it says “green” on the package.
I’m not sure what type is healthier. I’ve heard contradicting reports, but both are supposedly “good” for you in one sense or another. Myself, I’d still drink tea, even if it caused cancer. 
If you’d like to try green tea, please note that steeping it for too long or in water that is too hot will make it bitter and vile. Unfortunately, most packaged green tea has bad directions on the backage! I can’t imagine how many people sit down to try a cup, and find it completely undrinkable. The water should not be boiling. It should be somewhere in the range of 160-180[sup]o[/sup]F. It’s best to check the temperature with a thermometer. Also, do not steep for more than 3 minutes–and for some tea, 2 minutes is better.
If you delve through the prose on Lipton Tea’s website, they say that black tea is crushed and then dried, oolong tea is too, but for a shorter time, and green tea is plain tea leaves.
It’s green tea that has the supposed cancer-fighting qualities, and the Lipton tea you get off the shelf is black tea.
Oh, and herbal teas are not strictly teas; rather, they are “infusions”. Teas are brewed from leaves of the tea tree, Camellia sinensis.
BAH! LIPTON black tea is crushed! Ptui! The process is called CTC (Cut-torn-crushed), and it’s suitable only for making low quality tea in teabags.
Good black tea (or good tea of any variety, for that matter) is not crushed.
(Sorry. Tea snob. Don’t mind me.)
Green Tea is widely considered to have the most health benefits via catechins and polyphenols, though white tea, an even less processed version is now getting the hype. It also contains the amino acid L-theanine which supposedly promotes relaxation (I agree it does - I take it seperately when stressed). They are the same plant, Camellia Sinensis, but are processed (oxidized, fermented, etc) differently. Here is some info:
http://www.inpursuitoftea.com/types.htm
I drink Gyokuro green tea myself and buy it straight from Japan.
On the other hand, black tea must be made with boiling water. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been served something made with warm or merely hot water in American restaurants that tasted like dishwater. Bleah. Oh, and black tea must not be steeped more than 5 minutes, ever.
And, please, if you’re going to use tea bag, don’t ever ever ever reuse a tea bag. Disgusting.
I’m sorry but I’ll do whatever I like and I prefer to let someone else use the teabag first and then put it in my cup because the tea is not so bitter. I like my tea pretty weak so it works well for me.
Because they’re brewed for shorter times at lower temperatures, oolong, green and white tea leaves can usually be used for multiple infusions. Later infusions often have subtle differences in flavor.
(More tea snobbery: In my not-so humble opinion, you should never use a tea bag in the first place. Brewing loose tea and a good filter (such as a Swiss Gold) is almost as convenient as a tea bag and makes much better tea–especially considering that you can’t get high quality tea in bags. BTW, don’t bother with those stupid tea balls–they’re too small to let the tea leaves unfurl, and they’re hard to use and messy besides.)
Oh, and if you must use tea bags, don’t squeeze the bag, unless you like bitter tannins in your tea.
So… you paint with tea? That would make some interesting “watercolors” to be sure. But only two colors—green and black? That would kind of limit the chromatic range of your paintings.
Hmm… what does white tea taste like? I’m curious and might go out and try some.
From an impartial source:
http://wellnessletter.com/html/wl/2000/wlFeatured0300.html
Thanks, everyone, for informative replies. Gotta love the SD!
I say that the taste is subtle. My husband says it tastes like warm water. 
Good white tea is very light and slightly sweet. Really good white tea has an almost creamy taste.
I’ve seen at the grocery store that Republic of Tea makes a line of bagged white teas, some with fruit flavors. This strikes me as a bad idea, as tea bags are from Satan, and the idea of adding a bunch of fruit to a subtle and understated white tea is more than a bit silly. However, that might be the easiest way to get hold of some–unless you’re connected. 
My favorite tea stores: http://www.teasource.com or http://www.adagio.com .
White tea is even more delicate than green. Be very careful about water temperature, and do not oversteep!
I can’t believe my whole fricking post just got eaten. Anyway, I wasn’t quoting any of the sites for their information on health benefits. The first link (which sells all kinds of tea) was posted for descriptions of the different processes that go into the production of different kinds of tea and the second was my source for green tea should the OP be interested. But since we’re citing sources about health:
To start, the health benefits of green tea are better documented than those of black tea. While a similar quantity of green and black tea have similar quantities of polyphenols the composition is different. The fermentation process converts the catechins in green tea to theaflavins. While there are some studies that show that catechins and theaflavins have equivalent antioxidant properties, the same cannot be said of other beneficial properties associated with green tea (cholesterol, blood clotting, rheumatoid arthritis, anti-androgenic effects,and most importantly, cancer).
The most studied component of tea is at this point is probably the epigallocatechin complex…which is converted to theaflavins in black tea. There are 893 search hits in medline for epigallocatechine but only 82 for theaflavin.
The mechanism by which green tea might help in cancer prevention is not as simple as once believed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3125469.stm
If your drinking tea for health reasons, stick to the green stuff. Black tea may well be proven to be green tea’s equivalent or better in the future, but it hasn’t been yet. For the record I drink it for taste reasons.
Of course, REAL tea has bergamot.
Tea, Earl Gray, hot.
How would you compare the taste of white to green? Less grassy?
Yes, I’d say less grassy. Also not at all plum-like. There’s almost no sourness or sharpness to it. It also lacks the “baked” taste of oolong or black, of course. It sort of tastes the way nice fresh straw smells. Maybe a bit like camomile, but less rough, and sweeter.
As I’ve said, the taste is not very robust. It would be a crime to add sugar or milk to it, because you’d hardly be able to taste the tea at all.
It’s frustrating trying to describe tastes, isn’t it? I can imagine the taste of it on my tongue (and while responding to Speaker’s post I was even enjoying a cup of White Darjeeling from Adagio) but it’s hard to explain it in words, because there’s nothing quite like it. Maybe I should just say that it tastes like chicken?