BackgroundExisting research indicates that tea drinking may exert beneficiary effects on mental health. However, associations between different types of tea intake and mental health such as depression are not fully examined. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations of green tea, fermented tea, and flowering tea consumption with depressive symptoms.MethodsWe used data from the 2018 wave of Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. The type (green, fermented [black, Oolong, white, yellow, dark, and compressed teas], and flower) and frequency of tea consumption and depressive symptoms for 13,115 participants were assessed. We examined the associations between type and frequency of tea intake and depression, controlling for a set of demographic, socioeconomic, psychosocial, behavioral, and health-related variables. ResultsOverall, intake of green tea, fermented tea, and flower tea were all significantly associated with a lower prevalence of depression, independent of other risk factors. Compared with the group for no tea intake, the adjusted ORs for daily green tea, fermented tea, and flower tea intake were 0.85 (0.76-0.95), 0.87 (0.76-0.99), and 0.70 (0.59-0.82), respectively. Linear associations were observed between frequency of all types of tea intake with depressive symptoms (Ps for trend<0.05). The associations of type and frequency of tea intake and depressive symptoms were robust in several sensitivity analyses.ConclusionsAmong Chinese old adults, regularly consumed any type of tea (green, fermented or flower) were less likely to show depressive symptoms, the associations seemed more pronounced among flower tea and green tea drinkers.