Tea is made from a specific plant, the tea shrub (Camellia sinensis).
These infusions might be called tea, but they are tea in the same way as a hotdog is a heated companionable mammal.
Except if you talk about Kukicha, then it’s made from the stems of the tea shrub. The important part here is the tea shrub. Without tea in it, it just ain’t tea.
Technically, these are all decoctions, and “decoction of tea (the plant)” has become just “tea”, which is now colloquially replaced “decoction”.
So in the sense I was using tea, as a replacement for “decoction”, coffee is a “tea”, insofar that the replaced word, “decoction”, boiled plant matter drink.
Language isn’t quite as black as white as we’d sometimes wish it was.
Asian cultures called various hot beverages tea 茶 before some Westerner decided that they are wrong. Sure there is green tea from that plant but Asian cultures also had mint or chrysanthemum tea using the same 茶 character (pudina chai in India for mint tea).
If anything, the Westerner who decided that beverages made from only that specific shrub is called tea was the wrong one. Broader uses predate your definition.
Then it’s not tea, it’s an infusion or decoction.
Tea is made from a specific plant, the tea shrub (Camellia sinensis).
These infusions might be called tea, but they are tea in the same way as a hotdog is a heated companionable mammal.
Except if you talk about Kukicha, then it’s made from the stems of the tea shrub. The important part here is the tea shrub. Without tea in it, it just ain’t tea.
Technically, these are all decoctions, and “decoction of tea (the plant)” has become just “tea”, which is now colloquially replaced “decoction”.
So in the sense I was using tea, as a replacement for “decoction”, coffee is a “tea”, insofar that the replaced word, “decoction”, boiled plant matter drink.
Language isn’t quite as black as white as we’d sometimes wish it was.
So you’re not wrong, per se, but neither am I.
Asian cultures called various hot beverages tea 茶 before some Westerner decided that they are wrong. Sure there is green tea from that plant but Asian cultures also had mint or chrysanthemum tea using the same 茶 character (pudina chai in India for mint tea).
If anything, the Westerner who decided that beverages made from only that specific shrub is called tea was the wrong one. Broader uses predate your definition.
Thanks for correcting me then
Non-tea teas are usually referred to as tisanes by those who care enough to make a distinction between the two