Types of Tea
A. Chinn, Anaheim CA7 January 2024
Tea
All tea is made by steeping leaves of the plant Camellia sinensis. Camellia sinensis is a requirement for tea to be tea, other plant infusions are not tea. However, that does not mean that all tea plants are equal. There are two major taxonomic varieties of C. sinensis - C. sinensis var. sinensis (yes they reused the same name) and C. sinensis var. assamica. The visual difference based on leaf is fairly easy to tell, the var. assamica leaf is larger and much broader, while the var. sinensis is smaller and more narrow. Beyond this, the regions of cultivation are different, with the var. sinensis grown in mainland China, Taiwan, and Japan, while the var. assamica is grown in warmer and wetter countries like India, Sri Lanka, and Kenya.
The C. sinensis var sinensis generally has a more nuanced and balanced flavor, and is used for most varieties of tea, whereas the C. sinensis var assamica has a stronger and more astringent flavor, leading to its wider use in black teas often mixed with cream, sugar, or spices. A comparison for coffee lovers could be that the var. sinensis is similar to the arabica and var. assamica is similar to the robusta coffee.
Almost every tea described on this site will be var. sinensis. Even for black teas, this variety produces a better and more balanced tea like lapsang souchong. Teas like Lipton or more "European" teas like English Breakfast Teas or Earl Grey are made from var. assamica.
Beyond this, there are hundreds of cultivars of both types that are much more regional and specialized for making certain types of tea where certain tea trees are chosen to propagate for desirable flavor or growth.
Different categories of tea come from these same plants, and are differentiated primarily by their oxidation. Oxidation is the natural process that happens when plants are picked and age. When you leave a banana or cut apple on the kitchen counter it turns darker on the exposed surfaces. The same process occurs in freshly picked tea leaves, developing different flavors. At the target level, the tea maker will halt the oxidation process by methods including steaming, frying, or air drying.
Black
Black teas (紅茶 Hong Cha/'red tea' in Chinese) are likely that most people in the west think of if they've had limited exposure to tea. They are defined by their level of heavy oxidation. They usually have the strongest flavor, typically more astringent. Because of these properties, they are commonly used in blends and adding sugar or cream. Aside from pure astringency, some varieties can have different notes like stonefruit, smoke, or wood.
Note that the Chinese varieties of black tea are still made from C. sinensis var. sinensis and will be more mellow and nuanced than the Indian black teas of var. assamica.
Some types of black tea include:
Lapsang Souchong
Keemum
Assam
Darjeeling
Green
Green teas are unoxidized teas that have gone through processing methods such as pan firing, charcoal smoking, steaming, or oven drying to halt the oxidation process. They can be rolled, curled, or flattened in different ways depending on the type of tea the maker is seeking. The flavor can be diverse depending on the type of green tea, ranging from notes of grass, seaweed, or nuts.
Matcha is green tea leaves that are ground into a flour like powder.
Some types of green tea include:
Longjing/Dragon Well
Biluochun
Hojicha
Sencha
Ujeon
White
White teas are minimally processed teas that are unoxidized, typically sun dried shortly after picking. Because of this, the quality of the leaf shows most with white teas, there is no processing to hide behind. Depending on the variety, a good white tea is usually leaves sorted to be just from the young buds or tip leaves. This quality is usually reflected in the price unfortunately. Flavors can be sweet, fruity, or floral.
Some types of white tea include:
Shou Mei
Silver Needle
Bai Mudan/White Peony
Oolong/Wulong
Oolong teas straddle the gap between black and green teas, as partially oxidized teas. Because of this, it is an extremely broad category, with some lightly oxidized varieties tasting close to green to higher oxidized varieties tasting malty or chocolatey. They are typically rolled leaves that typically do well through multiple steeps. Upon successive steeps, the leaves will unroll, releasing different flavor notes each time, giving a pleasant tasting session.
Some types of oolong tea include:
Tieguanyin
Alishan
Lishan
Gabacha
Dark
Dark teas are a class of tea that have gone through fermentation for months or years after picking. These are made and aged in controlled conditions to develop the complexities that the makers and drinkers seek. The source leaves before fermentation can be from any of the different above varieties of tea. They can be compressed into blocks or left loose. They can develop with age, mellowing for up to decades. Flavors can give notes of syrup, peat, wood, or really anything else.
Some types of dark tea include:
Pu'er
Liuan
Anhua
Blends
Any variety of tea can be blended, either with different teas, or other ingredients. This is easy to do at home and can be an easy way to have more variety in your tea drinking. One of the most well known of the blending ingredients is jasmine, which is often mixed with black or green teas. As an individual variety, Earl Grey is black tea mixed with bergamot citrus. Another more common citrus I like to do is steeping tea with the rinsed peel of a Mandarin orange (and reuses the peel that we'd usually just throw away or ideally compost, you're welcome environment) (on the note of composting, we should always try to compost our tea leaves after we get our steeps out of them, they're nutrient rich and easy to toss into a flower bed or pot). Growing up whenever I was sick, my mom always made tea with honey for its throat soothing properties. So have fun with blending your teas!