# Encyclopedia Tea

> A reference on Chinese tea, written in plain English. It covers the seven Chinese tea categories (green, white, yellow, oolong, red/black, dark/pu-erh, reprocessed), how each is made, where it comes from, how to judge and buy it, how to brew it, and what the research actually says. Chinese terms are given as pinyin with characters.

Encyclopedia Tea is a deliberately narrow reference, not a vendor site. It does not sell tea. It distinguishes what is documented, what is contested, and what marketing leaves out. Health claims appear only where something has been measured, and each entry states where the evidence stops.

Scope and conventions:

- Categories follow the Chinese system, so "black tea" in English is filed as *red tea* (红茶, hóngchà), named for the liquor. Both names appear in the entries.
- About 500 entries; the count grows as gaps are filled.
- 115 tag pages group entries by province, by processing step, and by named tea.
- The site is English-only. URLs are ASCII.

## Start here

- [Complete tea guide](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/): The seven categories compared side by side, and what separates them
- [What this site covers](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/about): Editorial approach, how claims are handled, what the site does not do
- [Tea types](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-types): Index of every category entry
- [Tea knowledge](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-knowledge): Processing, brewing, storage and quality across all categories

## Tea categories

- [Green tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/green-tea): Unoxidized, the largest Chinese category; fixation by pan-firing or steaming
- [Black tea (red tea)](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/black-tea): Fully oxidized; Keemun, Dianhong, Lapsang Souchong
- [Oolong tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/oolong-tea): Partially oxidized, 15–70%; Wuyi rock tea, Anxi Tieguanyin, Guangdong Dancong, Taiwan oolong
- [White tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/white-tea): Least processed; Baihao Yinzhen, Baimudan, Shoumei, Gongmei
- [Yellow tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/yellow-tea): Green tea plus men huang (闷黄, sealed yellowing); Junshan Yinzhen
- [Pu-erh tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/pu-erh-tea): Post-fermented dark tea from Yunnan; sheng and shou
- [Dark tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/dark-tea): Post-fermented teas beyond pu-erh; Anhua, Liubao, the brick teas
- [Reprocessed tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/reprocessed-tea): Scented or reshaped — jasmine, flower teas, Tuocha, Zhuancha
- [Flower tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/flower-tea): Jasmine, osmanthus, rose and the scenting process
- [Compressed tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/compressed-tea): Bingcha, Tuocha and the brick forms, and why they are pressed

## Processing and craft

- [Fixation (kill-green)](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/fixation): How heat stops oxidation, and why pan-firing and steaming taste different
- [Withering](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/withering): Water loss before rolling
- [Rolling](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/rolling): Shaping and cell rupture
- [Fermentation](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/fermentation): Oxidation in red tea versus microbial fermentation in dark tea
- [Wo dui (pile fermentation)](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/wo-dui): The microbial step that makes shou pu-erh
- [Men huang (yellowing)](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/men-huang): What makes yellow tea yellow
- [Charcoal roasting](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/charcoal-roasting): The roast that defines Wuyi oolong
- [Ageing](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/aging): Which teas improve with time and which decline
- [Tea standards](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-standards): Chinese GB, ISO, Japanese, Indian, US FDA and EU standards compared

## Brewing

- [Tea brewing](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-brewing): Water temperature, leaf ratio, timing and vessel by tea type
- [How to brew green tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-brewing/how-to-brew-green-tea.html): 75–85°C, glass or gaiwan
- [How to brew black tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-brewing/how-to-brew-black-tea.html): 85–95°C, and when Gongfu changes the cup
- [How to brew oolong tea](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-brewing/how-to-brew-oolong-tea.html): Near-boiling water, short repeated infusions

## Teaware and storage

- [Tea ware](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-ware): Overview of vessels and what each does to the leaf
- [Teapots](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/teapots): Yixing clay, why one pot per tea, and how to season it
- [Teacups](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/teacups): Porcelain, glass and clay
- [Tea trays](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-trays): The Gongfu table
- [Tea storage](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-storage): Green tea in the fridge, pu-erh that keeps changing

## Tea culture and history

- [Tea culture](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-culture): Gongfu ceremony, tea as gift, regional customs
- [Tea history](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-history): From the Tang Classic of Tea through Fujian's export trade
- [Tea by region](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-by-region): China's tea provinces, and the wider tea world
- [Tea benefits](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-benefits): What has been measured, and where the evidence stops
- [Tea taboos](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tea-taboos): Traditional cautions about who should drink less and when

## Tags by province

- [Yunnan](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/yunnan), [Fujian](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/fujian), [Zhejiang](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/zhejiang), [Anhui](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/anhui), [Sichuan](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/sichuan), [Guangdong](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/guangdong), [Taiwan](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/taiwan), [Hunan](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/hunan), [Hubei](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/hubei), [Jiangsu](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/jiangsu), [Henan](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/henan), [Guizhou](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/guizhou), [Jiangxi](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/jiangxi), [Shandong](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/shandong), [Shaanxi](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/shaanxi), [Gansu](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/gansu), [Guangxi](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/guangxi), [Hainan](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/hainan), [Tibet](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tag/xizang)

## Machine-readable

- [Sitemap](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/sitemap.xml): Every indexable URL, split by articles, categories and tags
- [Robots](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/robots.txt): Crawling rules; all content is open to search engines and AI agents

## Optional

- [Tag index](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/tags): All 115 tags with entry counts
- [Article archive](https://www.encyclopediatea.com/archive-1.xml): Flat list of all ~500 entries, useful for bulk retrieval