Understanding Tea Leaf Categories
Building Brand Depth, Enhancing Brand Layout
Article by:Lillian
How much do Taiwanese people love drinking hand-shaken drinks? According to the statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, a total of 1.1 billion drinks can be consumed in 1 year! With the constant rising beverage brands throughout the past years, drinking “tea” has already become a habit for the Taiwanese people and there are many new entrepreneurs who devote themselves to this business due to the thriving development of the beverage market.
However, for those who love drinking hand-shaken drinks, who are ready to become involved with the business or those who have already opened up your dream store, have you ever wondered why these drinks always appear on the menu? According to the feedback from clients who took the course throughout the past decade, 70% of the clients love drinking beverages, but have no clue about the “Celadon Tea,” “Oolong Tea” or “Sijichun Tea” that often appear on the menu and very often do not understand the detailed introduction to teas given out by the experts, such as the level of fermentation…etc. We have concluded experiences and knowledge from the industry to share with everyone.
Tea not only varies due to place of production, season and temperature, but also tastes differently depending on the differences in the processing procedures, including the level of fermentation, production method, level of roasting and storage period. Therefore, there is still no consistency towards the categorization of “tea” from various nations around the world, some categorize them according to the manufacturing methods, while some categorize them according to the types of teas exported by that country.
The categorization of tea leaves can be mainly divided into two types of systems.
(I)Tea leaves from China are categorized by this, according to the external color of the tea leaves and the color of the tea into green tea, yellow tea, white tea, Celadon tea, black tea and dark tea. Amongst these, dark tea is more particular as it is a 100% fermented tea, which is also known as post-fermented tea.
(II) Categorized according to the level of fermentation and oxidation of tea leaves during the tea leaf manufacturing process: non-fermented tea, partially-fermented tea, fully-fermented tea.
Based on the data from the Tea Research and Extension Station, Executive Yuan, Taiwanese teas have developed its own tea leaf categorization method due to the particularity of the island terrain, climate, cultivated species and manufacturing process, which can be divided into 8 main characteristic teas that are categorized as the 6 major tea series. These are the green tea (Sanxia Bi-Lo-Chung), refreshing strip type Pouchong tea (Wenshan Pouchong Tea), refreshing ball type oolong tea (High-Mountain Oolong Tea), roasted ball type oolong tea (Donding Oolong Tea, Tie-Guan-In Tea, Black Oolong Tea), Oriental Beauty Tea and Taiwan Black Tea (Honey-Scented Black Tea).
Due to historical factors, “black tea” has the highest universalization rate worldwide and has stipulated clear grade categories under the promotion of the Western countries. International black tea grade follows the foundation of whole-leaf, ground-leaf, powdered-leaf and unique technique CTC to categorize according to the grade indication code, P., O.P., F.O.P., G.F.O.P., T.G.F.O.P., F.T.G.F.O.P., S.F.T.G.F.O.P., B (Broken), F (Fanning). The writer will have a more detailed introduction in the chapter on black tea.
There is no ending to the learning in the tea leaf domain, as there are huge deals of content that can be studied. The writer will quickly share these with everyone based on the categorization of tea leaves, assisting partners involved with the hand-shaken drink business to earn more inspirations and knowledge, to grow together and promote “tea” together.
參考資料:
- 大中和行銷部內部品評講義-承恩食品企業股份有限公司 鄧曉吉撰寫
- 台灣特色茶分類及加工製程簡介-行政院農業委員會茶業改良場
- 一手私藏世界紅茶-紅茶國際分級制