Making Chinese Tea by Wong Yee Lee

Chinese Tea

Chinese tea - water quality

The quality of tea is controlled by the quality of the water. It was said in ancient China that water is the mother of tea.

There are three categories of water: best is water from a hill, average is water from the river, bottom is water from a well. The best water from a hill is on a hilltop; the best water from a river is in the middle of a river; the best water from a well is from a well which is frequently used.

It is not easy to get water from a hill. So water from a tap is the most common. There are two ways to make the best use of tap water when making tea. 1. Leave the tap water in a bucket for 24 hours in order to let out the chlorine inside. 2. Boil the water then open the lid for 5 minutes in order to let out the chlorine inside.

Distilled water is a kind of artificial soft water. It is the most hygiene but it would not be the ideal water for making tea.

Best water temperature for making tea:

1. Low temperature (70 - 80c)

Good for making young shoot green tea such as Long Jing (Dragon Well) or yellow tea (Silver Needle).

2. Medium temperature (80 - 90c)

Good for making white tea (Silver Needle White Fur), red tea or Oolong.

3. High temperature (90 - 100c)

Good for making tea such as Tie Guan Yin (Iron Guan Yin), Pu'er, Shui Xian (Water Fairy).

Low temperature water tends to be more suitable for young tea leaves while high temperature water tends to be more suitable for ripe tea leaves.

Chinese tea - tea leaves

Chinese tea used to be categorized by its place of origin or place where it went to. Only till recently that Chinese tea is categorized based on its way of manufacture.

6 types of tea:

Green, yellow, black, white, light green and red.

Green tea

Green tea has the longest history and it can be dated over 3000 years ago. People picked the young shoots of leaves and dried it in the sun without fermentation.

Examples of green tea:

Long Jing

Fur Tip

Green Spring Snail

Yellow tea

Yellow tea is to ferment the tea leaves before they are totally dry. A degree of 10% to 20% fermentation would be expected.

Examples of yellow tea:

Silver Needle

Yellow Soup

Big Leaf Green

Black tea

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