Classification of Tea 茶的分類

Classification of Chinese tea -- Famous Chinese teas -- English tea & Chinese tea known by an English name -- Types of tea by distribution before consuming -- Japanese tea -- African Red Tea

Classification of Chinese Tea 中國茶葉的分類

CHINESE	ENGLISH	PROCESS	EXAMPLES
綠茶	Green Tea	No fermentation	龍井、碧螺春
紅茶	Black Tea	Fully fermented	祁門紅茶
烏龍茶(青茶)	Oolong Tea	Half fermented	武夷巖茶、鐵觀音
白茶	White Tea	Slightly fermented	白牡丹、銀針白毫
黃茶	Yellow Tea	Unfermented	君山銀針
黑茶	≈ Compressed Tea	Long term fermented	普洱磚茶
花茶	Flower/scented Tea	Green tea scented	茉莉花茶

From the chart above, we can see that even though the the 7 well-known teas are named after "colors" (with the exception of the last one), they are actually defined or differentiated by the processing of the tea leaves. This naming system can sometimes be quite confusing. Teas such as Qi Men or Keemun (祁門) are called Black Tea in English, even though people in the West know that its infusion color is red. In this case, the Chinese name, Hong Cha 紅茶 (literally, "red tea"), is more straight forward. But the Chinese name Hei Cha 黑茶 (literally "black tea") refers to the color of tea leaves, and is used for teas that are made of old leaves and went through a long term fermentation. In Chinese, Hei Cha usually calls up those compressed teas sold to minorities of border regions.

In the following chart, I try to compare the meaning of the colors named for teas in the two different language contexts.

綠茶	color of infusion & leaves	Green Tea	color of infusion & leaves
紅茶	color of infusion	Black Tea	color of leaves
烏龍茶	shape of leaves	Oolong Tea	transliteration of Chinese name
白茶	color of infusion & hairs on leaves	White Tea	color of infusion & hair leaves
黃茶	color of infusion & maybe also leaves	Yellow Tea	color of infusion & maybe also leaves
黑茶	color of leaves	-	-

At least one author, Lam Kam Chuen, however, in his book titled The Way of Tea: The Sublime Art of Oriental Tea Drinking (in English) presents a different naming system. In his book, he gives classification names of "Light Green Teas" and "Red Teas" with Oolong and Qi Men or Keemun as examples respectively. He also used differently the name of Black Tea, by which he refers to some ball-shaped or twisted leaves, such as the Ku Ding or Ku Ting 苦丁茶, teas that taste bitter in the first infusion and become bittersweet in later cups.

(To be continued... 未完待續)