Chinese Tea

[Charles]

Chinese Tea

by Charles » Mar 10th, '10, 15:51

This discussion thread is dedicated to questions and comments on the TeaClass lesson: Chinese Tea (http://www.teaclass.com/lesson_0306.html). TeaClass is designed to be a free educational tool so if anything is unclear, let us know! We're also using TeaClass to train our own retail store staff so please feel free to share anything you've heard or read that disagrees with the lesson. Our goal is to continually improve this tool based on your feedback.

[dermur]

Re: Chinese Tea

by dermur » Apr 5th, '10, 08:32

Regarding your Pu'er tea description, earthy is good, musty is bad.

The earthy scent and flavour is much desired in aged raw Pu'er tea. However, the musty (or "warehouse smell") is to be avoided. Nor should a properly aged raw Pu'er tea have a seaweed of fishy smell. These are the result of either poor storage or poor post-fermentation.

[Charles]

Re: Chinese Tea

by Charles » Apr 5th, '10, 14:12

Well said. I've adjusted the description to remove the word "musty".

[beachape]

Re: Chinese Tea

by beachape » Apr 8th, '10, 22:57

For Chinese Famous teas, you're missing some big ones likely because they aren't offered at adagio (can't sell everything), but one of the biggest you're missing is Bi Luo Chun which you do sell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Famous_Tea

[Charles]

Re: Chinese Tea

by Charles » Apr 9th, '10, 09:31

The universe of teas is certainly immense, and China tops the list for variety and deep tradition. The Wikipedia list you cited leaves out Yunnans and Lapsang Souchong, both of which are offered more widely in the US than several of those listed.

I've read that to become a Chinese Tea Master you must learn to distinguish between 1,000 different teas, speak several languages, play a traditional stringed instrument, perfectly perform the Chinese Tea Ceremony, etc.... In true Chinese fashion, no one has ever achieved Tea Mastery.

In the US we tend to oversimplify and we have Tea Masters running around that achieved mastery in under 6 months. I suppose it's all a matter of scale.

[Rithmomachy]

Re: Chinese Tea

by Rithmomachy » May 5th, '10, 00:57

The end of the section on Gunpowder tea was pasted onto the section about Ti Kuan Yin.

[fracol]

Re: Chinese Tea

by fracol » Nov 29th, '10, 15:58

The end of the section on Gunpowder tea was pasted onto the section about Ti Kuan Yin.

Also noticed this

[fracol]

Re: Chinese Tea

by fracol » Nov 29th, '10, 16:09

Im just a little confused about the names of Chinese teas. For examle Silver Needle has a few great quality growing areas, but it really can be grown anywhere in China as long as it's known how to produce it. While you have Yunnan (which is a province of China) labeled as a tea. Yunnan does not ONLY produce black tea though it has a wide variety of quality green, white, and oolong teas. Plus Keemun for example, is this a small region in Anhui that only produces black tea?

Basically what i'm trying to say is i'm really confused. While some Chinese teas are named after regions they are grown in, others are named for production methods (lapsang souchong). And yet others like Ti Kuan Yin, have a little of both, grown in a certain area and undergoing certain processing. It's the one sole thing about tea that still utterly baffles me!!!

[edkrueger]

Re: Chinese Tea

by edkrueger » Nov 30th, '10, 13:28

You have an error:

Ti Kuan Yin This exceptional Chinese Oolong also goes by the name "Iron Goddess of Mercy." Legend has it that the secret to this tea was given as a gift from the goddess to a devout farmer who had tended to her temple for many years. With tightly rolled leaves, only the outside edges are exposed to the elements. Gunpowder teas tend to be made from slightly lower quality leaves and offer and a lightly roasted, sometimes lightly smokey finish. Example: Gunpowder.

[esdoudou]

Re: Chinese Tea

by esdoudou » Sep 19th, '11, 22:16

Im just a little confused about the names of Chinese teas. For examle Silver Needle has a few great quality growing areas, but it really can be grown anywhere in China as long as it's known how to produce it. While you have Yunnan (which is a province of China) labeled as a tea. Yunnan does not ONLY produce black tea though it has a wide variety of quality green, white, and oolong teas. Plus Keemun for example, is this a small region in Anhui that only produces black tea?

Basically what i'm trying to say is i'm really confused. While some Chinese teas are named after regions they are grown in, others are named for production methods (lapsang souchong). And yet others like Ti Kuan Yin, have a little of both, grown in a certain area and undergoing certain processing. It's the one sole thing about tea that still utterly baffles me!!!

the names of Chinese teas named after the places they grew because it originated from the place, and some tea name also has stories, such as Oolong(Wu Long)Tea, as the producer get the fresh tea leaves home but he fogot to produce the tea at once, so the process was delay, when he produced tea with the no more fresh tea leaves,the tea even much better than the tea made with fresh tea leaves, that's very strange, but the tea became famous from then on. I make it simple, and you could get more materials.