Tea Preservation

So I've always loved tea.

When I was growing up my mom had huge patches of different kinds of tea that we would freeze and make into tea (the drinking kind...)

I felt like it was kind of a sign then, when Kyle and I saw our new house that we'd be renting and it had a HUGE tea patch growing under our stairs. We rented the house and here I am the next summer, trying to not mess up this tea patch.

So far, I've noticed there are two kinds of tea (I can tell by the appearance) but I don't know which is which. Also, since it had started growing up, I've noticed alot of bug spots (or something) on the leaves - especially on the one kind of tea. Since then I've bought some Sevin and sprayed the leaves down - this was two weeks ago.

The new growth since then seems less buggy and more promising.

In a week or so, I might start to harvest the leaves and I'm trying to figure out what the best way to preserve it is - freeze? dry? something else?

So far I've found one website that recommends boiling the leaves and creating a syrup that could be canned and used to make tea (the liquid kind). I'm going to keep doing some research and see what other methods are recommended.