Article To Understand Chinese Tea
China is the original place of tea trees and the earliest once in the world originates from Yunnan Province. Pu’er tea, as well as the black tea, is the most famous one in Yunnan. The Chinese tea culture originates from Sichuan Province with the representative ones of E’mei Mountain green tea and jasmine tea. Various tea products such as green tea, oolong tea, black tea, Pu'er tea, white tea and jasmine tea which have developed from ancient times to present days are just the crystallization of wisdom of Chinese ancestors over the past 3,000 years.
The tea-drinking culture is very prosperous in China. On different occasions such as home hospitality, political and business talks, reception of foreign guests, it is the necessary etiquette to entertain the guests with tea. Meanwhile, teahouses are booming all over the country and drinking tea in teahouses has become a part of social life. Various types of tea are favored by many fans and each one has its own features to enable the consumers with more choices. The most popular teas in the world are as follows: black tea, green tea and oolong tea.
Green tea is the non-fermented one.For the dry tea, the soup and leaves are mainly green in color,hence it’s named green tea with refreshing taste and rich variety.Green tea is planted in all provinces and cities in China represented by Longjing Tea,Biluochun Tea, Sichuan Green Tea, etc. |
Oolong tea is the semi-fermented one between green tea and black tea. It owns the fragrant flavor of black tea and the fresh fragrance of green tea represented by Taiwanese Oolong tea,Wuyi Mountain Dahongpao Tea, Anxi Tieguanyin Tea, etc. |
Black tea is the fully fermented one with red soup and red leaves.Because the dry tea is dark brown, it’s named the "black tea".The most well known is the black tea produced in Wuyi Mountain such as Jinjunmei Tea and Zhengshan Xiaozhou which are sweet and fragrant. |
Pu'er tea is the post-fermented one represented by Yunnan Pu'er ripe tea and Yunnan Pu'er raw tea.The fragrance will be stronger if the tea is preserved for more years.They are also rich in shapes, such as the cake,bricks, cones and loose types. |
White tea is the micro-fermented one with the Fuding white tea as the authentic. If you like the sweet and fragrant flavor,choose Baihao Yinzhen with all the buds;if you like sweet and refreshing flavor, choose the White Peony with one bud of two leaves; if you like the sweet and mellow flavor, choose the Gongmei with one bud of two or three leaves. |
Jasmine tea is the reprocessed one. When the green tea absorbs the scent of jasmine, it owns strong fragrance and refreshing flavor, such as Sichuan scented tea and Guangxi scented tea. |