Chinese Tea Classification
The main varieties of Chinese tea are classified as green tea, red tea (black tea), Wulong tea, white tea, yellow tea, and reprocessed tea.
Green Tea
Green tea is also called unfermentated tea. It is made with the new shoots of appropriate tea trees as raw materials, by applying the typical techniques of inactivation, rolling and drying. According to the drying and inactivation techniques, it is sub-divided into stir-fried green tea, roasted green tea, sun-dried green tea and steamed green tea. Green tea has the characteristics of "green leaves in a clear soup with a strong astringent taste ". It is the tea category with the longest history (more than three thousand years) and also the one with the largest output in China. The production areas are mainly distributed in central eastern provinces such as Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi.
Famous green teas include: West Lake Dragon Well Tea, Xinyang Maojian Tea and Biluochun Tea.
West Lake Dragon Well Tea
West Lake Dragon Well is called Dragon Well for short. The tea of this name is produced in the mountainous regions around Longjing (Dragon Well) Village to the southwest of West Lake in Hangzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. Dragon Well Tea has four wonderful features, its color, its fragrance, its flavor and its shape. It is emerald in color, thick in fragrance, sweet and refreshing in flavor and its leaves are the shape of a sparrow's tongue. The compounds contained in Dragon Well Tea, such as amino acid, catechu (an astringent substance used in medicine, dyeing, tanning, etc.) and vitamins, have the effects of stimulating the production of bodily fluids, quenching thirst, refreshing, speeding up thinking, aiding digestion, removing greasiness, reducing inflammation and detoxification.
Red Tea (Black Tea)
Red Tea is also called fermented tea. Only the new shoots of tea leaves are suitable for use as the raw material for making this tea. It is exquisitely made through the typical technical processes of wilting, rolling, fermentation and drying. Its infusion is mainly red in tone. Hence what is known as black tea elsewhere is known as red tea in China. As the second largest tea category in China, it is divided into the subcategories: Gongfu Black Tea and Smashed Black Tea.
Famous brands include Dianhong Red Tea and Yixing Red Tea.
Wulong Tea
Wulong (Oolong) Tea is also called blue tea, and is an unfermented tea. It is a tea category with some unique and distinctive characteristics. Wulong tea, as a blend of green tea and red tea, has qualities of both green tea and red tea. It not only has the thick and fresh flavor of red tea, but also has the pleasant fragrance of green tea. It is affectionately known as green leaves with a red edge. Wulong tea decomposes fat, resulting in weight loss and greater fitness. It is regarded as a beauty and fitness product in Japan.
Exemplary brands of Wulong tea include: Wenshan Baozhong Tea, Anxi Tieguanyin, Dongding Wulong Tea and Wuyi Dahongpao.
White Tea
White tea is uncured, unfermented, fast-dried green tea. It is a speciality of Fujian province. It got its name from the recourse of poor Chinese of offering boiled water to guests if they didn't have any tea, which they called "white tea" (the word for white can mean plain in Chinese). Thus they would save face and come across as routinely hospitable. As might be imagined white tea is lighter in color and flavor than other teas.
A couple of famous Fujianese white teas are Baihao Yinzhen (Baihao is a place name and Yinzhen means Silver Needle) and Bai Mudan (White Peony).
Yellow Tea
Yellow Tea is produced by letting damp tea leaves naturally yellow. It has an original smell, which could be mistaken for red tea if it is cured with herbs, but its taste is most similar to green and white teas. Yellow Tea is also a term used to decribed the top-quality tea served to the emperor, because the imperial color has traditionally been yellow.
Junshan Yinzhen is China's most famous yellow tea. It is made in Junshan in Hunan Province and Yinzhen means silver needle, probably a reference to the tiny white hairs on the tea leaves.
Reprocessed Tea
These products, which are made by taking teas from the categories above as materials and reprocessing them, is called reprocessed tea. The product range includes scented tea, pressed tea, instant tea, extracted tea, fruit tea, medicinal tea and health tea, which have a variety of flavors and effects.
Scented teas include Jasmine tea and Pearl Orchid scented tea; pressed teas include Tuo Tea and Liubao Tea; instant teas include the brand Green Source .
Scented Tea
Scented tea is made by mixing and aromatizing tea leaves with scented flowers, letting the tea assimilate the fragrance of the flowers by taking advantage of the absorptivity of tea leaves. The dhool (a collection of tea leaves prior to drying) used for aromatization of a scented tea is mainly roasted green tea and a small amount of slender and tender stir-fried green tea. When processing the scented tea, the dhool and fresh fragrant flowers are piled up layer upon layer so that tea assimilates the fragrance of flowers. When the tea has absorbed the flowers' scent new flowers are added and the process repated. The degree of fragrance of a scented tea depends on the quantity of flowers being used and the time of aromatization.The ordinary scented tea sold in the market is generally only aromatized once or twice.
Scented tea has a strong fragrance, which can help in sobering up after being drunk. It is especially liked by people in north and Northeastern areas of China. In recent years, it has also been sold abroad. Examples are Jasmine Tea, Pearl Orchid Scented Tea, Rose Tea and Sweet-Scented Osmanthus Tea.
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