True tea from the camellia sinensis plant contains caffeine. Immediately knowing whether your plant brew contains caffeine or not is one very useful benefit of

True tea from the camellia sinensis plant contains caffeine. Immediately knowing whether your plant brew contains caffeine or not is one very useful benefit of using language carefully (tea vs tisane). Although yaupon contains caffeine, so would be better described as a caffeinated tisane. A simple reason to protect the word "tea" is that there is is an enormous variety, market, and culture of true tea cultivation, preparation, and consumption that just does not work with tisanes. Using tisane interchangeably with tea does a disservice to the enormous culture behind camellia sinensis. I don't see anything wrong with being precise with language.