Life in Mainland China
The six types of Chinese tea
Green, white, yellow, oolong, black and dark all come from one plant. What makes them different is what happens to the leaf after it is picked.
Play: Temperatures and namesEvery tea comes from the leaves of Camellia sinensis. China sorts its teas into six families by one question: how far is the leaf allowed to oxidise, as a cut apple browns, before it is heated to stop it? Green tea not at all; black tea all the way; dark tea is fermented by microbes after it is made.
Not oxidisedFully oxidised, then aged
Green tea
How it is made. Picked, then heated quickly (in a wok, or by steam) to stop the leaf oxidising, then rolled and dried.
In the cup. Fresh, grassy, sometimes nutty or like chestnut; pale green-gold in the cup.
Brewing. Not boiling: around 75 to 85°C, or the leaves stew and turn bitter.
- Longjing (Dragon Well) · Hangzhou, Zhejiang
- Biluochun · Suzhou, Jiangsu
- Huangshan Maofeng · Anhui
- Xinyang Maojian · Henan
White tea
How it is made. Only withered and dried. No rolling and no heating, so it changes slowly on its own.
In the cup. Soft, sweet and honeyed; a pale apricot colour.
Brewing. Around 80 to 90°C.
- Silver Needle · Fuding, Fujian
- White Peony · Fujian
Yellow tea
How it is made. Made like green tea, with one more step: the warm, damp leaves are wrapped and left to 'sweat', which turns them yellow and mellows them.
In the cup. Mellower and less grassy than green tea; the rarest of the six.
Brewing. Around 75 to 85°C.
- Junshan Yinzhen · Junshan Island, Hunan
- Mengding Huangya · Sichuan
Oolong
How it is made. The leaves are bruised by tossing so their edges oxidise, then heated to stop it, rolled and often roasted.
In the cup. From flowery and creamy to roasted and mineral; brewed many times from the same leaves.
Brewing. Just off the boil, about 90 to 100°C, in short steeps.
- Tieguanyin · Anxi, Fujian
- Da Hong Pao · Wuyi Mountains, Fujian
- Phoenix Dancong · Chaozhou, Guangdong
Black tea, called red tea in China
How it is made. Withered, rolled and left to oxidise fully before drying. China calls it red tea, after the colour in the cup; 'black tea' in Chinese means the dark teas below.
In the cup. Malty, sweet, sometimes like cocoa or dried fruit; red-amber in the cup.
Brewing. Around 90 to 100°C.
- Keemun · Qimen, Anhui
- Dianhong · Yunnan
- Lapsang Souchong · Wuyi Mountains, Fujian
Dark tea
How it is made. Made green, then piled damp so microbes ferment it, and often pressed into cakes or bricks that keep ageing for years.
In the cup. Earthy, smooth and deep; dark red-brown in the cup.
Brewing. Boiling, after a quick first rinse of the leaves.
- Ripe pu'er · Yunnan
- Liubao · Guangxi
- Anhua dark brick · Hunan
How tea is drunk
In offices and on trains, people drink green tea from a tall glass or a flask with the leaves loose in it, topping up with hot water all day. In Fujian and Guangdong, gongfu tea is made with a lot of leaf in a tiny pot or a lidded bowl, poured into thimble-sized cups in many short infusions. In Guangdong's teahouses, tea is the reason for the meal.
Temperatures and names
Pick the water temperature for each tea, then name a few famous ones. A perfect round earns the tea stamp.
How hot should the water be for green tea?
Answer
75-85°C. Not boiling: around 75 to 85°C, or the leaves stew and turn bitter.
How hot should the water be for white tea?
Answer
75-85°C. Around 80 to 90°C.
How hot should the water be for yellow tea?
Answer
75-85°C. Around 75 to 85°C.
How hot should the water be for oolong?
Answer
90-100°C. Just off the boil, about 90 to 100°C, in short steeps.
How hot should the water be for black tea?
Answer
90-100°C. Around 90 to 100°C.
How hot should the water be for dark tea?
Answer
90-100°C. Boiling, after a quick first rinse of the leaves.
Longjing, picked on the hills above Hangzhou's West Lake, is which type?
Answer
Green. Green: pan-fired flat in a wok right after picking, so it never oxidises.
Red tea takes its name from what?
Answer
The colour in the cup. The colour in the cup. It is sold in English as black tea; in Chinese, black tea means dark teas like Liubao.
Tieguanyin and Da Hong Pao, both from Fujian, are which type?
Answer
Oolong. Oolong: partly oxidised, between green and black, and brewed again and again in small pots.
Which tea is pressed into cakes and gets better with age?
Answer
Pu'er. Pu'er, from Yunnan, pressed into cakes and bricks; good ones are kept for decades.
Tea went out into the world as both 'te' and 'cha'. Why the two forms?
Answer
Two trade routes, two dialects. Tea shipped by sea from Fujian carried the local 'te'; overland routes carried 'cha' to Persia, Russia and India.