Chinese Tea Categories 茶类

How Chinese Tea Categories Work

Chinese tea categories are organized primarily by processing, not by plant species. Most come from Camellia sinensis, but heating, withering, rolling, oxidation, roasting, scenting, fermentation, and aging create very different results in the cup.

Use this page as a map. Start with oxidation and fermentation to understand the broad style, then move into individual regions and teas to understand why two teas in the same category can still taste dramatically different. Category is the first filter; origin, cultivar, harvest, and craft are what make a tea specific.

The most useful way to learn categories is comparative. Brew a green tea next to a yellow tea, a white tea next to a light oolong, or a black tea next to a dark tea, and keep the water, vessel, and leaf amount steady. The differences in aroma, body, bitterness, sweetness, and aftertaste make the processing categories easier to remember than definitions alone.