132 terms for how tea is grown, processed, graded, brewed and tasted
Showing 132 of 132 terms
Aging is storing certain teas, mainly pu'er, white tea, dark tea and some oolong, for years under controlled humidity so their flavor slowly deepens and mellows.
Origins & CultivarsAnxi is a county in southern Fujian, China, best known as the home of Tieguanyin and a major producer of rolled, ball-shaped oolong.
Origins & CultivarsAssam is a state in northeast India and the country's largest tea-growing region, known for strong, malty black teas from native large-leaf assamica plants.
Tasting & ChemistryAstringency is the dry, puckering, rough sensation tea leaves on the tongue and teeth, a tactile effect of polyphenols binding saliva proteins.
Tea TypesBai Mu Dan (White Peony) is a Fujian white tea of one bud and one to two leaves, fuller and more floral than Silver Needle.
Tea TypesBancha is everyday Japanese green tea from later harvests or coarser, mature leaves, lighter and more robust than sencha, low in bitterness and inexpensive.
Tea TypesBi Luo Chun is a spiral-rolled, downy green tea from the Dongting mountains near Lake Tai in Suzhou, Jiangsu, with fruity, floral and fresh flavors.
Grades & TradeBing cha (饼茶) is tea compressed into a flat round cake, most often a 357 g pu'er cake, made for storage, transport and long aging.
Tasting & ChemistryBitterness in tea is a taste, detected by bitter receptors on the tongue, produced mainly by caffeine and catechins and increased by heat and long steeps.
Tea TypesFully oxidized tea, called hong cha (red tea) in China, made by withering, rolling and oxidizing leaves until dark, giving malty, fruity, robust flavors.
Grades & TradeBroken leaf grades are orthodox black teas whose leaves were broken into smaller pieces during processing, steeping faster and stronger than whole leaf grades.
ProcessingBruising, or yaoqing, is the repeated shaking or tossing of withering oolong leaves to damage their edges and trigger partial oxidation, building fruity and floral aromas.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksBubble tea, or boba, is a Taiwanese sweetened tea drink, usually with milk, served cold with chewy tapioca pearls and a wide straw; it appeared in Taiwan in the 1980s.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksButter tea, po cha in Tibetan, is dark brick tea boiled at length, then churned with butter and salt; it is a daily staple across Tibet and the Himalaya.
Tasting & ChemistryCaffeine makes up about 2-4% of dry tea leaf; a 240 ml cup typically contains 20-60 mg, depending far more on leaf and brewing than on tea color.
Origins & CultivarsCamellia sinensis is the evergreen plant every true tea comes from; green, white, yellow, oolong, black and dark teas differ by processing, not by species.
Origins & CultivarsCamellia sinensis var. assamica is the large-leaf, tropical tea variety of Assam and Yunnan, used for most Assam, Ceylon, Kenyan and pu'er teas.
Origins & CultivarsCamellia sinensis var. sinensis is the small-leaf, cold-tolerant tea variety grown across most of China, Japan and Taiwan and used for most green teas and oolongs.
Tasting & ChemistryCatechins are the flavan-3-ol polyphenols that dominate fresh tea leaf, giving green tea its bitterness and astringency and turning into theaflavins during oxidation.
Origins & CultivarsCeylon tea is tea from Sri Lanka, grown in seven official regions from sea level to above 2,000 m and known for bright, brisk black teas.
TeawareA cha hai, or fairness pitcher, is a small pitcher that receives each gongfu infusion so every cup in the round gets tea of equal strength.
TeawareA cha pan is a tea tray with a slatted top and a drain or reservoir, used in gongfu brewing to catch overflow, rinses and discarded tea.
Tasting & ChemistryCha qi (茶气, tea energy) is the bodily sensation some drinkers report from strong teas, such as warmth, alertness or relaxation, most often linked to aged and old-tree pu'er.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksChai is the word for tea across much of Asia; in English it usually means masala chai, black tea boiled with milk, sugar and spices such as cardamom and ginger.
ProcessingCharcoal roasting is the traditional method of roasting oolong in baskets over ash-covered charcoal embers, giving deeper, rounder flavor than electric ovens; it is prized for Wuyi rock tea.
TeawareA chasen is the bamboo whisk used to prepare matcha, carved from a single piece of bamboo into 16 to over 100 fine tines.
TeawareA chashaku is a slender bamboo scoop, about 18 cm long, used to measure and transfer matcha from its caddy to the tea bowl.
TeawareA chawan is a Japanese tea bowl for preparing and drinking matcha, wide enough at the base for a bamboo whisk to move freely.
Brewing MethodsCold brew tea is made by steeping leaf in cold or room-temperature water for several hours, giving a sweeter, less bitter cup than hot brewing.
ProcessingCompression is steaming loose tea and pressing it into cakes, bricks, nests or other shapes for storage, trade and aging; it is standard for pu'er and dark teas.
ProcessingCTC, short for crush, tear, curl, is a machine process that cuts withered tea leaves into small hard granules that brew fast and strong; most tea bags use it.
Origins & CultivarsA tea cultivar is a named, cultivated variety of Camellia sinensis, usually propagated from cuttings, selected for traits such as aroma, yield, hardiness or suitability for one tea style.
Tea TypesDa Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) is the most famous Wuyi rock oolong, a heavily roasted, twisted-leaf tea with mineral, dark fruit and toasted notes.
Tea TypesDancong (Phoenix Dancong) is a strip-style oolong from the Phoenix Mountains in Guangdong, known for intense floral and fruity aromas named after natural scents.
Origins & CultivarsDarjeeling is a protected tea region in the West Bengal hills of India, where 87 gardens at up to 2,000 m produce light, aromatic black teas sold by flush.
Tea TypesDian Hong is black tea from Yunnan province, made from large-leaf assamica bushes and prized for golden buds with a malty, cocoa-like, peppery sweetness.
Tea TypesDong Ding is a rolled, medium-oxidized, traditionally roasted Taiwanese oolong from Lugu township in Nantou County, with toasted, nutty and caramel notes.
Tea TypesEarl Grey is black tea flavored with oil of bergamot, a sour citrus grown mainly in Calabria, Italy, and named after the British prime minister Charles Grey.
Tasting & ChemistryEGCG, epigallocatechin gallate, is the most abundant catechin in green tea and a major source of its bitterness and astringency.
Grades & TradeFannings and dust are the smallest particle grades of black tea, sieved out after processing; they brew quickly and strongly and fill most teabags.
ProcessingTea sellers often say fermentation when they mean oxidation; true fermentation uses microbes and applies only to dark teas such as shou pu'er, not to black tea or oolong.
Grades & TradeFirst flush is the first harvest of the growing season after winter dormancy, most famous in Darjeeling, where it yields light, floral, greenish black tea in March and April.
Brewing MethodsA flash steep is an infusion poured off almost immediately, typically 1-5 seconds, used to control very potent leaf in gongfu brewing.
Grades & TradeFTGFOP stands for Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, a high whole-leaf grade for orthodox black tea with many golden tips, used mostly for Darjeeling and Assam.
Tea TypesFukamushi sencha is deep-steamed Japanese green tea, steamed about one to two minutes, giving fine broken leaf and a dark green, thick, sweet, cloudy cup.
Tea TypesGABA tea is tea processed in an oxygen-free atmosphere, usually nitrogen, so the leaf builds up gamma-aminobutyric acid; most is sold as oolong from Taiwan or Japan.
TeawareA gaiwan is a Chinese lidded bowl on a saucer, usually 80-150 ml porcelain, used to brew and pour tea for gongfu sessions.
Tea TypesGenmaicha is Japanese green tea, usually bancha or sencha, blended with roasted brown or white rice, giving a toasty, savory, popcorn-like cup.
Brewing MethodsGongfu cha is the Chinese method of brewing a high ratio of leaf in a small pot or gaiwan for many short infusions, typically 5-7 g per 100 ml.
Brewing MethodsGrandpa style is brewing loose leaf directly in a glass or mug, drinking it with the leaf in, and topping up with hot water before the cup runs dry.
Tea TypesTea from Camellia sinensis leaves heated soon after picking to stop oxidation, keeping a green color and vegetal, grassy, nutty or marine flavors.
Tea TypesGyokuro is a premium Japanese green tea shaded for about three weeks before harvest, giving a deep green leaf and an intensely sweet, savory, umami-rich cup.
Tea TypesChinese dark tea that undergoes microbial post-fermentation after processing, usually compressed into bricks; regional types include Anhua Fu Zhuan, Liu Bao and shou pu'er.
Tea TypesHigh mountain oolong (gaoshan cha) is lightly oxidized, ball-rolled Taiwanese oolong grown above about 1,000 m, prized for floral aroma, sweetness and thick texture.
Tea TypesHojicha is Japanese green tea roasted at high heat until brown, giving a toasty, nutty, low-bitterness cup that is typically lower in caffeine.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksHoneybush is a caffeine-free South African tisane made from Cyclopia shrubs, named for the honey scent of its yellow flowers and the honeyed taste of its oxidized leaf.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksHong Kong milk tea is strong black tea strained through a cotton sock-like filter and mixed with evaporated or condensed milk, a staple of Hong Kong diners.
Tasting & ChemistryHuigan (回甘, returning sweetness) is the sweet aftertaste that rises in the throat and mouth after an initial bitterness, prized in sheng pu'er and oolong.
Tea TypesJasmine tea is tea, usually green, scented by layering it with fresh jasmine flowers overnight so the leaf absorbs their aroma, then removing the spent blossoms.
Tea TypesJunshan Yinzhen is a bud-only yellow tea from Junshan Island in Dongting Lake, Hunan, made with a menhuang sealed-yellowing step that gives a mellow sweetness.
Tea TypesKabusecha is Japanese green tea shaded for about one to two weeks before harvest, between sencha and gyokuro in sweetness, umami and price.
Tea TypesKeemun (Qimen hong cha) is a Chinese black tea from Qimen county, Anhui, created in the 1870s, known for a winey, cocoa, orchid and lightly smoky aroma.
ProcessingKill-green, or shaqing, is the heating step that destroys a tea leaf's oxidizing enzymes, locking in green color; it is done by pan-firing, steaming or baking.
Brewing MethodsKoicha is thick matcha: about 4 g of high-grade powder kneaded with 30-40 ml of water into a glossy, paste-like tea served in the tea ceremony.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksKombucha is sweetened tea fermented by a symbiotic culture of yeast and acetic acid bacteria, giving a tart, lightly fizzy drink with a trace of alcohol.
Tea TypesKukicha is Japanese tea made from the stems and stalks separated during sencha or gyokuro processing, giving a light, sweet, nutty, low-astringency cup.
TeawareA kyusu is a small Japanese teapot, most often with a side handle, designed for brewing green tea such as sencha and gyokuro.
Tasting & ChemistryL-theanine is an amino acid found almost only in tea, about 1-2% of dry leaf weight, that gives savory-sweet taste and is studied for calming effects.
Tea TypesLapsang Souchong is a black tea from Tongmu in the Wuyi Mountains, Fujian, traditionally dried over pinewood fires, giving a strong smoky, resinous flavor.
Brewing MethodsLeaf-to-water ratio is the weight of dry tea per volume of water, the main variable that sets a brew's strength alongside steep time and temperature.
Tasting & ChemistryLiquor is the brewed tea liquid itself, judged by tasters for color, clarity, aroma, strength and body, separate from the dry leaf and the infused leaf.
Tea TypesLongjing (Dragon Well) is a pan-fired flat green tea from West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, known for chestnut, toasted soybean and sweet vegetal flavors.
Tea TypesMatcha is finely stone-ground shaded Japanese tea leaf (tencha), whisked into water so the whole leaf is consumed, giving a vivid green, umami-rich drink.
Grades & TradeMatcha grades such as ceremonial and culinary are marketing categories, not official standards, describing whether matcha is fine enough to drink with water or meant for cooking.
ProcessingMenhuang, or sealed yellowing, is the step unique to yellow tea: warm, fixed leaves are wrapped or piled so moisture and heat slowly turn them yellow and mellow.
Grades & TradeMingqian (明前, pre-Qingming) tea is Chinese spring tea picked before the Qingming festival in early April, prized for small tender buds and sold at high prices.
Tasting & ChemistryMouthfeel is the physical texture of tea in the mouth, including body, thickness, smoothness and drying astringency, judged separately from aroma and taste.
Origins & CultivarsNilgiri tea comes from the Blue Mountains of southern India, grown at about 1,000-2,500 m, harvested year-round, and known for bright, fragrant liquor that stays clear when iced.
Tea TypesPartially oxidized Chinese and Taiwanese tea, from about 10% to 80% oxidation, made by repeatedly bruising leaves before stopping oxidation with heat.
Grades & TradeOrange Pekoe (OP) is a Western grade for whole-leaf black tea describing leaf size and appearance, not flavor; it has nothing to do with oranges.
Tea TypesOriental Beauty (Dongfang Meiren) is a heavily oxidized Taiwanese oolong made from leaves bitten by tea leafhoppers, giving honey, muscat and ripe fruit notes.
ProcessingOrthodox processing makes black tea by withering, rolling, oxidizing and drying the leaf while keeping it whole or in large pieces, producing more aromatic tea than CTC.
ProcessingOxidation is the enzyme-driven browning of tea leaf after its cells are damaged; how far it runs largely separates green, white, oolong and black tea.
ProcessingPan-firing is fixing or drying tea leaves in a hot wok or rotating drum; it gives most Chinese green teas, such as Longjing, their toasted, nutty flavor.
Grades & TradeThe pluck, or plucking standard, describes how much of each shoot is harvested, such as a single bud, a bud and one leaf, or a bud and two leaves.
Tea TypesTea from Yunnan made from large-leaf Camellia sinensis var. assamica, sun-dried and often pressed into cakes, sold raw (sheng) or ripened (shou).
Brewing MethodsResteeping is infusing the same tea leaf more than once; whole-leaf oolong and pu'er can give 5-15 infusions, each tasting slightly different.
Brewing MethodsA rinse is a quick first pour of hot water over tea leaf that is discarded rather than drunk, used to wash and open tightly rolled or compressed tea.
ProcessingRoasting is heating finished, dry tea for hours at controlled temperatures to reduce moisture, deepen flavor and add toasty, caramel notes; it is central to many oolongs.
ProcessingRolling is the step that twists, curls or presses tea leaves to break their cells and set their shape, controlling how fast flavor releases and how far oxidation goes.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksRooibos is a caffeine-free tisane made from the needle-like leaves of Aspalathus linearis, a shrub grown only in the Cederberg region of South Africa's Western Cape.
TeawareA samovar is a large heated metal urn, traditional in Russia and neighbouring countries, that keeps water hot for diluting a strong tea concentrate.
ProcessingScenting is flavoring tea by storing it with fresh flowers, wood smoke or other aromatic material so the leaf absorbs the aroma, as in jasmine and osmanthus tea.
Grades & TradeSecond flush is the late-spring and early-summer harvest that follows the first flush, giving fuller, coppery tea: muscatel in Darjeeling and malty, tippy tea in Assam.
Tea TypesSencha is Japan's most common green tea: steamed, rolled into thin needles and dried, with a grassy, marine, savory flavor and bright green-gold liquor.
ProcessingShading is covering tea bushes for several weeks before harvest to cut sunlight, which raises L-theanine and chlorophyll and lowers catechins; it defines gyokuro, kabusecha and tencha.
Tea TypesRaw pu'er: sun-dried Yunnan large-leaf tea pressed or sold loose without accelerated fermentation, bitter and bright when young and slowly mellowing over years.
Tea TypesShou Mei is a later-harvest, leaf-heavy Fujian white tea with few buds, darker and fruitier than Bai Mu Dan, often pressed into cakes and aged.
Tea TypesRipe pu'er: Yunnan maocha put through wo dui pile fermentation for about 40-60 days, producing a dark, earthy, smooth tea without decades of aging.
Tea TypesThe top grade of Fujian white tea, made only from plump, downy unopened buds that are withered and dried, giving a pale, sweet, melon-like cup.
Grades & TradeSingle-estate tea comes from one named garden rather than a blend of sources, so its flavor reflects that estate's terroir, harvest and processing.
ProcessingSteaming is the kill-green method used for almost all Japanese green tea: fresh leaves are exposed to steam for seconds to two minutes to stop oxidation.
Brewing MethodsSteep time is how long tea leaf stays in contact with water during an infusion, from a few seconds in gongfu brewing to several minutes in Western brewing.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksTapioca pearls are chewy balls of cassava starch, usually darkened with brown sugar, cooked and soaked in syrup to serve in bubble tea; they are best eaten within hours.
TeawareA tea bag is a sealed porous sachet holding a single serving of tea, usually 2-3 g of broken or CTC leaf, for brewing in a cup or pot.
TeawareA tea infuser is a mesh, perforated or basket device that holds loose leaf in hot water and lifts out to stop the steep.
TeawareA tea pet is a small unglazed clay figure kept on a tea tray and bathed with leftover tea during gongfu sessions, gradually taking on a patina.
Tea TypesTencha is shaded Japanese leaf that is steamed and dried flat without rolling, then de-stemmed and deveined; it is the raw material stone-ground into matcha.
Origins & CultivarsTerroir is the combined effect of soil, altitude, climate, slope and local practice on how a tea tastes, the reason the same cultivar differs from place to place.
TeawareA tetsubin is a Japanese cast iron kettle for boiling water over a heat source; enamel-lined cast iron teapots are a different object.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksThai tea, or cha yen, is strong spiced black tea sweetened with condensed milk and sugar and served over ice, recognizable by its bright orange color from added coloring.
Tasting & ChemistryTheaflavins and thearubigins are pigments formed when catechins oxidise, giving black tea its red-brown color, briskness and body.
Tea TypesTieguanyin (Iron Goddess of Mercy) is a rolled oolong from Anxi, Fujian, ranging from floral, lightly oxidized modern styles to roasted traditional ones.
Grades & TradeTippy tea contains many tips, the unopened buds of the shoot, which turn gold during oxidation in black tea and are a visible marker of fine plucking.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksA tisane is any infusion of plant material other than the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, such as chamomile, peppermint, hibiscus, rooibos or ginger; most contain no caffeine.
Grades & TradeTuocha (沱茶) is tea compressed into a small bowl or nest shape, typically pu'er in 100 g or 250 g pieces, or minis of a few grams.
Origins & CultivarsUji is a city and tea district in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, central to the history of matcha, sencha and gyokuro and one of Japan's most prestigious tea origins.
Tasting & ChemistryUmami is the savory, brothy taste in tea, strongest in shaded Japanese greens like gyokuro and matcha and driven largely by L-theanine and other amino acids.
Brewing MethodsUsucha is thin matcha: about 2 g of powdered tea whisked with 60-70 ml of water into a frothy bowl, the everyday form of matcha.
Brewing MethodsWater temperature controls which compounds leave the tea leaf and how fast, ranging from about 50°C for gyokuro to a full boil for black tea and pu'er.
Brewing MethodsWestern-style brewing uses a small amount of leaf in a large pot or mug for one or two long infusions of 2-5 minutes.
Tasting & ChemistryWet leaf, or infused leaf, is the leaf after steeping, inspected by tasters to judge plucking standard, leaf integrity, processing and freshness that the dry leaf can hide.
Tea TypesMinimally processed tea from Fujian made by withering and drying young buds and leaves, producing a pale liquor with honey, hay and melon notes.
ProcessingWithering is the first stage of most tea processing: freshly picked leaves rest and lose moisture for hours or days, turning soft and pliable and starting chemical changes.
ProcessingWo dui is the controlled pile fermentation used to make shou pu'er: moistened maocha is stacked in heaps for weeks so microbes and heat rapidly darken and mellow it.
Origins & CultivarsThe Wuyi Mountains in northern Fujian, China, are a UNESCO World Heritage area and the home of rock oolong (yancha), including Da Hong Pao, and of Lapsang Souchong.
Origins & CultivarsYabukita is Japan's dominant tea cultivar, selected in Shizuoka in 1908 and grown on roughly two-thirds or more of the country's tea fields, mainly for sencha.
Tea TypesA rare Chinese tea category made like green tea with an added sealed-yellowing step, menhuang, that mellows the leaf and turns it yellow.
Tisanes & Tea DrinksYerba mate is a caffeinated infusion of dried leaves of Ilex paraguariensis, a South American holly, drunk from a gourd through a metal filter straw called a bombilla.
TeawareA Yixing teapot is an unglazed clay teapot from Yixing in Jiangsu province, China, made from zisha clay and prized for brewing oolong and pu'er.
Origins & CultivarsYunnan is a province in southwest China, the birthplace of pu'er, home of Dian Hong black tea, and the center of large-leaf tea trees, some centuries old.
TeawareZisha is the iron-rich clay from the Yixing area of Jiangsu, China, used for unglazed teapots; its main types are zini, zhuni/hongni and duanni.