What's the difference between the different kinds of teas?
Similar to the way the thousands of different kinds of wines all come from grapes, the thousands of kinds of teas all come from the same plant, often called Camillia Sinensis (Pu're comes from the broad leaf variety of this plant). The differences in taste, color, shape and smell are a result of different soils, climates, harvesting and cultivation processes. The types of tea are basically broken down into White, Green, Oolong, Red, Scented and Pu'er, the biggest difference between them being the degree of 'oxidation' in the process, (oxidation is often incorrectly known as "fermentation"). Oxidation happens when the membranes in tea cells are broken down (by rolling, tumbling or tossing), mixing the cells' polyphenols and the enzyme polyphenolase, which acts as a catalyst in oxidizing the polyphenols by oxygen. The leaf is bruised and darkens (like a banana), and starts to acquire unique flavors. The trick is to halt the oxidation process the perfect moment when the best flavors have been acquired.
Green tea is not oxidized at all, whereas Oolongs are partially oxidized (look at a brewed leaf and you'll see a green center with red tinged edges from the oxidization) and Red tea is 100% oxidized.
Lastly, the category Red tea is often called Black outside of China, leading to much color confusion. How are the different types of tea made? Generally speaking, tea undergoes the following processes. ( Definitions are given below for each process.)
- Green: pan firing, rolling, roasting
- White: withering, steaming, roasting
- Oolong: withering, short oxidation, pan firing, rolling, roasting
- Red: withering, rolling, long oxidation, roasting
- Pu'er: pan firing, steaming, rolling, heaping, roasting
- Scented: process tea normally, scenting
- Heaping: an exclusive procedure of fermented Pu'er to:
a) stack tea leaves inside an interior environment of high humidity and temperature in order to stimulate chemical changes inside the leaves and b) to enable the color of the leaves to turn brown from green and generate the characteristic mellow, earthly odor of Pu'er. - Roasting: captivates the oxidation process by drying the leaves thoroughly and impart a twisted shape.
- Pan firing: activates enzymes and prevents oxidation, evaporated part of moisture content and dissapates leafy odor, makes leaves limp
Withering: evaporates moisture, makes leaves soft, stimulated chemical reactions inside tea leaves.
Rolling: rupture leaf cells and expose juices to leaf surface, activates both polyphenols and polyphenolase and imparts a twisted shape.
Oxidization: enables enzymes to activate the chemical changes inside leaves, makes the leaves turn bright brown to generate flavors and aromas.
Scenting: this process varies. In the case of our jasmine pearls, fresh jasmine flowers are layered with hand-rolled first flush green tea several times. The flowers are then removed.
Steaming: this process varies. For unfermented Pu'er tea, the leaves are steamed so that the tea can be pressed into various shapes.