Ask a tea drinker how many types of tea exist and you might hear anything from “three” to “hundreds.” Both are sort of right. China's tea tradition recognizes six core classes, each defined not by the plant — nearly all Chinese tea comes from Camellia sinensis — but by how the leaves are processed.
Green Tea (Lüchá)
Minimally oxidized and quickly heat-fixed after picking, preserving a fresh, vegetal character. Longjing and Bi Luo Chun are classic examples.
White Tea (Báichá)
The least processed category — simply withered and dried, no rolling or oxidation. Silver Needle and Baimudan showcase its delicate, subtly sweet character.
Yellow Tea (Huángchá)
China's rarest category, similar to green tea but with an added “sealing yellowing” step that mellows its flavor. Genuinely hard to find outside China.
Oolong (Wúlóngchá)
Partially oxidized, spanning a huge range from light and floral to dark and roasted. Tie Guan Yin and Big Red Robe sit at opposite ends of that spectrum.
Black Tea (Hóngchá)
Fully oxidized, producing tea's boldest, most full-bodied cups. Known in China as “red tea” for the color of the liquor, not the leaf.
Dark Tea (Hēichá)
Post-fermented tea, most famously pu-erh, which continues to develop in flavor for years or even decades after processing.
Once you can spot these six categories, the entire world of Chinese tea becomes a lot easier to navigate — every tea you'll ever try traces back to one of them.