Oolong (, ; Chinese: 烏龍茶 is a traditional semi-oxidized Chinese tea produced through a process that includes withering the leaves under strong sun and allowing some oxidation to occur before curling and twisting. Most oolong teas, especially those of fine quality, involve unique tea plant cultivars that are exclusively used for particular varieties. The degree of oxidation, which is controlled by the length of time between picking and final drying, can range from 8% to 85% depending on the variety and production style. Oolong is especially popular in southeastern China and among ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia, as is the Fujian preparation process known as the gongfu tea ceremony.
Green tea is a type of tea that is made from Camellia sinensis leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process which is used to make oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China, and since then its production and manufacture has spread to other countries in East Asia.
Gyokuro is a type green tea from Japan that is grown in the shade. It differs from the standard sencha in being grown under the shade rather than the full sun. The name "gyokuro" translates as "jewel dew". According to the Japan Tea Central Association, gyokuro is defined as "a tea manufactured in the same manner as sencha from tea leaves picked from covered tea gardens that are almost completely shaded from sunlight for about 20 days using covering materials such as reed screens, straw, or shading nets, from the time when the new shoots of the first flush start to grow."
Pu'er or pu-erh is a variety of fermented tea traditionally produced in Yunnan Province, China. In the context of traditional Chinese tea production terminology, fermentation refers to microbial fermentation, and is typically applied after the tea leaves have been sufficiently dried and rolled. As the tea undergoes controlled microbial fermentation, it also continues to oxidize, which is also controlled, until the desired flavors are reached. This process produces tea known as hēichá (黑茶), literally "black tea", though the term is commonly translated to English as "dark tea" to distinguish it from the English-language black tea.
Genmaicha is a Japanese brown rice green tea consisting of green tea mixed with roasted popped brown rice. It is sometimes referred to colloquially as "popcorn tea" because a few grains of the rice pop during the roasting process and resemble popcorn, or as "people's tea", as the rice served as a filler and reduced the price of the tea, making it historically more available for poorer Japanese. Today all segments of society drink genmaicha. It was also used by people fasting for religious purposes or who found themselves to be between meals for long periods of time.
Jasmine tea is tea scented with the aroma of jasmine blossoms. Typically, jasmine tea has green tea as the tea base; however, white tea and black tea are also used. The resulting flavour of jasmine tea is subtly sweet and highly fragrant. It is the most famous scented tea in China.
Hōjicha is a Japanese green tea. It is distinctive from other Japanese green teas because it is roasted in a porcelain pot over charcoal. It is roasted at 150 °C (302 °F) to prevent oxidation and produce a light golden colour, as opposed to other Japanese teas which are steamed. In general, the base of a hōjicha consists of leaves from the second harvest or after.
Gunpowder tea is a form of tea in which each leaf has been individually rolled into a small pellet. Its English name comes either from some resemblance of the pellets to gunpowder, or from a phrase in Chinese that phonetically resembles the word "gunpowder". This rolling method of shaping tea is most often applied either to green tea or to oolong tea.
Green tea ice cream or matcha ice is ice cream flavored with matcha, or green tea. It is popular in Japan and other parts of East Asia. Matcha ice cream has been available in the United States since the late-1970s, primarily in Japanese restaurants and markets, and became more mainstream in the late 1990s.
Mecha (芽茶) is a type of green tea. The name of mecha derives from the early leaf buds needed to make this special green tea. Mecha is harvested in spring and made as rolled leaf teas that are graded somewhere between Gyokuro and Sencha in quality. Mecha is made from a collection of leaf buds and tips of the early crops.
Kamairicha (釜炒り茶) is a Japanese green tea produced by pan-roasting or pan-firing tea leaves during the early stages of production. It is most commonly produced in the western region of Japan. Kamairicha has a mildly roasted flavour with more sweet and fresh notes than bitter ones.
Dongfang meiren(Chinese: 東方美人; lit. 'eastern beauty') or Oriental Beauty, or baihao(白毫), among other Chinese names, is a heavily oxidized, non-roasted, tip-type oolong tea originating in Hsinchu County, Taiwan. It is a tea produced from leaves bitten by the tea jassid, an insect that feeds on the tea plant. Terpenes are released in the bitten leaves, which creates a honey-like taste. Oriental beauty, white-tip oolong, and champagne oolong are other names under which dongfang meiren is marketed in the West.
Tea processing is the method in which the leaves from the tea plant Camellia sinensis are transformed into the dried leaves for brewing tea.
Matcha (抹茶) is a finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves that originated in China. Later, the characteristic green color of modern matcha was developed in Japan, where most matcha is produced today. In the 12th century at the latest, Chinese compressed tea, the raw material for matcha, was introduced to Japan. When the production of compressed tea was banned in China in 1391, matcha was abandoned in China but continued to develop in Japan thereafter.
Aracha (荒茶), also known as unrefined or crude tea, is a type of green tea produced in Japan. Unlike most other teas, aracha green tea is produced using the entire leaf of the tea plant, including the leaf blade, leaf stem, broken particles of the leaf, and the fine leaf hair. This often gives the tea a deep green colour and a bold taste though variations are greatly affected by the cultivation and production processes.
Konacha is a type of green tea, composed of the dust, tea buds and small leaves that are left behind after processing Gyokuro or Sencha. Konacha is cheaper than Sencha and Matcha and is often served at sushi restaurants as palate-refresher that stands up to fish flavours under the name of agari. It is also marketed as Gyokurokonacha (玉露粉茶).
Sencha is a type of Japanese ryokucha which is prepared by infusing the processed whole tea leaves in hot water. This is as opposed to matcha, powdered Japanese green tea, where the green tea powder is mixed with hot water and therefore the leaf itself is included in the beverage. Sencha is the most popular tea in Japan.
Yamecha is a type of tea produced in Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan. It is cultivated in Yame-shi and its surrounding areas: Chikugo-shi, Hirokawa-cho, Ukiha-shi, and Asakura-shi. Yamecha makes up about 3% of Japan's green tea production and about 45% of Japan's gyokuro production on an annual basis. It is highly prized and one of the first regions in Japan to grow tea. The first tea plant in Yame was imported from China by a Zen priest named Eirin Suzui.
Tsuen Tea is the oldest tea house in Japan, founded in 1160 in Uji city, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It is also the 13th oldest company in Japan, and the 30th oldest in the world, appearing on the List of oldest companies. Located across from Uji Station on the Keihan Uji line, just east of Uji Bridge, successive generations of Tsuen owners provided tea to travelers as "bridge guardians." The shop is the subject of a Kyōgen farce called "Tsuen" and also appears in Eiji Yoshikawa's epic novel Musashi. Today it is operated by the 24th generation of the Tsuen family.
Kabuse tea, or kabusecha (かぶせ茶) is a class of Japanese tea leaf. Kabuseru (かぶせる) literally means to cover or place on top, as a hat on a head, therefore kabuse tea is a tea leaf harvested from a tea plant that, for some period of time ranging from 2–25 days, has had a porous material draped over the plant while the young leaves are being produced. Kabuse tea is almost exclusively a first flush tea. Though kabuse tea is usually processed into a green tea after picking, kabuse tea denotes a pre-picking process and the freshly picked leaf can be used to produce any kind of tea, from green tea to oolong tea to black tea, or other types.
