Although tea is divided into real and fake, the fake tea we refer to is not counterfeit or inferior tea leaves.

Any tea made from fresh leaves picked from the tea plant and processed is considered real tea. Fake tea refers to products made from the buds and leaves of other, non-tea plants that resemble tea leaves.

At a quick glance, the raw materials for fake tea look similar to tea leaves. Commonly used plants include privet leaves, holly leaves, mulberry leaves, willow leaves, and honeysuckle leaves. These are mixed into the raw tea material and processed together to create strips or granules identical to tea, making it difficult to distinguish between real and fake tea.

Real tea contains caffeine and catechins, and teas on the market have their unique processing techniques, which fake tea lacks. Additionally, real tea leaves have serrated edges—the serrations are dense and deep on the upper half of the leaf, sparse on the lower half, and smooth near the leaf stem with no serrations. Most fake teas either have serrations all around the leaf edge or no serrations at all. The most intuitive method is to observe the color of the tea liquor to differentiate between real and fake tea.