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:

  • Tieguanyin Classic, deep baked oolong

    This is a good example of baked Tieguanyin, it’s got good firing techniques coupled with good leaf material, and it’s pretty flexible in terms of how it can be brewed up. It always creates a deeply enjoyable cup of tea in the handful of times I’ve brewed it so far. This tea is going to be awesome in the fall and winter time – but even during the cooler days of the hot summer, which I’m in right now, it’s proven to be quite refreshing.

    I enjoy the way the soft floral and stronger fruity notes come to the forefront of the palate with each progressive sip, gently being supported by the clear notes of charcoal without ever becoming smothered by them. The baking accents the flavor profile and adds an interesting depth by bringing out a kind of fruity sweetness that is usually obliterated when the firing is taken too far… which is quite often, unfortunately.

    Anybody can burn a batch of tea leaves, either at too high a temperature or for too long, or perhaps even a combination of both – and call it a “high roast”, but this takes no skill to achieve. What does take skill to achieve, is a proper firing that elevates the inherent qualities of the tea leaf being processed. There are molecular changes to the constituents of the leaf that are induced by good firing techniques, and these are what create depth in sweetness and distinct accents in the floral and fruity layers of the flavor profiles, which is what I find in this Tieguanyin Classic.

    It’s nice to see an example of proper firing techniques in something priced superbly well for daily drinking. If you’re looking for a roasted Tieguanyin as your daily-drinker, this is a great choice.

    The leaf quality is fantastic, as these little nuggets unfurl slowly across both gong-fu and Western-style infusions, and across a wide temperature range, they are uniform and have some stoutness to them even after taking a long bath in water fresh off a rolling boil. They hold their composure well and resist turning bitter. Even as the cup cools, the tea remains crisp and clear in its flavor profile.

    NN
  • Alishan Guanyin, deep baked Taiwan oolong

    Really glad you enjoy this tea. This would be a great example for us to tell the tea baking master that her work is appreciated not only by us as a trader, but by the tea connoisseur community as well. She has some downturns in her personal life lately and hopefully this will help to cheer her up a bit.

    Leo Kwan
  • Jade Orchid, bouquet Phoenix oolong

    One of my friends sent me a 7-gram session of this and I knew I had to buy a whole bag. This is good Yu Lan at a great price.

    I particularly enjoy how Tea Hong’s Jade Orchid opens up with a fantastic minerality that carries bright and pungent florals, with hints of bananas and citrus which progressively become more apparent up until about half-way through the session, at which point some fruity undertones of mango and cantaloupe become front-and-center in the flavor profile.

    In the second half of the session, the tangerine-like citrus notes melt away into something more reminiscent of apple juice, and the florals that were blooming on the front-end of the flavor profile start to mellow out into something more creamy and milky. The texture remains very silky and buttery-smooth.

    The finish is graceful, it has a strong mouthfeel with a very long-lasting aftertaste that is like a mango & cream milkshake with micronized glacial rock dust, which creates a kind of electric vibrancy that I’ve come to know and love in good, high-end dancong. I appreciate the subtle nature of this Yu Lan’s depth. It has a kind of charm that slowly creeps up on you and lingers on the palate.

    The empty-cup aroma is magnificent. Wet leaf aroma is super deep and complex. Leaf quality is superb… this Yu Lan is hard to beat for its price and carries all of the right attributes that I could hope to find in a premium version of this cultivar.

    NN
  • Luan Guapian Supreme, traditional green tea

    I find it amazing that you, as such a committed oolong drinker, could adapt to the entirely different sensory dimension of an ancient style green tea to give an account of such detailed taste experience. Amongst all our green tea selections, Luan Guapian and Bamboo Leaf are two most “untamed” style of tea. Particularly for people who grew up in a culture of teabags, tea mixes or bottled tea, as I dare to point out cultural-incorrectedly, these teas can be nakedly too real in their embodiment of the raw tea-ness ( more so even than pu’er maocha in many ways ). Yet your words describe so intricately its wonders the same of which have convinced me to include them in my repertoire. I hope more could have the same open-mindedness in the epicurean sphere of tea. Maybe it will then be a much more peaceful world.

    Leo Kwan