An independent Chinese tea journal
Honest guides to pu-erh, oolong and the rest of Chinese tea: how to brew it, what it should taste like, and how to tell a good one from a pretty wrapper.
Gongfu Brewing
There's no single gongfu ratio, but the starting point is 3–7 g of tea per 100 ml of water (less for red tea and pu-erh, more for oolongs), boiling water for shou and dark teas and cooler water for green and delicate teas, and a first steep of 5–20 seconds, adding 5–20 seconds each round. The chart below adjusts that starting point for every type of Chinese tea.
Pu-erh Tea
Sheng (raw) pu-erh is pressed and left to ferment slowly over years or decades; shou (ripe) goes through a fast, controlled wet-pile fermentation that takes about 6–8 weeks. Sheng tastes bright, bitter-sweet and alive; shou tastes dark, smooth and earthy.
Chinese Tea
China's "Ten Famous Teas" (中国十大名茶) isn't one official list: different sources name different teas, around 17–18 names in all. The most widely quoted version lists West Lake Longjing, Dongting Bi Luo Chun, Huangshan Mao Feng, Lu An Gua Pian, Junshan Yinzhen, Xinyang Mao Jian, Wuyi rock tea (Da Hong Pao), Anxi Tieguanyin, Keemun and Lushan Yunwu.
Gongfu Brewing
To use a gaiwan, fill it only to where the rim starts to flare, hold the rim between your thumb and middle finger, rest your index finger on the lid knob, tilt the lid to leave a small gap, and pour everything out in one quick, confident motion. Keeping the water below the rim and pouring fast is what keeps your fingers cool.
Start Here
To taste tea, check it in order: dry leaf, warmed leaf, liquor colour, then aroma, taste, texture and aftertaste, and finally the spent leaf, following the tea across several steeps. The fastest way to learn is to taste two teas side by side, brewed the same way, and write down what you notice.
Chinese Tea
Green, white and black tea all come from Camellia sinensis; processing makes the difference. Green is heated fresh, white is only withered and dried, and black tea, called red tea (hong cha) in China, is fully oxidized.
Good tea speaks quietly, and the aftertaste stays long.
Special section · Pressed, aged and argued about
Everything about pu-erh: sheng vs shou, cakes and tuos, Yunnan's tea mountains, how to brew and store it.
Explore pu-erh21 articles, from young sheng and ripe shou to aged cakes and how to spot a fake.
Pu-erh TeaGuide
Purple pu-erh is sheng made from tea plants whose leaves turn purple through a natural mutation that raises anthocyanins: Zi Cha, Zi Ya and the Zi Juan cultivar.
Green TeaHow-to
Brew green tea with water at 75–85 °C, weighed leaf and short steeps: 3–5 g per 100 ml for 10–20 seconds in a gaiwan, or about 2–3 g per 250 ml for up to 1.5 minutes in a mug.
TeawareGuide
An aroma cup (wen xiang bei) is the tall cup in a gongfu pair: pour the tea in, tip it into the drinking cup, then smell the empty cup as it cools.
Oolong TeaGuide
Mi Lan Xiang ("honey orchid") is the best-known Phoenix Dan Cong oolong: honey and orchid on the nose, a cool finish, and honey that comes from the cultivar and the roast, not insects.
Japanese TeaHow-to
Sencha is Japan's everyday green tea: grown in full sun, steamed, rolled into fine needles, grassy and savoury. Brew it at 70–80 °C for about a minute (20–30 seconds for deep-steamed fukamushi) and pour out every drop.
Chinese TeaGuide
In China, tea is picked mostly from early spring to late autumn, often three or four times a year. Spring is the main season, with pre-Qingming (ming qian) green tea the most prized; autumn gives Gu Hua pu-erh and aromatic Tieguanyin.
