A Few Ways to Select a Tea

Select a tea by category, region, taste or TCM character

At TeaHong.com, we try to put ourselves in our customers’ shoes. Different people have different priorities. Each sees the world differently. Naturally when it comes to selecting a tea, your criteria may not be the same as that of any other tea drinkers. That is why we group our tea products in different ways so you can see them in the context that is closest to how you think when selecting a tea.

Selection by
Tea Category

Selection by
Tea Region

Selection by
Taste Preference

Selection by
TCM Character

Our Tea Master’s personal favourites

Before doing your own selections, you may also want to check out what our Tea Master’s very own favourites here.

Or refer to his best loved oolongs here:

by random order

Selection by Tea Category

The most common way to group different varieties of tea is by the category of processing method with which they are produced. Some call it Tea Classification, others Tea Categorisation. We think the later label is semantically more accurate.

Many connoisseurs and tea specialists organise their collections with this concept.

The above chart shows the five main categories: Green, Black, White, Pu’er ( Post-Fermentation ) and Oolong teas. Click the pie chart to browse the category of tea, click on your choice and enjoy the browse!

Need more info about a category before seeing the products? Here are some articles:

Our tea regions

Fenghuang / Phoenix

Tea farmer withering tea leaves in the afternoon sun

Huangshan/ Anhui

Tea picking on the hill side terrace

Minnan-Mindong, Fujian

Wang's peak farm

Nepal, the Himalayas

Tea Regions of TeaHomg.com: Nepal / Himalayas

Taiwan

Master Li talks about ant problem in his wild Red Jade tea field

Wuyi-shan

A tea field in Wuyi

Yunnan

Thick linen are being put on piles of tealeaves for post-fermentation in Yunnan

Zhejiang

Tea Hong: Finest Hand-roasted Green tea: Longjing Spring Equinox

Selection by Taste

Teas are like raw gems. The true taste of each awaits the revelation made possible by the way you make it. Your personal need matters. It may change according to mood, time of the day, and occasions.

tasting

Tasting is the ultimate way to learn about a tea

Experience and explore

Begin by tasting a few selections using various infusion styles to gain more specialist understanding of the finesses and differences. Relate this with your personal preferences and you will gradually carve out a direction in building your own repertoire of tea. This will be your very own line that best suits your taste and your needs. With repeated usage your senses and perceptions will deepen. This will empower you with the connoisseur skill to easily master yet more varieties to continue to gain levels in the vast world of tea.

Selection by TCM Characters

This is for those who understand the needs of answering the voice of the body. A well customised and balanced collection not only helps to maximise tea’s health benefits, but also tea’s gastronomic qualities. At Tea Hong, we categorise our collection by traditional Chinese medicinal character.

Check out trending best sellers

If all these other ways of thinking about how to select a tea are not for you, perhaps you can see what other people are buying. These are some of what’s trending now:

Information on a tea page

Detail information on each tea page includes a description, taste profile, infusion tips and a few properties described with icons. This article gives a general orientation in case you want to prepare yourself before browsing.

Customer Reviews

Yet another way to get an idea is to see how other customers see our products. Read a few random reviews they have posted in this site, and click on the link to go to the product page:

  • Himalayan Finest Flowery, orthodox black tea

    A Pleasant Surprise

    Although this may not be the best of all the Nepalese tea I have sampled, it comes in only second to the hand-rolled first flush Jade Moon from xx (Tea Hong: sorry we have to edit out the shop name), which is almost 3 times more expensive! The aroma, depth and complexity are all there, maybe only a touch less floral. I am happy to save the money for trying out more varieties.

    pucrettub
  • Honey Orchid Supreme, classic Phoenix dancong oolong

    Lively, vibrant and mellow at the same time.
    This tea is packed with fruity notes which hit my sense even on smelling the dry leaves just before the brew and continues to amaze me to the very end of the session. The flavors went on like a giant ball of fruits and nectar to roll down to my throat and soothes my deeper breath, so soothing that it’s “Yun” can revoke my pleasant experience with good ripe fruits.
    It’s force is like dumping myself in warm and sweet memories just like sweet nectar.

    Truly special.

    Danupon S.
  • Red Cloak Grande, Wuyi yancha oolong

    Wasn’t impressed with 2012 version

    I truly expected more from this yancha after trying your fabulous Sacred Lily. I feel like the mineral rock taste of this one is a bit lacking compared to Sacred Lily. Perhaps it’s because the roast here seems to me a little overdone as the leaves struggle to open up even when using 99c water, high pour with yixing teapot.

    Barak Dallal
  • Premodern Peony, deep oxidation white tea

    My first order has arrived. The first tea I tried was this Peony. Hence my first review.

    This tea is a revelation. I’ve prepared commercial-grade white peony from a local teas shop, as well as other Chinese whites, and they tend to pleasant but one-dimensional; that familiar woody taste, but not much more. This peony has a full, round, complex flavour, as described above, making it much more interesting than the common whites. I can never go back to “modern” peonies now, let alone post-modern ones 🙂

    2g/100ml/90°C/1,5min is a good starting point, with first a quick hot rinse, as I learned elsewhere on this site.

    Colin Brace