Tea in China: How to Order, Taste and Not Overpay

Six families, one leaf

Every tea in China comes from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. What separates a ¥40 tin from a ¥4,000 one is cultivar, terroir, picking date and the hand that processed it. The six categories are defined by oxidation and processing, not by the colour in the cup.

The six, with one tea to know from each

• Green (绿茶). Unoxidised, pan-fired or baked to stop the leaf turning. Longjing (龙井) from Hangzhou is the reference: flat leaves, chestnut and soy bean, brewed at 80°C.
• White (白茶). Withered and dried, barely processed. Baihao Yinzhen (白毫银针) from Fuding, Fujian: silver needles, hay and honey.
• Yellow (黄茶). Green tea with a slow, covered yellowing step. Junshan Yinzhen (君山银针) from Dongting Lake, Hunan: softer and sweeter than green.
• Oolong (乌龙). Partly oxidised, rolled and often roasted. Tieguanyin (铁观音) from Anxi, Fujian: orchid, cream, a long finish.
• Red, or what the West calls black (红茶). Fully oxidised. Keemun (祁门红茶) from Anhui: cocoa, rose, malt.
• Dark (黑茶). Post-fermented and often compressed. Ripe pu’er (熟普) from Yunnan: wet earth, dates, camphor.

Category	Representative	Tasting note	Price per 50g
Green	Longjing, Hangzhou	Chestnut, soy, sweet finish	¥80–600
White	Baihao Yinzhen, Fuding	Hay, honey, very light	¥150–500
Yellow	Junshan Yinzhen, Hunan	Mellow, cooked corn	¥200–800
Oolong	Tieguanyin, Anxi	Orchid, cream, mineral	¥60–400
Red	Keemun, Anhui	Cocoa, rose, malt	¥40–200
Dark	Ripe pu’er, Yunnan	Earth, date, camphor	¥50–300

Gongfu brewing, without the theatre

Gongfu (工夫茶) is not a ceremony, whatever the hotel calls it. It is a method for getting many good infusions out of a small amount of leaf.

Use 5–7 g of leaf in a 100–120 ml gaiwan (盖碗). Rinse once with hot water and pour that away. Steep the first infusion for 10–15 seconds, pour into a fairness pitcher or straight into small cups, and add about five seconds for each round after that. Oolong and pu’er will give you eight infusions or more; green tea gives three or four. Water temperature matters more than technique: 80°C for green, 85–90 for white and yellow, 95–100 for oolong, red and dark.

Ordering without being fleeced

In a real teahouse, prices are per person or per pot, and hot water refills are free. In Hangzhou I pay ¥30–80 for a pot of Longjing and sit for two hours; in Chengdu’s People’s Park, a covered-bowl tea (盖碗茶) is ¥20–40 and comes with a thermos. Ask for the menu (茶单), confirm whether the price is per person, and pay through the app or at the counter, not from a handwritten bill.

If a menu has no prices, that is not rustic charm. It is the setup.

The ceremony scam

The classic version runs like this: a friendly, English-speaking stranger — often a well-dressed young woman — strikes up a conversation near Wangfujing or Houhai in Beijing, or Nanjing Road in Shanghai, and suggests a tea ceremony or an art exhibition nearby. You are led into a room, given four small cups, and handed a bill for ¥1,000 to ¥5,000 per person. The door may be blocked; someone may offer to walk you to an ATM.

Never follow an unsolicited invitation. If you are already inside when the bill appears, refuse to pay beyond a menu price, ask for the price list in writing, and call 110 (police) or 12345 (consumer hotline) — staff usually back down at the mention of either number. A legitimate tasting flight or hosted ceremony costs ¥100–300 per person, is booked in advance, and quotes the price before the first pour.

What to buy, and what to pay

Buy from a shop with a licence on the wall and a scale on the counter. Hangzhou Longjing runs ¥80–250 per 50g for everyday Xihu leaf and ¥400 or more for pre-Qingming hand-picked; anything sold as “first pick” in July is neither. Anxi Tieguanyin is ¥50–150, Wuyi rock tea (武夷岩茶, including Da Hong Pao 大红袍) ¥80–400. Pu’er cakes are 357g, ¥100–800, and climb steeply with age.

Store tea in an airtight tin, away from light and spices. Green and white keep in the fridge, sealed; pu’er wants air. Buy 100g, not a kilo — you can always go back.

Etiquette at the table

• When someone pours for you, tap two fingers on the table: the 叩手礼, a silent thank-you.
• Pour for others before yourself, and never fill a cup to the brim. Seventy to eighty per cent is correct; a full cup tells a guest to leave.
• Lift the gaiwan lid to smell the aroma, then set it down at an angle to hold the leaf back. Do not stir with it.
• Serve the oldest person first, then the guest, then yourself.

Teahouse or milk tea shop?

They are different businesses. A teahouse is slow: loose leaf, hot water, hours of sitting, ¥30–80. A milk tea shop is fast: Heytea (喜茶), Chagee (霸王茶姬), ¥15–30, and a queue. Both are worth your time, but only one of them is tea in the sense this article means.

If you have a free afternoon in Hangzhou, take it to a teahouse near West Lake, order the local Longjing, and let the water go cold.