Five thousand years of tea history has brewed up some sturdy nonsense. These are the seven we hear most across the counter — set straight in a sip each.

Myth 1: “Green and black tea come from different plants.” The biggest one of all. Every true tea — green, white, oolong, black, pu-erh — is one species, Camellia sinensis. The leaf never changes plant; it changes treatment. What happens in the hours after picking decides everything.

Myth 2: “Green tea is just bitter.” Green tea is scalded into bitterness, not born with it. Brewed at 70–80°C instead of boiling, the same leaf turns sweet and fresh. The kettle was the culprit all along.

Myth 3: “Steep it longer for a stronger cup.” Extra minutes don’t add strength — they add bitterness. Strength lives in the dose: more leaf, never more time. The house rule, worth tattooing on the tea tin.

Myth 4: “White tea is the low-caffeine choice.” Gentle in flavor, yes — gentle in caffeine, no. The plant guards its young buds with extra caffeine, so a Silver Needle can rival a black tea.

Myth 5: “A thirty-second rinse removes the caffeine.” The internet’s favorite trick removes perhaps a tenth of it. For a truly caffeine-free evening, the honest answer lives on the herbal shelf.

Myth 6: “Milk oolong is flavoured with milk.” Not a drop of dairy — and the real thing carries no flavouring at all. One gifted Taiwanese cultivar, Jin Xuan, simply grows up tasting of cream. Mountain mist does the rest.

Myth 7: “Red tea is its own kind of tea.” Depends where you’re standing. In China, “red tea” is black tea — named for its amber-red brew. In South Africa, it’s rooibos, which isn’t tea at all. Two meanings, zero new tea types.

Bonus myth: “Herbal tea is tea.” Strictly speaking, chamomile and friends are tisanes — no tea plant involved. We stock a whole wall of them anyway; caffeine-free is exactly the point.