Knowledge Base
Coffee & Tea Guides
Brew better and explore more — buying guides, how-tos, and explainers for every coffee and tea ritual.
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Que She Oolong: Wuyi's Sparrow's Tongue Rock Tea
Que She ("Sparrow's Tongue") is a prized Wuyi rock oolong named for its tiny, pointed leaf, giving a high-fired, fruity-mineral cup with a plummy high note. Here is the cultivar, the terroir, and why it is not the Sichuan green of the same name.
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Shui Jin Gui: Wuyi's Golden Water Turtle Oolong
Shui Jin Gui, the Golden Water Turtle, is a smooth, floral Wuyi rock oolong and one of the Four Great Bushes. Here's its storm-swept legend, its turtle-shell leaf, and how it tastes.
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Bai Ji Guan: Wuyi's Pale White Cockscomb Oolong
Bai Ji Guan is the odd one out among Wuyi's Four Famous Bushes — a pale, albino-ish cultivar given a light roast for a soft, buttery, floral cup. Here's what makes this white cockscomb oolong different from its dark, charred rock-tea cousins.
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Tie Luo Han: Wuyi's Iron Arhat Rock Oolong
Tie Luo Han (Iron Arhat) is a dark-roasted Wuyi rock oolong and one of the Si Da Ming Cong — the Four Great Bushes of Fujian's Wuyi Mountains, often called the oldest. Here's its temple legend, terroir, herbal-mineral flavour, and how it compares to Da Hong Pao and Rou Gui.
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Burundi Tea: East Africa's Highland Black Tea
A guide to Burundi tea: the highland Congo-Nile terroir, smallholder and OTB structure, its five factory regions, CTC blending style, flavor, brewing and caffeine.
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Hong Shui Oolong: Taiwan's Traditional "Red Water" Style
Hong Shui ("red water") oolong is a traditional Taiwanese style: higher oxidation plus charcoal roast for an amber-red cup of caramel, honey, and malt — the old style of Dong Ding country.
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Gui Fei Oolong: Taiwan's Bug-Bitten, Roasted "Concubine" Tea
A honeyed, leafhopper-bitten oolong from Nantou, Taiwan — rolled and roasted in the Dong Ding tradition, and named for an imperial concubine. Here's what sets Gui Fei apart.
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Batabata-cha: Toyama's Whisked Fermented Tea
A rare mold-fermented dark tea from Asahi in Toyama, batabata-cha is whisked with a pinch of salt into a savory foam using a twin-headed bamboo whisk at communal Buddhist tea gatherings.
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Awa Bancha: Tokushima's Lactic-Fermented Tea
Awa Bancha is a rare lactic-acid fermented tea from Tokushima, Japan — boiled, rubbed, and barrel-fermented into a tangy, low-caffeine, light-amber brew.
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Qingzhuan: The Green-Brick Dark Tea of Hubei
Despite its name, Qingzhuan green brick tea is a dark, post-fermented tea from Hubei's Chibi: coarse leaf pile-fermented and pressed into hard bricks for the old Mongolia and Russia caravan trade.
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Zhu Ye Qing: Mount Emei's "Bamboo Leaf Green" Tea
Zhu Ye Qing ("Bamboo Leaf Green") is a modern Sichuan green tea of straight early-spring buds from sacred Mount Emei — sweet, nutty, umami. Here's its story, grades and how to brew it.
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Weishan Mao Jian: The Smoked Yellow Tea of Hunan
Why is a "mao jian" tea classified as yellow? Meet Weishan Mao Jian, the sweet, lightly smoked huangcha grown around a Tang-dynasty temple on Mount Wei in Ningxiang, Hunan.
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Mo Gan Huang Ya: A Rare Yellow Tea of Moganshan
Mo Gan Huang Ya is a rare yellow tea from Moganshan in Zhejiang, made with the men huang sealed-yellowing step for a chestnut-sweet, mellow, low-bitterness cup.
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Qi Lan Oolong: The "Rare Orchid" Cultivar of Fujian
Qi Lan (奇兰), the "rare orchid" cultivar of Fujian, becomes two very different oolongs: a rolled, floral tea from Pinghe and a roasted Wuyi rock tea. Here's how they compare.
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Mao Xie ("Hairy Crab") Oolong: An Everyday Anxi Cultivar
Mao Xie ("Hairy Crab") is one of Anxi's Four Famous Cultivars — a brisk, floral rolled oolong named for its downy, serrated leaves, not its taste. Here's its origin, flavor and how to brew it.
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Ben Shan Oolong: Anxi's Tie Guan Yin Cousin
Ben Shan is one of Anxi County's four famous oolong cultivars and a close cousin of Tie Guan Yin—often used as an affordable TGY-style oolong, yet a distinct tea with its own honey-orchid character.
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Zhangping Shui Xian: The Only Pressed-Cake Oolong
Zhangping Shui Xian is the only oolong pressed into a small square, paper-wrapped cake. Meet the honeyed, orchid-scented narcissus tea from southern Fujian.
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Kangzhuan: The Tibetan Brick Tea of the Tea-Horse Road
Kangzhuan is a coarse, pile-fermented dark brick tea from Ya'an, Sichuan — carried along the Ancient Tea-Horse Road to Tibet and boiled into butter tea with yak butter and salt.
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Liu An Basket Tea: Anhui's Aged Dark Tea in Bamboo
Liu An basket tea is a post-fermented dark tea from Qimen, Anhui, aged in bamboo baskets for years — not to be confused with Lu An Gua Pian green tea.
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Qianliang Cha: The Thousand-Tael Tea Log of Anhua
Qianliang cha is a giant, bamboo-wrapped dark-tea log from Anhua, Hunan, foot-tamped by teams, sun-and-dew aged, and sliced into discs to brew.
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Anhua Dark Tea: The Heartland of Hunan Hei Cha
Anhua County in Hunan is the heartland of Chinese dark tea — the parent region behind Fu brick's golden flowers, black and flower bricks, and the towering thousand-tael logs.
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Sichuan Black Tea (Chuan Hong): China's Early-Spring Congou
Chuan Hong Gongfu is Sichuan's classic congou black tea — one of the year's first, golden-tipped and sweet with orange and brown sugar. Here is its terroir, grades, history, and how to brew it.
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Jiuqu Hongmei: Zhejiang's "Nine-Bend Red Plum" Black Tea
Meet Jiuqu Hongmei, the "Nine-Bend Red Plum" — a tightly curled, plum-and-honey black tea from the hills west of Hangzhou, and Zhejiang's little-known answer to its famous Longjing green.
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Zhenghe Gongfu: Fujian's Third Great Congou Black Tea
Meet Zhenghe Gongfu black tea, the northern-Fujian congou that completes the Minhong trio with Tanyang and Bailin — big-leaf Zhenghe Da Bai for body, small-leaf Xiaocha for aroma.