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:

  • Eight Immortals Wudong, Phoenix dancong oolong

    I am so glad that you said this. Every year we have to spend a lot of efforts managing our sources in order to make sure they deliver their best outputs. Phoenix oolongs are amongst the most difficult ones since they are so much in high demand and the annual yield of genuine ones is small. Furthermore, Eight Immortals is not an easy tea to process well.

    Tea Hong
  • Cold Dew Alishan, bouquet Taiwan oolong

    This is a very unique Taiwanese oolong, I don’t think I’ve ever had anything which has the same flavor profile as this Cold Dew Alishan has. It features attributes that you might typically find in other Taiwanese oolongs, but the combination of elements here feels very unique.

    It’s creamy yet tart, with a smooth mouthfeel perfectly intertwined with apparent notes of hibiscus flowers and rose hips that gently cut through the buttery notes and accentuate the body of tea. There are distinct overtones of herbs and spices, like rosemary, pine, juniper, fennel, and hints of nettle which contribute to the sharpness and clarity of this otherwise seductively smooth flavor profile.

    The body is soft and smooth, and the aftertaste is thick and pungent. There are undertones of rice and oat milk which continue to build in the mouth as the session progresses, with some malted cereal grains eventually coming out towards the end. This tea maintains its composure even into the aftertaste, where the grains seem to develop a honey-like sweetness.

    The aftertaste brings with it a powerful and textured mouthfeel, with a distinct oily quality to it and a powerful spicy-yet-cooling sensation that is reminiscent of the tiniest hint of clove oil. It’s not so powerful that it becomes an actual flavor; it’s just powerful enough to leave an impression on the palate and linger before gradually subsiding.

    This is a complex oolong and worth every penny.

    If you are a fan of the way GABA oolongs make you feel, or perhaps you like tea with good “cha qi” – make sure you check this one out. Besides its flavor profile, it is also quite a powerful tea in the body and stimulating in the brain.

    NN
  • Winter Alishan Jinxuan, bouquet style Taiwan oolong

    Right when I opened the bag, I knew this was going to be an amazing experience. The aroma of the dry leaf is pungent and sweet, with just a pinch of woodsy undertones to add balance to what is undoubtedly a creamy, velvety tea.

    The next thing I noticed was just how big these leaves are – these are not tiny pebbles, they are more like boulders. The leaves are HUGE! As they brew up they unfurl into thick and wholesome leaves that stretch out several inches. I am very impressed by the uniformity of the plucking and processing as well. The leaves are rolled tight, but not so tight as to make them brittle.

    In every aspect of the flavor profile, this tea is dripping with milky-sweet flavors that carry a kind of oily-spicy quality to it that reminds me of fennel or anise, as mentioned in the description. This adds a gentle vibrancy that cuts through the rich and decadent, milk-forward flavor profile, and creates a sense of balance that keeps this tea intriguing every time it’s brewed up.

    This tea is easy to brew and very forgiving, it resists turning sharp or bitter, and has lots of stamina so whether you brew it gong-fu or Western-style, you will easily get some of the best “milk oolong” you could ever hope for.

    NN
  • Black Leaf Special, Phoenix dancong oolong

    This is very good Da Wu Ye, with a complex mouthfeel and great evolution of flavors across the full session. Whether you brew this up gongfu or Western-style, you can expect a delicious experience all-around.

    I was a bit surprised by this one because of how much it changes over the course of a focused gongfu session. To me, Tea Hong’s Black Leaf Special opens up with some sweet florals and juicy fruity notes, somewhere in the realm of apple blossoms and caramelized peaches or sun-dried figs dusted with cacao powder. Within a couple of steeps, these notes melt away and reveal a body that consists of honey-soaked malt and fresh-pressed apple juice.

    Towards the end of the session, the apple juice flavor becomes significantly thicker, and the malty texture picks up some rye-like notes which carries with it a kind of spice that is reminiscent of cloves or cinnamon.

    The mouthfeel is incredibly smooth, and although the flavor profile seems a bit thin in comparison, that’s okay because the texture is fantastic and the aftertaste lingers on the palate for a long time. It’s subtle-yet-overt at the same time. Really beautiful dynamic and a great balancing act between flavors and sensations.

    Although this one is easy to brew up and easy to enjoy, you should still take your time with it because this is a very good representation of the Da Wu Ye cultivar, one that can show you the full spectrum of flavors possible to achieve when high-quality material meets high-quality processing techniques.

    I particularly enjoy brewing this one up Western-style, with a leaf to water ratio of 1g to 100mL – a long steep, with hot water, and using a vessel with excellent heat retention, really opens up the depth of flavors that Black Leaf Special has to offer and affords a kind of creaminess that becomes more apparent. Although this creaminess is felt in a gong-fu session, it’s thinner and more spread out across each steeping, whereas when done Western-style, it concentrates in the soup and makes for a beautiful and easy-going experience.

    NN