Mission: Search for a better tea
When I was growing up, the only tea I knew was "a tea". It was something to drink when you did not have anything else - no juice, no Coke, nothing! It was a pale, predictable beverage that went reasonably well with whatever sweets I could get my hands on. At some later point I found good coffee and the enjoyment of grinding freshly roasted beans, but I was never a fan of bitter flavours in general and, in addition, coffee would sometimes disagree with my body. It occured to me that, if there is " normal " coffee and a " better, fresh " coffee, the same could be true for tea. This site will detail my exploration of this matter that turned out to be a far longer and encompassing journey than I would have believed at the beginning of it.
Types of Tea
| Type | Processing | Look | Taste | Brewing | Varieties | Notes |
| White | Only air-dried | Clear to pale green, lighter than green tea | Sweet, light, almond-buttery | 140 to 180 degrees, never boiling water | Yinzhen silver needles, Pai Mutan (Bai Mudan), etc. | Least processed of all teas! |
| Green | Dried in hot air and steamed or pan-fired | Pale green | Light, sweet, vegetal | 140 to 180 degrees, never boiling water, 2-4 minutes, regular style brewing | Bi Luo Chan, Long Jing (Dragonwell), Gunpowder, Gyokuro, Sencha, Genmaicha, Kukicha, etc | Green tea sold in supermarkets is always terrible. |
| Oolong | Dried in the sun and partially oxidized (20%-80%) | Pale green to brown/red | Varies widely, from vegetal to woody, fruity, smoky, etc. | 180 to 200 degrees, never boiling water, gong-fu style brewing is best, 3-4 minutes when using regular style of brewing | Dan Cong, Tie Guan Yin, etc | Mostly available as fresh tea, rarely as aged. |
| Black | Fully fermented | Light Red to Red | Usually astringent, sweet, fruity. | Always boiling water, can be done either with regular brewing or gong-fu. | Keemun, Yunnan, Lapsang Souchong, Assam, Nilgiri, Ceylon, Darjeeling. | Darjeeling is sometimes split into a separate category, it's closer to oolongs than other black teas. |
| Pu-erh | Always aged, post-fermented | Dark red - darker than black tea. | Always boiling water, best prepared with gong-fu method. | Wide variety of tastes, usually strong and earthy, may be sweet, nutty, floral, chocolate. | Liu An, green cake, cooked cake, many different varieties. | Many Pu-erhs have a very strong and unusual taste; some pu-erhs can be very old (from 60s and before) and expensive. Pu-erhs are mostly pressed into "cakes" in the form of disks, bricks, mushrooms and other shapes. |
| Name | Type | Look | Taste | Brewing | Notes |
| Yin Zhen (Silver Needles) | White | Buttery-almond, very light | Relatively high temp for a white can be used, because the leaves are thick and rolled into needles, 185 degrees or lower. | High-grade, most expensive white tea. | |
| Pai Mutan (Bai Mudan) | White | Similar to Yin Zhen, less buttery, more almond and vegetal. | |||
| Long Jing (Dragonwell) | Green | Light and delicate, floral and sweet, sometimes similar to yellow teas. | Dry leaves are instantly recognizable as they're long and completely flattened. | ||
| Bi Luo Chan | Green | Aromatic, floral, very sweet and balanced when coming from a good batch. Does not have grassy notes like many other greens. | |||
| Dan Cong | Oolong | Clear and light, like most greens. | Can be fruity, floral, peachy; always astringent with some bitterness. | Brewing at slightly lower temps that other Oolongs may decrease astringency. | |
| Tie Guan Yin | Oolong | Darker than most Oolongs, as dark as some lighter blacks. | "Dark" taste, sweet and with hints of chocolate and coffee, and wet earth. | ||
| Lapsang Souchong | Black | Darker than an average black. | Smoky, very smoky, almost like a smoked sausage. Incites a love or hate reaction. | Make sure you buy a sample when buying for the first time. | |
| Name | Type | Look | Taste | Brewing | Notes |
| Golden Yunnan | Black | Sweet, spicy, very slightly smoky, balanced, a good batch will have no astringency common to most black teas. | Must be very careful not to overbrew: even a good Golden Yunnan may sometimes gain sour notes even when slightly overbrewed. | The best black tea? Does not stand up well to milk. | |
| Keemum | Black | Winey, sweet, fruity. | Does not stand up well to milk. | ||
| Assam | Black | Dark red. | Astringent, malty, brisk, sweet, fruity. | Great with milk or without! | |
| Ceylon | Black | Dark red. | Astringent, strong. | Great with milk, may be a little too bitter without. | |
| Darjeeling | Black | Light, like most greens. | Light muscatel, malty flavour and aroma, similar to muscatel grapes. | Short of boiling, like Oolongs. | An unusual black, sometimes separated in a distinct category, between Oolongs and Blacks. |
Here are some of the vendors I've used and liked: