mtchyg said

The different types of tea according to a coffee shop

This morning I stopped into my local coffee shop and they have a board with a different trivia question every day. Today happened to say “Name the 4 kinds of tea.” So I said, “Black, white, green, oolong. But there is also Puerh.” She said, “Hmm, I don’t think I’ve heard of that. I think there is also a red tea?”

I explained how what we call black tea is called red tea in many places in Asia. Then I explained to her that Puerh tea is a fermented tea. She asked if it was like Kombucha. I chuckled and said, “No, they are pretty different. Puerh has a much different flavor profile and isn’t ‘fizzy’ like Kombucha.” Told her it was very earthy and thick and kind of like black tea on steroids. I told her about it being named after the town/village where it originated. She said she would look it up. I warned her that cheaply done ones tend to be not great but well done ones can be a real treat so hopefully if she does decide to try it she will keep that in mind.

I’m no tea expert and I may not even have gotten every thing right but it was nice to introduce someone to something new (new to them) regarding tea.

Has anyone else had similar experiences when talking tea with people?

7 Replies
AllanK said

I sometimes go into a local coffee roaster who roasts some of the most delicious coffee. They also sell tea. I tried their tea of course. It was not very good. Coffee people are probably not in most cases going to know much about tea. He had obviously not carefully sourced his tea. I suggested he buy from Yunnan Sourcing and sell that. I know Yunnan Sourcing sells wholesale. Also, tell her there is a sixth type of tea, Yellow Tea.

mtchyg said

Yeah, I forgot about yellow tea as well. I should have asked her where her source was from that said there are 4 different kinds of tea.

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Babble said

So now I’m curious – what were the 4 types of tea? I’m guessing Black, White, Green, and Herbal. (I know that’s right.. just wondering what the “right” answer was for them)

mtchyg said

She said that what they had listed was “Black, White, Green, and Oolong.”

Babble said

Well at least they are all actually tea so there’s that…

mtchyg said

Haha yeah. I had a feeling when I saw 4 types of teas that something was off…

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AllanK said

If you really want to confuse them try telling them there is sort of a seventh type of tea, hei cha. These teas don’t really fall into any of the six categories. They are usually lumped in with puerh but are quite different.

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