Most people (at least here in the USA) are not aware that all actual tea comes from one plant, the tea tree, Camellia sinensis. What differentiates the different types are how they are processed. White teas are the least processed, with no oxidation, and black teas are the most, and most oxidized. In order, from least processed to most processed, you have:
White tea - Usually made of the newly sprouted buds of the plant. They are immediately heat or sun dried without any oxidation. Generally considered to have the most polyphenols of all teas, and very very low caffeine (if any). This is pretty much "raw" tea, or as close as it gets. White teas usually have a very light flavor.
Yellow tea - Although yellow tea is a class of tea unto it's own, it can also refer to an imperial tea. The classification, however, refers to a tea that is very close to a green tea, but takes more skill (and time) to make, using a more careful and extensive drying process. It generally lacks the characteristic vegetal, bitter, or astringent qualities of green teas. In my opinion they are more like a light fragrant oolong or slightly stronger white tea, and are usually lighter than most green teas.
Green tea - Oxidation is stopped very early by steaming or heating the leaves in a pan. Green teas have a wide range of tastes, but usually have a very slight bitter quality, astringency, vegetal and/or grassy taste. Since green tea is not very oxidized, it has a low caffeine content and higher polyphenol content, although not as much as white tea. Not everyone likes green teas, but if you've only had the mass-produced stuff sold in teabags at your local grocer, I hope you will reserve judgement until you can get a cup of the finer teas. I can't drink that crap either.
Oolong (Wu Long) tea - The words "Wu Long" actually mean "Black Dragon". The difference between "Oolong", "Wulong", and "Wu Long" are nil, they are all "Romanizations" of the Chinese language. This tea is partially oxidized, around 15%-40% or so, although it can be more or less depending on the tea. Generally speaking, there are three types of wu long tea: jade, amber, and champagne, which is also in order of oxidation. I've also seen them classified in two types: fragrant and amber. More specifically there are 11 types, according to the growing region. Wu long tea can have a wide range of flavors, some are very noticeably fruity, floral, woody, nutty, grainy, smoky, and any number of combinations and nuances. Wu long teas are usually either twisted or rolled, and most of the good ones are full leaf. When a rolled tea (which usually looks like a pellet about a centimeter in diameter) unfurls, you sometimes get a small twig with up to 2 or 3 full tea leaves. As you've probably guessed, wu longs have moderate caffeine and moderate polyphenols, although those are far from being the only things that count. Wu long tea is one of the most intensive types to make. It takes lots of steps, and each farm/estate may do so slightly differently.
Black tea - This is the one most people are familiar with, so I won't say much about it other than that it's fully oxidized. You may also not know that in China it's referred to as red tea. I'm not a real big fan of black teas, although they are the best to wake up with in the morning, IMO. Some of the full leaf black teas, especially Darjeelings, are very good, however.
Pu Erh tea - This one is not well known in the west, but is becoming more popular. Pu Erh is popular with the Cantonese people of China (where others tend to prefer green). This is a black tea, but is packed into bricks, cakes, plates, or bowls that look like bird nests (called Tou Cha), fermented, and aged. Pu erh is a bit like a fine wine in this way, the older it gets the better it gets. Unlike other tea, it never goes stale. If you're very lucky, and very rich, you might find a 100 year old pu erh. Otherwise you can get up to 25 year old pu erh, although they are still quite expensive. Due to the fermentation, pu erh has it's own great benefits that others do not, primarily to do with digestion, but I'm sure there's more. In China it is considered to be a very healthy drink. It is generally darker than most black teas, with an earthy and somewhat smoky taste, but there are as many different kinds of pu erhs as there are other teas. Some (many?) are even made with semi-wild and old-growth tea trees, sometimes producing very large leaves. They are characteristically smooth, however, getting smoother with age. The cheaper stuff is usually 2 to 5 years old. Some of them are made into decorative plaques or plates that you might almost think were either carved wood or clay, if it weren't for the fact that you could see the leaves.
Sometimes you will see the oxidation process in other teas referred to as "fermentation", however it is not; there are no micro-organisms involved. The only exception is with pu erh tea, which really is fermented, using micro-organisms and all. The oxidation process gives tea it's caffeine: the more oxidized, the more caffeine (but you already know that from reading the above). This also reduces the polyphenol content, but not entirely. It also changes the chemical makeup of the various teas, and so each tea has benefits that are stronger than any of the others. So if you want the benefits of all the different types, you'll have to make sure to drink them all :) The oxidation process also tends to make the tea taste stronger, although this can also vary greatly by the individual selection - there are green teas that are stronger (in taste, not caffeine) than any other type I've tried.
Herbal teas are not actually teas at all, and are properly referred to as Tinsanes, although you may also see them referred to more generically as "infusions". When you find something like the African red tea, that is actually a Tinsane, because it is not made from the actual tea plant.
Some may insist that this is being too picky about semantics, but the thing to remember is that the word "Tea" comes from the old Asian name "Te", which refers to the plant and not the infused beverage. So a tinsane is no more a "tea" than a pork-chop is a steak. Just because the final product that you consume has similar outward properties, doesn't mean that they are the same animal.
Yerba Mate is another type. This is not actually from the tea plant, but has many of the same qualities. Some will compare it to a green tea, but in my opinion only someone that is not familiar with green teas would do so. Yerba mate is from South America, and is a traditional drink there. It's dried by smoking it, which gives it a distinctive earthy and smoky flavor, which varies between brands. It is traditionally drank from a hollowed out and dried gourd through a metal straw with a filter at the end, called a bombilla. You can also find roasted mate, although it is relatively rare. Roasted mate tastes a bit like a light bodied coffee brewed with some cocoa beans mixed in, and is one of my favorite things to drink. Yerba mate is becoming more popular in America, and is VERY good for your health (in many ways). I will post more on it at a later date.
You will also see references to pekoe. Here's the definition from Answers.com:
The Chinese Pekoe teas are classified into various qualities according to whether the adjacent young leaves (two, one or none) were picked along with the leaf buds. Top quality pekoe consists of only the leaf buds. The buds are picked using only the balls of the finger tips. Fingernails or mechanical tools are not used to avoid bruising the picks.
When crushed to make bagged teas, the tea is referred to as "broken", as in "Broken Orange Pekoe" (also "Broken Pekoe" or "BOP"), sometimes sold as loose leaf for reduced price. Bagged teas often also include fannings and dust, which are simply tiny remnants of the sorting and/or crushing process.
Orange Pekoe is often referred to as "OP". The grading scheme contains other categories considered higher quality than OP, which are determined primarily by leaf wholeness and leaf size. The grades for whole leaf orthodox black tea (in ascending order) are:
- OP (Orange Pekoe)
- FOP (Flowery Orange Pekoe)
- GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe)
- TGFOP (Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe)
- FTGFOP (Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe)
- SFTGFOP (Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe)
It should be noted that this is not a reliable measurement of quality. The SFTGFOP from an estate that makes poor quality tea may be of lower quality than a "lower" pekoe from another farm or estate. This is more a grading system of the part of the plant and how whole the leaf is. This can indeed give you some idea of what to expect, but only in a limited context.
Brewing
The first thing that most people do wrong is to fully boil the water, and this can actually ruin a perfectly good tea. Using water that is too hot can make green teas taste "spinachy" and bitter when they shouldn't, and make other teas bland and flat (especially yerba mate). Generally speaking, the lighter the tea the cooler the water should be:
White tea: ~160 F
Green tea: ~170 F
Wu long & Black tea: ~190-200 F
Keep in mind that each individual tea is different. Any tea merchant that is serious about tea should be able to tell you the best way to brew each individual tea, and this is something that should be paid close attention to. How long each tea is brewed is also something individual to each tea, but over-brewing can very much ruin a tea, especially green teas.
Some teas can be brewed "Chinese Style" - just put the loose leaf in the bottom of the cup and pour in hot water, no filter. When you get low on water, add more! Although this is most often done in a gaiwan (a thin cup with a lid and saucer, which is often considered ideal for many/most teas), a regular cup/mug works as well.
TIP: I have found that for most whole-leaf green teas (and some jade wu longs), a 16oz mug with ~3 grams of leaf in the bottom, unfiltered, often produces a very good cup that can only be improved upon by skilled use of a gaiwan. If you're just discovering fine teas, you might give this a try, I've almost never ended up with a bitter or astringent cup unless it was something to do with the leaves (too much, stale, etc.).
Most teas should be brewed for only a short time, and it's really best NOT to use a tea ball or other similar device that will constrain the tea. As the dry leaves start to steep, they unfurl and give off flavors. At the start they will usually give off the more sweet and desirable flavors that characterize the tea, and as they "wear out" they start giving off bitterness and astringency. If you constrain the leaves too much, the outside leaves will start giving off the bitterness and astringency, while the inner leaves are too compressed to give off much of anything. The end result of constraining the leaves too much is a weak, flat, vapid, and insipid cup at best, and a nasty pale cup that tastes like bitter contaminated water at worst, depending on the tea. You will even find that some/many broken leaf teas (like many black teas) will taste better and more lively if allowed to fully unfurl and move about.
If you're not using a teapot that you can strain by placing the strainer between the teapot and your cup, then consider something like an infuser cup, which has a ceramic basket (like a cup with holes in it) that fits inside the cup. You could also get the metal basket type made for teapots that will fit in most cups quite inexpensively in a pinch (these usually only cost about a dollar or two).
The best way to brew tea is gong-fu style, which is a "ceremonial" Chinese style of brewing that uses a small pot made of Yixing clay or a gaiwan, small cups, aroma cups (sometimes), a small pitcher, more leaf with less water, and a big wet mess if you don't use a tray to catch spilled water. Gong-fu literally means "to do with skill", and this style of brewing is called gong-fu cha ("cha" meaning "tea"). This is more involved, and takes time and skill to master. It does, however, produce the best results. You also usually get a lot more infusion out of one pot of tea. You can find more information, including instructions, at http://www.chineseteas101.com/
One important factor in brewing tea, however, is not to use (chlorinated) tap water. Ideally you should use spring water, which will have a balanced hardness and neutral pH. DO NOT OVERLOOK THIS, as water quality will make a very noticeable difference in the quality of your tea. Living in Portland Oregon, our water is already quite pure (it mostly comes from melted snow from the mountains, and is one of the few in the country that doesn't require filtering), so living here I have found that filtered water is actually better than most bottled spring water. I use one of those Pur brand filter-pitchers that you pour water in the top and it trickles into the actual pitcher through a filter. Although I think it does a better job than Brita, the difference is somewhat negligible.
Brewing tea does take skill, and your tea will improve as you get to know each tea and brewing in general. I would say that the biggest thing to keep in mind is to pay attention to the instructions for each tea, and never assume that you can brew each tea the same way and get the same results. This is too often overlooked, but it can make all the difference in the world.
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