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:

  • Dianhong Classic, traditional black tea

    Complex and Unusual

    Acquired tastes can be perplexing or intriguing, depending on your viewpoint. Count me as intrigued after sampling a pre-release packet of Dianhong Classic. The dry tea leaves have a strangely pleasant aroma of roasted cashews and aged cheddar. When infused, the scent transforms into something altogether different, vaguely akin to the fragrant flower, Freesia. Drinking this tea gives yet a third impression, the hardest of all to describe. To my western palate, it’s like stepping onto the moon – uncharted territory and taste adventure combined. Is it blood orange or river stone? Bittersweet or crystalline? I cannot describe this unusual, slowly unfolding taste. Thank you for the opportunity to sample one of the teas from your new line. For me, Dianhong Classic is a riddle that may never be solved.

    Karen Ager
  • Gold Stallion, traditional black tea

    Liquid Gold

    Such a beauty to look at the dry leaves of black and gold. I didn’t expect the brewed tea to be so…..”harvest gold.” The aroma and taste are strong, clean and crisp, a la freshly pressed linen.

    Karen Ager
  • Honey Orchid Supreme, classic Phoenix dancong oolong

    Deep tea

    I am not able to make such good writing to describe this wonderful oolong, but I have to share this : this tea is even more wonderful when brew for a long time! 4 friends came for dinner yesterday but I was out of tea. I have only a tablespoonful of this tea in the bag. I knew I cannot make kung fu style because there were total 7 people too many small for serving like that. So I put all the tealeaves in a big teapot and brew for 8 minutes! I hoped it will be strong enough to taste because so few leaves. It was the most wonderful cup of tea I ever have. All people said same thing. I am so happy to discover this

    Ai Han Ngau
  • Orchid Literati, Phoenix dancong oolong

    Indeed, better known Phoenix cultivars are widely planted throughout the Fenghuang area and well beyond, for obvious commercial incentives. In some gardens the harvest can be disciplined and the processing respectfully done. In some others, outputs are maximised for cashflow. The latter ones are quantitatively far more substantial. They are sold in the same name nevertheless. As a result, you can most certainly come across the same label here and there, with whatever origin or master maker your purveyor might tell you, basing on whatever information he/she has been given, or want to give.

    A recent visit to a few popular teashops in London, however, has given me a new level of understanding of this phenomenon. There is no limits to how low the quality a Ya Shi Xiang — Duck Poo tea ( they call it Duck Sh*t tea, by the way ) can be and still demanding a premium price. I have tasted quite a few quality levels in my 20+ years in this trade and have honestly never came upon such lowly ones. They did not even taste like anything from Fenghuang at all.

    People are still buying there because they do not know any better. On one hand, I am happy that people are interested in exploring the world of finer teas, on the other, however, I think it is dangerous that the spread of such fraudulent quality, will, in the long run, destroy the future of the market for good tea. When people have attempted to find a finer tea and found not much to enjoy even in a premium price product that they do not know is an unauthentic one, they simply will grow disinterested in the category all together.

    As in the spirit of the traditional literati, it is all the more an obligation that I have to bear to make sure the genuine quality get delivered to the market, for the sake of the future of good tea. That is also why I am grateful for customers like you, N.N., who would take the extra step in sharing the tea experience with more people. It is far more than the feeling of being appreciated, your sharing is even more effective than our efforts in involving the market for the interest in the real thing. Hopefully someday good tea will drive out bad.

    Leo Kwan