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:

  • Mini Peony, matured white tea

    This tea is refined and elegant in its simplicity. It’s a pretty straightforward white tea, humbly priced, with a soothing flavor profile that isn’t remarkably complex, but nevertheless can bring a kind of satisfaction to any tea-drinker’s soul.

    I think the flavor notes listed in the description are pretty accurate – it’s got creamy undertones with some hints of pear-like fruitiness and a subdued floral quality, with some soft notes reminiscent of nuts and herbs, all of which are balanced in harmony and enjoyable – not despite their simplicity, but perhaps because of it.

    For me, I think it’s the relatively simple (but still nuanced and detail-oriented) processing techniques which make it feel raw in a way that brings me closer to the spirit and essence of this wonderful plant, and across its many manifestations, from different species and cultivars, to processing techniques that effectively create the various categories of tea.

    I enjoy brewing this tea up and letting it cool in the cup for several hours before drinking it. It retains a softness but develops a kind of boldness that seems to amplify the flavor profile and draw out many desirable notes and characteristics that are perhaps more fleeting when the soup is warm.

    The body becomes very thick and the aftertaste lingers for a long time, but on the way down the soup is still very smooth and delicate. It glides easily across the palate before sinking heavily into the body… this pungency is a very enjoyable sensation, and perhaps a reflection of the high-quality leaf material coupled with the excellent processing techniques used to create Tea Hong’s Mini Peony.

    NN
  • Yiwu Large Leaf 2013, partially post-fermented Pu’er shengcha

    I love best this real puer

    Real good puer taste like old day puer. My most loved puer

    Ai Han Ngau
  • Honey Orchid Supreme, classic Phoenix dancong oolong

    With this tea, I got other people into tea 🙂

    This tea is delicious. It’s fruity, peach-y, floral, complex, interesting, and has a great mouth feel. The color of the liquor…just wow. It’s like peach juice, or plum juice, or something like that. It’s perhaps the most attractive looking liquor of any tea I have had yet. This is a tea that I would consistently keep in my personal stash at home.

    I actually have a fun story about this tea! So, here in the United States, especially where I am from (Ohio), there are not a lot of people who drink tea (let alone good quality loose leaf). I am always trying to get new people into tea when I have the opportunity. Recently, an opportunity came for me to do so – I made and served tea gongfu style at a Chinese New Year event at my university’s medical center that my school’s Confucius Institute held. The event included several different tables set up to show off different aspects of Chinese culture. At my table, I had my gongfu setup and brewed tea for the medical students walking through the lobby. I had a sample of the Honey Orchid Supreme that I brought with me, and I pulled it out when I started to get a lot of people around my table. I brewed it up in front of everyone, showing off the beautiful color of this tea in my glass cha hai. I only had around 3g or so left from the sample, and I was worried that it would be too light. However I adjusted the timing, and when I poured some tea into my cup and tasted it, I experienced a wonderfully fruity, aromatic, and interesting flavor, very smooth. I quickly poured out some cups for others to try. The people that first tried it told me that they were amazed that tea could taste like that, and that they had no idea tea could be so naturally fruity and delicious! These people had most likely only ever had tea bags before, so this tea really amazed them. Some people that I handed the tea to stood by the table and talked with me for more than an hour, asking me about the tea and about how they could do this at home. I was able to introduce several people to the work of good quality tea this way, and I made sure to let them know where I got the tea – Tea Hong. I hope these people got inspired to go home and start exploring the world of tea and gongfu brewing, and perhaps they will order some tea from Tea Hong and be wowed some more 😉

    Anyway that’s my story, I hope it wasn’t too boring 😉 I was able to share the experience of tasting great quality tea with these medical students who had likely never had such tea before. I hope I can inspire more people to get into gongfu brewing like this. Great teas like this one have the ability to change people’s opinions about tea in general, and inspire others to start exploring the world of tea!

    Tanner Schmucker
  • 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