Six Chinese Teas from One Plant

China, in pictures and music.

For the longer answer to one question behind this film, read why the Chinese tea ceremony is newer than it looks.

茶 chá — tea. 喝茶 hē chá — to drink tea. 我喝茶 wǒ hē chá — I drink tea.

館 guǎn — a teahouse. 茶館 chá guǎn — a teahouse. 我去茶館 wǒ qù chá guǎn — I go to the teahouse.

All true tea comes from one species of plant, native to the highlands where China, Myanmar and India meet. What we call green, yellow, white, oolong, red and dark tea are not six plants. They are six ways of treating the same leaf.

On this page: the six families side by side, the five steps of the making, the vessels you drink from, and ten Chinese words from the film.

Tea, Part One — the film in full, free of narration: English letter cards with Chinese beneath them, and instrumental music.

Tea, Part Two – the film in full, free of narration: English letter cards with Chinese beneath them, and instrumental music.

For the longer answer to one question behind this film, read why the same leaves make six kinds of tea.

About the music

Scored in three parts, played by hand on Chinese instruments, with no voice at all: guqin and xiao first, then dizi, pipa and a low frame drum, then erhu. All three pieces are on the Music page.

Instruments heard in this episode. Photographs: Guqin; Pipa; Erhu; Yangqin.

The six teas

UNESCO’s list of traditional Chinese tea processing techniques counts six families — green, yellow, dark, white, oolong and red — and, with re-processed teas such as scented ones, more than 2,000 tea products in all.

Tea	Chinese	The step that makes it	What to look for
White tea	白茶 báichá	Withered outdoors and dried. The least oxidation of all.	Buds covered in fine white down.
Green tea	綠茶 lǜchá	Kill-green: heat — pan-firing or steaming — stops oxidation at once.	Fixings the leaf with heat go back to the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220).
Yellow tea	黃茶 huángchá	The green process plus a sealed yellowing step.	Junshan Yinzhen from Hunan is the best known.
Oolong	烏龍 wūlóng	Half-oxidised, then pan-fired rather than steamed.	Pan-firing comes from Songluo in Anhui in the Ming, and spread to Wuyi — most likely where oolong began.
Red tea	紅茶 hóngchá	Fully oxidised before it is heated and dried.	The Chinese name takes the colour of the liquor, not of the leaf.
Dark tea	黑茶 hēichá	Microbial fermentation, not oxidation — months to years.	Pressed into cakes, bricks and bowls; Yunnan pu’er can be raw or cooked and improves for years.

Where the tea grows

Province	Place	Tea
Zhejiang	West Lake, Hangzhou	Longjing — tribute tea in the Qing dynasty
Jiangsu	Dongting Mountain, Suzhou	Biluochun
Fujian	Wuyi Mountains	Rock teas and oolongs, including Da Hong Pao and Lapsang Souchong
Fujian	Anxi county	Tieguanyin — from the nineteenth century
Yunnan	—	Pu’er, the best known post-fermented tea
Hunan	—	Fuzhuan brick tea, Junshan Yinzhen
Anhui	—	Liuan basket tea

The year the leaf changed shape

For centuries the imperial tea of the Song was pressed into cakes at Beiyuan in Jian’ou. In 1391 the Ming court ordered tribute tea to be sent as loose leaf instead. Beiyuan’s output collapsed and the centre of the industry moved west, to the Wuyi mountains in Fujian — which is where much of the character of later Chinese tea was set.

The making

Five steps turn a leaf into a tea, and one of them decides everything that follows.

Picking — by hand, bud by bud: one bud and the two leaves below it.
Withering — the leaf rests and gives up its water (萎凋, wěidiāo).
Kill-green — heat stops the leaf turning brown (殺青, shā qīng). Fixing the leaf with heat goes back to the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220).
Rolling — the leaf is twisted into strips. Longjing is pressed flat; Biluochun is curled like a snail.
Oxidation and roasting — the real fork in the road. Stop it early and you have green tea; halfway and you have oolong; let it finish and the leaf turns red. Charcoal roasting gives the deeper, warmer notes of the Wuyi rock teas (岩茶, yánchá).

Picking, bud by bud: one bud and two leaves. Still from Tea, Part One.

The vessels

The gaiwan — a bowl with a lid, no handle, usually porcelain, about 100 to 150 millilitres — appears in the Ming dynasty. It is three pieces: saucer, bowl, lid. The glaze is open, so you can watch the liquor without it altering the taste, and the lid is used to hold the leaves back.

Vessel	Chinese	Size	What it does
Gaiwan	蓋碗 gàiwǎn	about 100–150 ml (some are 80 ml)	Three pieces — saucer, bowl, lid — and no handle. Porcelain, so you can watch the liquor without it changing the taste; the lid holds the leaves back.
Teapot	茶壺 chá hú	about 60–200 ml in gongfu tea	Small pot, a lot of leaf, little water — the point is control.
Yixing pot	宜興 Yíxīng · 紫砂 zǐshā	small, made for one kind of tea	Purple clay from Yixing in Jiangsu, first made in the sixteenth century, and deliberately unglazed. The clay takes on the flavour of the tea, so most drinkers keep one pot for one kind of tea.
Cup	—	about 30 ml or less	Small enough to drink in one go while it is still hot; tea is usually poured into a small fair-cup first.

The Yixing pot is the opposite idea: purple clay from Jiangsu, first made in the sixteenth century, deliberately left unglazed, and prized for holding heat and flavour. It is called purple clay, but it fires to red, pale yellow or purple-brown.

Words from the films

Chinese	Pinyin	English
茶	chá	tea
蓋碗	gàiwǎn	lidded tea bowl
茶壺	chá hú	teapot
功夫茶	gōngfu chá	the small-vessel way of brewing, generally believed to start around the eighteenth century
宜興 · 紫砂	Yíxīng · zǐshā	Yixing purple clay
殺青	shā qīng	kill-green — heat to stop oxidation
萎凋	wěidiāo	withering — the leaf rests and gives up water
白茶 · 綠茶 · 黃茶 · 烏龍 · 紅茶 · 黑茶	báichá · lǜchá · huángchá · wūlóng · hóngchá · hēichá	the six families
岩茶	yánchá	rock tea, from the Wuyi mountains
餅茶 · 磚茶 · 沱茶	bǐng chá · zhuān chá · tuó chá	cake, brick and bowl-shaped pressed tea
茶館	chá guǎn	teahouse
點茶	diǎn chá	whisked tea – the Song way of drinking it
散茶	sǎn chá	loose-leaf tea – from the Ming onward
禪與茶	chán yǔ chá	Chan and tea
紫砂壺	zǐ shā hú	the purple clay teapot
婚禮茶	hūn lǐ chá	wedding tea
茶稅	chá shuì	the tax on tea – 119% at one point
館	guǎn	a hall; here, a teahouse
我去茶館	wǒ qù chá guǎn	I go to the teahouse

Questions

Is every kind of tea really from the same plant?

Yes. Green, white, yellow, oolong, red and dark tea all come from Camellia sinensis, a plant native to the highlands where China, Myanmar and India meet. The difference is entirely in how the leaf is treated afterwards.

What makes green tea green?

Heat. Kill-green — pan-firing or steaming — stops the enzyme that would otherwise turn the leaf brown, so the leaf keeps its colour. Heat-fixing the leaf goes back to the Han dynasty.

What is the difference between oxidation and fermentation in tea?

Oxidation is a chemical reaction with air, and it decides whether a tea ends up green, oolong or red. Dark tea works differently: it is fermented by micro-organisms, over months or years, which is why it is called post-fermented tea.

What is a gaiwan?

A bowl with a lid and a saucer — three pieces, no handle — made of porcelain. It appears in the Ming dynasty and usually holds about 100 to 150 millilitres. The lid doubles as a strainer for the leaves.

Do I need a different pot for every tea?

Many people keep one Yixing pot for one kind of tea. Yixing clay is unglazed, so it takes on the flavour of what is brewed in it.