Chinese Tea Culture & Classification

kongkong — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:34:31 +0000

Tea culture is an important part of Chinese tradition. Alongside social development and progress, tea has not only played a role in driving the development of the economy, but has also remained a feature of people’s lives. Moreover, tea drinking has gradually developed into a resplendent tea culture and become a bright pearl in the social life of Chinese civilization.

The practice of chinese tea culture can bring the spirit and wisdom of human beings to a higher orbit. Tea has an extremely close relationship to Chinese culture, and its study covers a wide field and has very rich content. It not only embodies the spirit of civilization, but also the spirit of ideological form. There can be no doubt that it has been beneficial in enhancing people’s social accomplishments and appreciation of art.

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.

Chinese Green Tea

Green tea is also called unfermented 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 3,000 years) and also the one has the largest output in China.

Benefits of drinking green tea: It helps with anti-ageing, and it also prevents computer radiation and bad breath.
Production Areas: Mainly distributed in provinces of 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.

Hangzhou is one of the best places to experience tea culture. Tourists can visit Hangzhou National Tea Museum, which vividly depicts the evolution of Chinese tea over a span of thousands of years and the colorful tea culture. Also, the West Lake Dragon Well Tea Plantation located near the museum provides closer experience with Chinese tea and its culture.
Guilin Tea Science and Research Institute located near Yao Mountain is also worth a visit. Here you will get to know different types of tea, the production process, and enjoy a tea ceremony while sipping a warm cup of tea.

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.

Benefits of drinking red tea: It warms the stomach and helps with digestion. It is a most suitable choice in cold seasons.
Production Areas: Mainly distributed in provinces of Anhui, Yunnan, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Hunan.
Famous red teas include: Dianhong Red Tea, Yixing Red Tea, and Qimen Red Tea.

Wulong Tea (Oolong 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.

Benefits of drinking Wulong tea: It decomposes fat and helps people lose weight.
Production Areas: Provinces along the southeast coast, such as Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan.
Famous Wulong teas include: Wuyiyan Tea, Tieguanyin, and Dongding Wulong Tea.

White Tea

White tea is uncured, unfermented, fast-dried green tea. It is a specialty 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.

Benefits of drinking white tea: It helps dispel heat within the human body. It also enhances immune function and protects the heart and blood vessels.
Production Area: Fujian Province.
Famous white teas include: Baihao Yinzhen (Baihao is a place name while Yinzhen means Silver Needle) and Bai Mudan (White Peony).

Yellow Tea

Yellow Tea is produced by letting damp tea leaves naturally turn 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 describe the top-quality tea served to the emperor, because the imperial color has traditionally been yellow.

Benefits of drinking yellow tea: It refreshes the mind, and helps clear away heat and toxic materials within the human body.
Production Areas: Hunan Province, Anhui Province, Guangdong Province
Famous yellow teas include: Junshan Yinzhen, Mengding Huangya, and Dayeqing.

Reprocessed Tea

Tea 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 Tea (Flower 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 absorption of tea leaves. The tea leaves 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 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 repeated. The degree of fragrance of a scented tea depends on the quantity of flowers being used and the time of aromatization.

Common scented teas include Jasmine Tea, Pearl Orchid Scented Tea, Rose Tea and Sweet-Scented Osmanthus Tea.

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