The Five Main Types of Tea

 

If you’ve spent any amount of time shopping for tea, going to tea houses, and of course drinking it, you’ll start to run into some familiar names like jasmine, black tea, rooibos, and mint.

However, you have those and then you also have crazy teas like Kukicha, yerba mate, Lapsang Soucha, Lady Grey, and Gunpowder.

To bring some order to the chaos, teas are divided into different categories. 

While there are definitely way more than just 5 categories of tea (try more like 3000), the 5 basic types of tea are: White, Green, Oolong, Red, and Pu’er, and most teas are able to be categorized as one of the 5 types.

The five main types of tea: White, Green, Oolong, Red, Pu'er

Fun fact: all 5 types of tea come from the same tea plant – Camellia Sinensis Sinensis.

*They are NOT tisanes/herbal teas.

What distinguishes one tea as a white tea and not an Oolong or Pu’er has to do with its appearance, flavor, and most importantly processing.

White Tea

Starting with the least processed tea, white tea gets its name because of its pale brew, the “peach fuzz” that is still intact on the leaves, and its light aromatic quality.
Processing: Least processed.
Appearance: Pale, delicate leaves usually with fuzz on them because it is the least processed tea.
Flavor: light, clean, clear, delicate, mellow, subtle, great for iced teas and hot weather.

Have you heard of these famous white teas?: White Peony/Bai Mudan & Silver needle/Bai Hao Yinzhen.

 

Green Tea

As the name implies, green tea is, unsurprisingly, green.
Processing: Less processed.
Appearance: Green tea leaves come in all shades of green from vibrant green to a darker olive. The brew color ranges anywhere from light honey yellow – green, good everyday or iced tea
Flavor: Grassy, earthy, or that of leaves.

Have you heard of these famous green teas?: Dragon Well/Longjing, Sencha, Matcha (powdered green tea, I know, but we’ll put it here for now), Baozhong.

 

Oolong Tea

You probably already knew about white and green tea. Oolong is less well known, especially in the western hemisphere. 
Or if you’ve had it, you might have thought it was a green or black tea. Honestly, an understandable mistake since oolong is the most versatile type of tea. 
Because of the huge range, oolongs can be harder to immediately identify, especially just by sight and smell.
Processing: Medium
Appearance: Can be hard to identify because of its versatility. Oolong ranges from looking like green tea to a black tea.
*Note: Oolong is the most common type of tea to come balled or stranded.
Flavor: Oolong’s signature feature is a smokey roasted flavor which adds smokey, earthy, and woody notes.

Have you heard of these famous Oolongs?: Tieguanyin/iron goddess, dong ding, high mountain oolongs.

 

Red Tea

Suspend your judgment and from calling me a fraud for a quick minute and I’ll tell you why.
Red tea. Is that like a new type of tea I’ve never heard of?
Ironically enough, usually people are most familiar with red teas they just don’t know that this is what these teas are called. 
You probably know them better as “black” teas. 
That would be your Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Morning Breakfasts, and most iced teas.
Yes, what we call “black tea” is actually red tea.
Where’d the red come from? Good question, which I will answer with another question ‘Where did tea come from?’ 

Where did tea come from?

The abbreviated answer being that tea came from China. And the Chinese word for our “black teas” is hongcha which when literally translated means red tea.
Okay, that’s interesting and all, but why not just call it black tea? 
Well, here is where those other 3,000 types of teas come into play because another large type of tea (not one of the main 5, but still pretty well known) is actually called black tea or heicha which literally means dark/black tea.
So if you see me calling “black” teas red tea, now you know why.
Processing: High
*Note: part of tea processing includes oxidation which is key when describing red teas as they are the most oxidized teas.
Appearance: Red teas usually look the darkest either a dark brown or almost black with a ruddy red to dark brown brew.
Flavor: As most people have tasted red teas, you have a general idea what they taste like – strong, robust, rich, fruity, chocolaty, etc. Good hot in the winter and fall.

Have you heard of these famous red teas?: Lapsang Souchong, Keemun, Dianhong.

 

Pu'er Tea

And here you thought red tea was interesting. lol
Poo-what? Is that even a tea?
Pu’er, pronounced poo as in poo bear er in her, is probably the least popular tea in the west, but it has gained some popularity because of its probiotic health benefits and association with losing weight.
There are two main types of Pu’er: Sheng and Shou. 

There are two main types of Pu'er: Sheng and Shou

You can think of them as subcategories if that helps. Sheng and Shou indicate a difference in how the Pu’er was processed which is a whole other post.
For now, just know that the main distinguishing characteristic of Pu’er is one word: fermentation.
Processing: High
Appearance: Because of its processing and for ease of transportation, Pu’er is usually pressed into bricks. The brew color is a dark golden to very dark murky brown.
Flavor: Very earthy, mulchy, muddy, umami, fishy, even maybe medicinal. Not your typical tea.
Have you heard of these famous Pu’er recipes? : 8582, 7542, 7638.

*Note: You aren’t going crazy and no, those aren’t random license plate numbers either. Pu’er is unique in that it is the only tea identified by a series of 4 numbers which indicate information such as quality, factory, and year.

 

Conclusion

But for now, there you have it, a brief introduction to the 5 main types of tea: 

White, Green, Oolong, “Black”/Red, and Pu’er.

Currently, I’m on a green tea kick. What is your favorite type of tea?

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