None of the other Camellias are used for tea, but your question isn't dumb.

camellia oleifera seeds (as well as c. sinensis seeds) are used to produce camellia oil or tea oil, an edible/multi-purpose oil. guess that would be a food.

Here is a link that might be useful: tea oil camellia

Sinensis evolved -in time- as the one to use for tea. While you can try to produce tea using leaves off the other varieties, the sinensis leaves' flavor would be great but the others would just not taste as good.

Camellia Japonica can be used to make tea as well. The flavor is decent, but the major difference is the caffeine content. Japonica seems much more potent, even when processed as green tea.

Hi Merrybookwyrm, I thought your question was an excellent one. Shows some minds can still think outside the box, which I for one find refreshing.
My two cents worth. The genus Camellia is obviously not poisonous so why not be able to make tea from any of them.
I love seeing the travel shows on P.B.S. when they are showing the camellia sinensis plantations just amazing like a corn field here in the U.S. acres upon acres of shrubs that hard working folks pick on a regular schedule. Happy to see your question and just as happy to see intelligent people answering.

Good to hear I can try the camellia japonica for tea, which I will do with the new leaves.

Also, I found the camellia sinensis for sale as a 4-inch potted plant at Logee's in Connecticut and am ordering a couple of them. I tried to grow it from seed, which has failed to sprout, and now will jump start my tea growing plantation with a pair of the plants from Logee's.

They will be planted in Mobile AL, where camellias are evergreen and flourish year round. Instead of potting them, they will be planted in the garden.

Camellia sinensis is one of only a few Camellia species that contain caffeine. The more common species, Japonica and Sasanqua do not contain caffeine. I had a customer once who purchased Camellia sasanqua and tried to make tea from it, but wondered what he was doing wrong!

@SavannahNana
Actually what you are claiming is patently false. There are a number of studies on the purine patterns of different Camellia species, and at least one has found quite high amounts of caffeine in Camellia japonica (>5% per weight in dry leaves; http://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/ArticleFullRecord.jsp?cn=OOJJBO_2004_v12n3_183)
So just go for it, while not all cultivars will be equally potent, it should be possible to find one which is just as good as green or black tea.
I envy you guys who can easily grow Camellias outdoors, go for it! :-)

Thank you, everyone. I'm sorry I hadn't seen any of your wonderful answers. Chalk it up to being unwell. I appreciate every one of them.

Hope you are feeling better now, Merrybookwyrm!

My c. sinensis plants are about 4 feet tall now, one of them bloomed and set seed-apples. My two c. sasanqua trees are in bloom as we speak, and a great many seedlings are growing beneath the one which always sets the seed-apples. Today when I walked back there, the fragrance was wonderful, and Gulf fritillary butterflies were fluttering around the sasanquas, which were graced by the butterfly's host plant, passiflora vines. I did not know camellias had fragrance, but SOMETHING is at work in my garden. Could it be that passiflora edula or p. incarnata have fragrance?

Hello am looking for C.sinensis seed , anyone have some to spare . I would like to trade with other Camellia or veggie seeds or herb thanks,

http://pandragonathome.blogspot.com/2009/11/making-black-tea-from-your-camellia.html

This blogger is in Australia. She has camellia japonicas and sasanquas, same as I grow here in Alabama. I also have 3 camellia sinensis that I bought from Logees. Camellias do not grow fast, so if you are buying a plant, get the largest one you can afford. They grow very well in containers.

I tried from seed twice and didn't get either to germinate. I tried in the house, greenhouse, stratification, outdoors, etc. I am considering buying a couple online of all places. I really like this tread. I have about 30 10 foot tall camellias and have been trying to nail down varieties. I may take a small bag of each and do a trial sometimes because I am doing quite a few trials now already and well why not. Anybody know a way to measure caffeine levels? I have willow juice and if I find a good variety that is old I should be able to take cuttings.

I tried propagate from seeds and got 7 seedlings before , racoon knock down all of them the root exposed all night ,in the morning i repotted but all din't not survive .

I've done some quick research, and it is possible to use some other species for tea, but they have very negligible levels of caffeine, and that's one of the major reasons people drank tea.