Classification of Tea

Since ancient times, there are a number of different methods of classifying tea. Tea can be classified by tea processing technology, origin, season, level, shape, or sales. For example, Lu Yu in Tang Dynasty, divided tea into coarse tea, loose tea, powdered tea, tea cakes; In Yuan Dynasty tea was divided into bud tea and leaf tea. After the founding of People’s Republic of China, according to the different degree of fermentation of tea and tea processing, tea was divided into non-fermented tea, semi-fermented tea, and fully-fermented tea, and divided tea into six basic teas and re-processing tea, namely: green tea, black tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, white tea and dark tea and re-processing tea, that is, scented tea and so on.

Sorting standards	Tea classification
Processing technical	Green tea, black tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, white tea, dark tea.
Origin	Chinese tea from Zhejiang, Fujian, Taiwan, Yunnan, Gansu and Anhui Provinces.
Harvesting time	Spring tea, summer tea, hot summer tea, autumn tea and winter tea.
Quality rating	Premium rating, first rating, second rating, third rating, fourth rating, and fifth rating…
Shape	Needle-shaped tea, flat tea, jade leaves, curved spiral tea, sheet-shaped tea, orchid-shaped tea, and single bud-shaped tea.
Selling place	Tea for overseas sales, tea for domestic sales, etc.
Processing degree	Early tea (raw tea leaves), refined tea (tea products), deep processing of tea (such as instant tea, tea polyphenols extract, etc.)
Fermentation degree	Non-fermented tea, slightly fermented tea, semi-fermented tea, fully-fermented tea, post-fermented tea.
Discovering time	Historical tea, modern tea.

 

Classification of tea

Green Tea

The history of green tea in China lasts at least 3000 years. It is one of the oldest teas in the world. There are three characteristics of green tea that are green dry leaves, green tea liquor and green wet leaves. It is harvested in early spring, and Chinese tea drinkers think that the top green tea is picked before Tombs Festival (about April 5th) which is called Mingqian Tea. Green tea is suitable to drink in spring and early summer. According to Chinese traditional medical principles, Chinese people believe that drinking green tea in spring is good for liver and eyes. As non-fermented tea, the key process of green tea is only three steps: ferment-preventing, rolling and drying. According to the different ways of ferment-preventing, green tea is divided into four categories which are shined green tea, steamed green tea, fried green tea and baked green tea.

Shined green tea

The shined green tea now is rare due to its long history. The characteristic is its special aroma reminding people of sunshine. At that time people considered it as a kind of medicine and nowadays shined green tea becomes the material of puerh tea.

Tea consumption has its legendary origin in China of more than 4000 years. Green tea was frist brewed in 2737 BC during the reign of Shen Nong, the leader of contemporary clan. Because it can eliminate inflame and lower the body temperature, green tea has been used as both medicine and beverage in most counties in Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Steamed green tea

A steamed green tea also known as Gyokuro in Japanese, made in Japanese style. Steamed green tea was first appeared in Three Kingdoms Period which has history of 1500 to 2000 years then with Buddhism it was exported to Japan in Tang Dynasties. During the Tang and Song Dynasty steamed green tea was Chinese tea drinker’s beloved tea drinks, and steamed tea appeared with shape of cake. Before Mid-Tang Dynasty, this period belongs to Tea Soup Times. So when people brew tea cake at that time, they would like to bake the tea cake to soft and grind, and then put them into boiling water with other material such as sugar, ginger, nut, and other fruits and so on. As one of the green teas, the steamed green tea also gets three characteristics of green tea which are green dry leaves, green wet leaves and green tea liquor. And the steamed green tea tastes fresh like seaweed because the steamed green tea is rich of vitamin C and is popular in female tea drinkers. From Song Dynasty, owing to the quality of steamed green tea cake is better than Tang’s and the steamed tea cake became a popular goods among Asian counties. Especially in the regime of Emperor Song Huizong, the production zone of steamed green tea enlarged. It is Emperor Sone Huizong that created Dropping Tea Art with steamed green tea cake which is popular in Japan now. At present, the world famous Japanese Macha is made from steamed green tea.

Fried green tea

The fried green tea appeared in Ming Dynasty that is 600 years ago. Because making steamed green tea was a waste of labor and finance, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty called on people drinking fried green tea instead of steamed green tea cake. The characteristic of fried green tea is high fragrance. What is more interested is that the fried green tea produced in different province having different aroma. For example, the famous Longjing tea, namely Dragon Well Tea, belongs to fried green tea which tastes like soy or chestnut. In China, there are lots of fried green teas with nearly one thousand varieties.

Longjing--- Dragon Well Tea

In China, the most well-known green tea originates from Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province. Longjing is fried in the shape of flat. Nowadays, Longjing becomes a souvenir in Hangzhou with five original production zones.

 

Biluochun

Biluochun is one of the most famous teas in China, which produced in Dongtingshan, Jiangsu Province. Biluochun is harvested in early March every year, so the appearance of the tea looks full of soft and tender buds with much Baihao, white fur, on it. This tea tastes fruity for its growing environment. When tea farmers plant Biluochun tea bush, they will plant some fruit trees together with them. It’s said that there is palmitic acid in tea bush which could absorb aroma. That’s the reason why Biluochun is fruity.

Baked green tea

The baked green tea appeared at the same time with the fried green tea in Ming Dynasty. Usually, we choose first buds in spring to fry, and one bud with two leaves to bake. So the leaves of baked green tea are matured and the taste is stronger than the fried teas. As far as we all know, Anhui Province is the homeland of the baked green tea. There are many famous breeds in this area, such as Huangshan Maofeng, Liuan Guapian, Taiping Houkui and so on.

Huangshan Maofeng

Huangshan Maofeng tea is a baked green tea produced in southeast interior Anhui Province of China. The tea is one of the most famous teas in China and can always be found on the China Famous Tea list.

The tea is grown neat Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), which is home to many famous varieties of Green Tea. Tea farmers pick one bud with two tender leaves to make this tea. After ferment-preventing by baked, the shape of Huangshan Maofeng is like an opening mouth of sparrow with its tongue out. The superior Huangshan Maofeng smells like orchid while the lower class is less of fragrance and suitable for making jasmine tea.

Liuan Guapian

Liuan Guapian is produced in Liuan County, Anhui Province. And the name originated from the melon seed shape. The first appearance of this tea is in the time of Minguo, around 1911. In order to improve the quality of this tea, tea masters cut the bud only left two leaves, and then bake it. The tea tastes strong fresh with fragrance of nuts.

Taiping Houkui

Taiping Houkui is produced in Huangshan, Anhui Province which first appeared in the end of Qing Dynasty. The tea bush of this tea is totally different from other green teas whose leaves like persimmon’s leaves. The shape of this tea is long and flat looking seaweeds. When the tea is ferment-prevented by baked, all the tea leaves will be put into a steamer together, so the vein of leaves will be fermented. In this way, the dry leaves of tea are green leaves with red vein.

As one of the oldest teas in China, green tea has a history with 3000 to 4000 years. Green teas belong to non-fermented tea with character of three grades, which is green dry leaves, green tea liquor, and green spent leaves. It tastes fresh, bitter and sweet.

Westerner calls Chinese tea art show as Yoga in cup.

 

Step one: warm up the cups

Pouring 30% hot water into the cup, rolling around the cup from right to the left for warming up the cup and helping dry leaves send out their aroma.

Step two: lower the water temperature

Green tea harvests in early spring. Because it belongs to non-fermented tea, so the bud is rich of vitamin C. The temperature of water should not be high. Usually it is from 75℃ to 85℃. In order to lower the water temperature, we should put water into the glass pot from the hot water pot.

Step three: put dry leaves

Fetch the dry leaves from the tea container with teaspoon slowly and slightly. After appreciation with others, we dispel the dry leaves into glass with three to five gram.

Step four: wet dry leaves

Because of the raw bud, the upper class Longjing is called lotus plumule. The second class is called flagstick for its shape. The third class is called sparrow tongue, because the shape of the tea is one bud with two raw leaves. Dropping some hot water into the cup, shake the cup. After that, dry leaves, dry leaves observe water perfectly and send out the aroma.

Step five: put in hot water

Lifting teapot and putting water into the cup three times, this is called phoenix nodding head.

Drinking green tea is like review the life. When you rink the green tea, it may taste bitter, but after taste is sweet. Like our life, although there are many troubles around us, but we live in the hope, and someday life will be sweet and round.

The spreading of tea in the world

The spreading of tea in the worldChina was honored as “home country of tea” in the world. Tea was one of mediums to integrate China civilization and other civilizations, as tea is introduced from China into other nations. According to statistics:  currently there are 58 countries producing tea.

Tea- Horse Road

An old trail winds among the mountains in southwest China, which was stamped by mule and human. For thousands of years, the caravan passed here in droves, selling tea to other peoples. That is the mysterious Tea-Horse Road.

Tea-Horse Road dating from Tang and Song Dynasty “Market of Tea and Horse”, where Han people and other minorities traded horses and tea. The minorities live in the cold places, where people mainly fed on milk and meat, so they needed tea to help digest the fat. There tea could not be planted, meanwhile, Han people needed horses for work and war, so the trade developed quickly, and a trade route for people to transport tea and horses gradually came into being.

Tea-Horse Road was a large transportation network, and there are two main lines. The first line was from Yunnan’s Simao, Pu’er and other places of departure, to the north by Dali, Lijiang, Zhongdian, Deqin to Tibet Banda, Qamdo, Lhorong, Nyingchi, Lhasa and then through Gryantse, Yadong to Myanmar, Nepal, India; the second line was from Sichuan Ya’an starting from the west by Luding, Kangding, Batang, Qamdo to Lhasa, and then to Nepal, India. Their starting points were places rich in tea, and along the main line numerous branches extended a huge network closely linking Yunnan-Sichuan Tibet Triangle region.

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The global spreading of tea culture

Dutch traded tea from Macao China to Indonesia in 1606. The next year, they bought tea directly from China. Since then, people in Britain and French began to drink tea. Dutch sold tea to the North America in 1650. In the whole 19^thcentury, China had been a tea provider to the world. Tea spread throughout the world.

Ways of transmission

The first is to send envoys to other countries with tea as gifts.

The second is through monks who studied Buddhism, and the envoys of Tang Dynasty to take tea to their home countries.

The third is through the ancient trade route, such as the Tea- Horse Road, etc, and international trade to sell tea abroad.

Transmission Lines of Tea Culture

By Land

Taking Hebei and Shanxi as the center, the tea passed the Great Wall, through Mongolia, across Russia and Siberia, to Europe.

By sea

Zheng He’s seven voyages in Ming Dynasty, from Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Arabian Peninsula, and finally to the east coast of Africa.

How to get the most money if you have to sell your puerh tea collection

Different green tea, puerh tea is fermented tea whose flavor will be increasingly mellow since time goes by. Some tea lovers not only love the flavor, liquor color, dry and spent tea shape, but also enjoy appreciating the tea culture. The price of puerh tea will reach its peak when it is aged ten or more years.

1. Never Sell All at Once: Except for rare cases, collections are generally worth more if sold as individual pieces. Buyers of large quantities of collectible items will often be resellers as opposed to individual collectors and will thus be looking for "bulk" pricing. Individual collectors usually have smaller budgets in total but will be willing to pay more for single pieces. The exception would be a complete set of something collectible, like a complete set of bamboo packing Qizi Bing, for example.

2. Sell Directly to Other Collectors: Resellers and retailers need to make money and will therefore have to offer a collector higher price. The more resellers in the deal, the higher the price is. To ensure you get high quality tea and reasonable price at the same time, we had better find the headstream seller.

3. Don't Neglect the International Market: Consider using a selling platform that allows you to reach the international market. International buyers will often be willing to pay a higher price for collectibles than domestic buyers, especially if access to that particular item is limited in their home country. Yunnan based shops, like me, sell many rare puerh teas which is made of arbor tea to western countries, for example.

4. Know the Value and Insist Upon It: If you do not know what your collection is worth, do the research! Great resource are local libraries, tea market and websites which display the useful tea knowledge.There is almost no whole buds ripe puerh tea, but when you find someone sell it, you must need learn it from the dry tea shape and color, liquor color and flavor, and spent tea. After knowing when where and how it is made and how long it has been stored,you have a price in your mind.

5. Have Patience: If your items are collectible and you know the correct price, it will only be a matter of time before the right collector comes along and is delighted to pay what you ask. If you have the storage space and the luxury of time, the longer you wait the more likely you will be to maximize your returns on the collection.

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How to brew young orange peel puerh tea

After several years of hot selling orange peel puerh tea, Yunnan tea makers produce new orange peel puerh tea in this late summer. They choose young oranges, skin then dry them. Be filled in different quality of ripe or raw puerh tea, the whole orange weight is about 10g. This new masterpiece become new hot puerh tea and is selling hot in Kunming and is spreading in the whole China.

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Compared with big size orange peel puerh tea, honey babies have at least three ways to brew.

First: brewed by the whole, namely put the whole orange peel puerh tea in the teapot or gaiwan, then add hot water.

Second: the same as big size orange peel puerh tea, they could be broken and add 3g to 5g in the tea pot or gaiwan, then add the hot water.

Third: nine holes ways. Digging nine tiny holes in the orange, then the hot water could be filled in the whole orange peel puerh tea.

Generally speaking, nine holes way is the best way to drink young orange peel puerh tea for nine holes allow the puerh tea flavor come out with the water, but the loose puerh tea still kept in the peel, so it is easy to handle gaiwan

Ok, please enhoy your honey babies in your gaiwan! Yunnan, China welcome you guys!

Four periods for tea

When the homeland of tea in the world is mentioned, we will think about China and India naturally. But when we mention the origination of the tea culture, China should be the mother land of that obviously.

China is a country with a time-honored civilization and a land of ceremony and decorum. Whenever guests visit, it is necessary to make and serve tea to them and drinking tea is considered as a kind of philosophy. This specialty on drinking tea in China has existed for 4,000 years. Through the 4,000 years, Chinese tea culture was developed by the progress of productivity, changes of dynasties and the evolution of human civilization. In China, tea culture is related to the knowledge of medical herbs, philosophy, religions, arts, even if chemistry, biology and so on. There are four periods of Chinese tea development, which are Herbal Tea Times, Soup Tea Times, Pure Tea Times and Loose Tea Times.

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1. Herbal Tea Times (from the Shen Nong era to the Three Kingdoms Period)
   Long time ago, tea played an important role in people’s social life. As an old saying “when we get up in the morning, there are 7 things should be gotten ready for: firewood, rice, edible oil, salt, soy, vinegar and tea”, that demonstrates the tea is a necessary thing in Chinese daily life.
   During the legend times, when people found tea leaves, they just put the fresh tea leaves under the sunshine to dry because of the backward of productivity, and considered them as herb, which could cure illness.
   According to The Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic written in thousands of years ago, it’s recorded that, Shen Nong, a legendary ruler, to save the common people from pain, he selected various wild plants as medicine. Fearless of the sacrifice, he tasted the wild plants himself to learn their effect on the human body and was responsible for finding medical herbs for tribe. One day, he was poisoned by one kind of deadly herb. When he drank the tea liquor occasionally, he was detoxified. From that time on, tea was considered as a kind of medicine which could detoxify. This situation lasted to the end of Han Dynasty (Three Kingdoms Period). In a word, tea at that time existed as medicine for keeping minds calm and detoxification.
   Up to now, Chinese people drink different teas in different seasons for health. In China four seasons are divided according to give elements principle (wood, fire, earth, metal and water). Drinking tea in suitable season will keep give elements in balance which is good for health. According to give elements principle, spring belongs to wood representing growing, early summer belongs to fire representing hot, mid-summer belongs to earth representing humidity, autumn belongs to metal representing dry, and winter belongs to water belongs to water representing cold. That’s why people drinking green tea in spring, black tea in early summer, white tea in mid-summer, oolong tea in autumn and puerh tea in winter.
2. Soup Tea Time (from the Three Kingdoms Time to the Mid-Tang Dynasty)
   During this period in Chinese history, there are three kingdoms occupied Sichuan, Henan and Jiangsu Provinces separately. After discovering tea, the Chinese people used it as the medicinal herb, vegetable and a kind of drink over 4,000 years. There was a great revolution in tea-drinking history. People began to drink tea not only as a medicinal herb for health but also a kind of food to eat.
   at that time, people would like to put in fruits, ginger, sugar and other vegetables during brewing tea which looks like porridge. It was Zhu Geliang, a prime minister of the state of Shu Han, Sichuan Province, cultivated people to drink tea with ginger. Then the custom of drinking tea with other food was popular in noble family.
3. Pure Tea Time (from the Mid-Tang Dynasty to the end of Yuan Dynasty)
   Because the steamed green tea was invented in earl Tang Dynasty, the drinking way of green tea was changed at that time. In order to enlarge the fresh taste of steamed green tea, people began to add salt when brewing tea. With the Buddhism populated in the world, Chinese tea drinking way was spread out widely. At the same time, Chinese tea culture was formed primitively.
   As far as we know, Chinese cuisine is a perfect combination of color, aroma, taste and appearance. So is the tea. To some extent, drinking tea is a kind of art improving the degree of people’s civilization.
   From the Mid-Tang Dynasty to Song Dynasty, Chinese tea culture was developed and broadcasted widely and quickly. The custom of tea drinking was spread by the royal family luxuriously who regular the way of tea drinking. In the Tang Dynasty, the habit of drinking tea spread from the imperial court to the town and countryside; and it was the literati, hermits and Buddhists who played a leading role in the advocacy of tea culture. With the situation changed in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the influential intellectuals considered drinking tea as a symbol of elegant life.
4. Loose Tea Times (from Ming Dynasty up to now)
   The cakes of tea were too luxury to ordinary people. Since Ming Dynasty, the rulers called on drinking loose tea instead of cakes of tea. From that time, the way of tea brewing was changed greatly. People began to brew tea by tea pot instead of dropping tea. This simplified the process of tea brewing. From that time, to make a good cup of tea, only needed four steps: warm up tea wares, wet dry leaves perfectly, pour suitable temperature water into tea wares and filter tea liquor in suitable time. In the end of Ming Dynasty, the fermentation skill was invented. There are six basic teas appeared according to different fermentation degrees, which are non-fermented green tea, fully fermented black tea, lightly fermented yellow tea and white tea, semi-fermented oolong tea and post-fermented tea. In this way, the way of tea drinking was changed greatly. There are lots of tea wares, such as tea pot, covered bowl and cup. The material of tea wares is also variety, for example, red porcelain, glass, clay, ceramic and so on.
   
   
   
   

   

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Black Tea

In Chinese languages, black tea is known as “red tea” a description of the color of the liquid. Western term “black tea” refers to the color of the oxidized leaves.

It is nearly 300 years ago, tea farmers lived in Wuyi Mountain, and north part of Fujian Province discovered the skill of ferment. They find after ferment tea leaves color becomes black and the tea liquor is changed from bright green to reddish ruby. The liquor tastes dense and sweet which is totally different from traditional green tea. During the Qing Dynasty, about 200 years ago, westerners visited Wuyi Mountain and found this black tea. Because they found that after mixing up milk with the black tea liquor, the beverage had a flavor of chocolate. Since then, the black tea has been welcomed in western countries.

Black tea is a type of tea that is more oxidized than oolong, green and white tea, so the black tea liquor tastes stronger than above three. Two principal varieties of the species are used: the small leaf variety (C.sinensis subsp.sinensis), used for most other types of teas, and the large leaf variety (C.sinensis subsp.assamica), which was traditionally mainly used for black tea. According to this classification, generally speaking, black tea bushes are divided into two kinds, Chinese plant and Assamese plant. Most of the black tea bushed in India, Sri Lanka even south Africa are Assamese plant. For the large leaves of the Assamese plant, they are hard to become tidy and small by being fried, so most black tea in these countries are C.T.C., which is the abbreviation for crush, tear and curl.

Chinese small leaves plant is planted in southern part of China including Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan and Hainan.

Zhengshan Souchong Black Tea

Zhengshan Souchong black tea is considered as the first black tea in China which is located in Yuyishan, northern part of Fujian Province. It is said that tea farmers in this place discovered the skill of fermentation, and then the Souchong black tea appeared. And this kind of black tea was exported to western countries where it became very popular. How come westerners like this kind of tea? It is because its strong flavor and high fragrance. In the end of Qing Dynasty, the Zhengshan Souchong black tea became main exports goods. The character of Souchong black tea is the flavor of tea soup which tastes like Longan, a fruit in tropic regions.

Qimen Kongfu Black Tea

Qimen Kongfu black tea is the first Kongfu tea in China which is produced in Anhui Province. As we all know, the production process of the Kongfu black tea is more complex of Souchong black tea. Kongfu in Chinese could be explained as a consumption of labor and time. Qimen Kongfu black tea is discovered on the basis of Souchong Black tea which has a special step on procession of fried. It’s one of the top three black teas with heavy fragrance in the world, and the other two are Darjeeling in India, Uva in Sri Lanka. The flavor of superior Qimen Kongfu black tea tastes like a combination of honey and orchid.

Dianhong Black Tea

Dianhong black tea was discovered in 1939 with nearly 70 years history which tastes like a combination of honey and sweet potato. Different from other black tea, Dianhong black tea is picked from large leaf variety arbor tea tree, and the tea liquor tastes strong and could be brewed for many times. Because of the strong sweet taste, Dianhong black tea is suitable for drinking without sugar and milk. However, some people still like to add milk in Dianhong black tea to enjoy the extremely strong nice chocolate flavor. Nowadays, Dianhong black tea has become one of the most popular black teas in the world. 

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Jinjunmei Black Tea

Jinjunmei is a kind of Kongfu black tea produced in Wuyishan Fujian Province. Different from other black teas, the tea bush of Jinjunmei should be planted in a place with 1800 meters high and tea leaves should be picked in early April. This is the reason why Jinjunmei sold in a higher price. Jinhunmei has a special flavor tasting like the preserved strawberry.

Appreciation of dry leaves

Qimen Kongfu black tea is famous for its tidy and elegant appearance. The dry leaves of upper class Qimen black tea has natural luster to appreciate. Qimen fragrance is named after especially for its fragrance, and it’s one of the three black teas with strong fragrance in the world. Chinese black tea is well-known for their beautiful dry leaves, reddish tea liquor and sweet aftertaste, so before making Chinese tea, enjoying the dry leaves is a must.

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Water brewing

According to Chinese tea custom, making fully fermented tea should use hot water at 65 ℃.  And water quality is a very important element for making tea. Ancient Chinese tea drinkers considered snow and rain in high-mountain is a best water to make tea, so using fresh water to make tea is an indispensable way to make tea.

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Warming up tea top and cups

Chinese tea art show is a kind of Taiji or yoga which means people adjusting their breath, action and mind at the same time during making tea, and it is also known as a sort of Chinese philosophy. Chinese tea drinkers love tea for their fondness of nature. When making tea, they would like to fancy staying in a natural environment. For instance, when they warming up tea wares and pouring boiling water into the tea pot, they would like to consider that the hot water is a spring and the tea pot is a valley. For the Chinese, we think that warming up tea wares meaning arranging our minds.

Displaying dry leaves

Fetching 5 to 7 grams dry leaves and displaying them into the warm tea pot. It is very important on the control of dry leaves volume to put in, because less tea is tasteless while more tea is bitter. If the volume of dry leaves is not enough, the original flavor of tea would not be fully performed.

Wetting dry leaves

Dropping some hot water into the pot, shake the pot, and then dry leaves will absorb water perfectly and send out its aroma gradually. The Chinese tea drinker thinks that the tea is growing among mountains, picked and made by human in their hands but rebirth in tea pots. So the step of wetting dry leaves is a procession to let tea regeneration and also is a very important stage in tea art show.

Pouring in hot water

Lifting water pot highly to put hot water into the glass tea pot makes the tea leaves floating freely so that the fragrance and taste can be set out.

Tea liquor sharing

Pouring tea liquor into fair cup, making the tea liquor into each tea cup evenly, and then sharing tea liquor with others. It comes to taste the tea with the beginning of appreciation the beauty of bright and reddish tea liquor, then sipping the tea liquor in three times because of the structure of Chinese character “品”, which means tasting, is consisted by three mouths.