Green Tea: In one simple sentence, green tea is a type of tea made from leaves that have been withered, fixed and dried. There’s no controversy surrounding the fact that leaves destined to be green tea are heated (via a processing step called fixing) and thus are not allowed to oxidize. It is this prevention of oxidation defines green tea. However, the amount of withering that occurs before the leaves is fixed has led to a lot of confusion in the tea world.
There is a notion that tea leaves destined for green tea production are plucked and rushed to the processing facility to be fixed, while this is likely the case when steamed greens are being produced, it isn’t the case for most pan-fired green teas. Leaves that will be pan-fired go through a distinct withering step to prepare them for further processing. Regardless of the style of green tea being produced, the leaves are allowed to wither and are flaccid once they reach the pan or the steaming machine. Whether or not the producer considers withering a processing step or intentionally withers the tea leaves before fixing them is another matter altogether and the heart of the confusion surrounding withering in green tea production.
Yellow Tea: Yellow tea is defined by a processing step known in Chinese as Men Huang. Translated, this means sealed yellowing. During men Huang, small portions of fixed tea leaves are wrapped into bundles either using paper or cloth. While wrapped, the leaves slowly change color from green to yellow-green as chlorophylls are broken down, the vegetal flavors within the leaves begin to mellow and the leaves partially oxidize.
The trouble with yellow tea production today is that some yellow tea producers are skipping this defining men Huang processing step altogether, essentially selling a green tea as a yellow tea. This practice is common among Huoshan Huangya producers in China’s Anhui province.
Another fun yellow tea classification issue arises with a tea from South Korea called “Hwang Cha” which translates directly to Yellow Tea. Turn. South Korean Hwang Cha is produced by withering tea leaves, they then go through men Huang process and are then dried. Because of the lack of a fixing step here, oxidation is able to run its course during men Huang and the resulting tea is more of a highly oxidized oolong or black tea in nature. In South Korea, it is classified as a balhyocha which translates to “fermented tea” but really refers to “oxidized tea.”
White Tea: Many consider white tea to be unoxidized due to the fact that raw material destined to be white tea doesn’t go through a processing step labeled oxidation. However, it is during a long withering period, sometimes lasting several days that the leaves slowly oxidize. The oxidation that occurs in white tea production is minimal, but it cannot go unmentioned. Another thing that many tea companies get wrong when defining white tea is the fact that white tea is not always made up of buds. Bai Mu Dan, and its lower grade variants, Gong Mei and Shou Mei are made up of buds and leaves. White tea production is not only limited to China’s Fujian province either, it is now being produced in small quantities in Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal.
Oolong Tea: Oolong refers to semi-oxidized tea. But semi-oxidized is a term that needs some unpacking. Regardless of the style of Oolong being produced, processing begins with withering. From here we experience some variance where the initiation and control of oxidation is concerned. Traditional half-ball shape oolongs like those from China’s Fujian Province and Taiwan are either shaken or tumbled, a process is known as Yao Qing literally, rocking the green. The goal here is to gently bruise the edges of the leaves, initiating oxidation. Some teas coming out of India and Nepal labeled oolong do not go through this process; rather, they are rolled using an orthodox rolling table. The Oolong nature of these teas comes from the prevention of oxidation, much of the process resembles black tea production, but the leaves are dried before reaching a normal black tea level of oxidation resulting in a semi-oxidized tea. Some tea experts hold that these styles of tea do not deserve the Oolong designation.
Rolling is another important step in producing half-ball style Oolongs as in Anxi and Taiwan. Here, the leaves go through an iterative process called cloth-wrapped kneading where bundles of leaves are wrapped in cloth then kneaded. The wrapped ball of leaves is then broken apart, then rewrapped and the process begins again. This is an iterative process that is performed many times.
Rolling is another important step in producing half-ball style Oolongs as in Anxi and Taiwan. Here, the leaves go through an iterative process called cloth-wrapped kneading where bundles of leaves are wrapped in cloth then kneaded. The wrapped ball of leaves is then broken apart, then rewrapped and the process begins again. This is an iterative process that is performed many times.
First Flush Darjeeling teas are also a source of confusion as they are typically only lightly oxidized to exemplify the first harvest of the year. Because of their semi-oxidized nature, many tea experts consider them to be Oolong, though they are often marketed as black teas. Some even refer to First Flush Darjeeling tea as lightly oxidized black tea which of course is an oxymoron because the defining characteristic of black teas is that the leaves are fully-oxidized during production.
Black Tea: Black teas are often described as fully oxidized teas. To be more accurate, let’s say mostly oxidized as it’s chemically impossible to fully oxidize tea leaves without first grinding them into a fine powder. The basic process for making black tea from fresh tea leaves is: withering, rolling, oxidation, and drying. The goal of black tea production is to induce and control oxidation until the tea leaves achieve a prescribed level of oxidation.
There isn’t much confusion with this type of tea; black tea production is quite straightforward as it is the most produced tea type in the world. It is important, however, to note that what most of the world outside of East Asia refers to as black tea is known to the Chinese (and most Asian countries) as red tea.
Fermented Tea: Fermentation in tea production refers to the breakdown of substances by bacteria, yeasts or other microorganisms. You may notice the omission of several processing steps sometimes associated with these styles of tea, drying, compression, etc. It has been dramatically cut down to simplify the processing chart so that all fermented teas fit into it. Drying had to go because the drying step occurs before fermentation for Shu Puer production and after fermentation for most Heicha production. What’s left are processing steps that define fermented tea, all of it.
Let’s talk about Puer, specifically Sheng puer, this tea is more like a green tea in production, but the intent (at least today) is to age this tea which refers to a combination of slow oxidation and fermentation over time. The method of fermentation differs from style to style, Shu Puer and Heicha both go through a wo dui / piling step (and some consider Shu Puer to be part of the Heicha category). Sheng’s fermentation happens during the aforementioned aging.
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