The Chinese tea plantation area accounts for around 60% of the global total area, and tea plant flowers have become one of the major nectar sources for honeybees in China, especially during autumn and winter. However, the mechanism underlying the olfactory attraction of tea flowers to the honeybees is still unclear. In a lab Y-tube olfactometer bioassay, the potential behavioral activities of odors released and major volatile compounds identified from tea flowers and leaves of eight national elite tea cultivars to Chinese honey bee workers (Apis cerana cerana) were tested. The results showed that:(1) at 0.25-5.00 g range, flowers of all the eight cultivars significantly attracted the honeybees i.e. the numbers of bees chosen the flowers were significantly higher the those chosen CK (fresh air) at P < 0.05. (2) among the 27 main aromatic components identified from the tea flowers, following compounds each dissolved in paraffin, acetophenone (10^-6 g/mL), linalool (10^-6, 10^-2 g/mL), camphene (10^-4 g/mL), Z-3-hexen-1-ol (10^-10 g/mL), α-farnesene (10^-6, 10^-4, 10^-2 g/mL), decanal (10^-6 g/mL), β-lonone (10^-6 g/mL), linoleic acid (10^-4, 10^-2 g/mL), Z-2-penten-1-ol (10^-4 g/mL), and benzaldehyde (10^-2 g/mL) significantly attracted the honeybees (P < 0.05) when compared to the paraffin control; whereas methyl salicylate (10^-2 g/mL), nerol (10^-2 g/mL), and octanal (10^-6 g/mL) significantly repelled the honeybees (P < 0.05). (3) among the 24 major volatile components identified from fresh tea leaves, octadecanol (10^-4 g/mL), octanol (10^-2 g/mL), indol (10^-6 g/mL), citral (10^-2 g/mL), menthol (10^-6 g/mL), β-caryophyllene (10^-4 g/mL), and menthone (10^-4, 10^-2 g/mL) (each dissolved in paraffin) showed significant attraction to the honeybees (P < 0.05), whereas o-cresol (10^-2 g/mL), β-citronellol (10^-6 g/mL), 1,3-propanediol (10^-2 g/mL), α-terpinene (10^-6 g/mL), and pentanol (10^-4 g/mL) significantly repelled the honeybees (P < 0.05). In short, the odors from the tea flowers and some of their main aromatic components as well as the key tea leaf volatile components significantly attracted the honeybees, with acetophenone and linalool, each accounted for > 20% of the total tea flower aroma, being the strongest. Our results clearly showed that honeybee foragers are highly attracted to the aroma of tea flowers and leaves during the blossom seasons.