How do I choose tea?
What the main tea types actually are, how they differ, and how to pick one you will enjoy rather than one that sounds impressive.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 15 min
- Read
- 2 min
Short answer
All true tea comes from the same plant and differs by how much it is oxidised: green is barely oxidised, oolong partly, black fully. Herbal infusions are not tea at all. Start from what you like — malty, floral, grassy, smoky — rather than from origin names.
Green, oolong, black and white tea are all the same plant processed differently. Understanding that one fact makes the whole category navigable, because oxidation level predicts flavour far better than country of origin does.
Step by step
- Understand the basic distinction: oxidation level.White barely processed, green unoxidised, oolong partly, black fully oxidised. Pu-erh is fermented, which is different again.
- Recognise that herbal infusions are not tea.Chamomile, peppermint, rooibos and fruit infusions contain no tea leaf and no caffeine. Nothing wrong with them — just a different category.
- Start from flavour rather than origin.Malty and robust: Assam. Bright and brisk: Ceylon. Floral and delicate: Darjeeling. Smoky: Lapsang. Grassy and vegetal: Japanese green.
- Consider when you will drink it.Robust black teas take milk and suit mornings. Delicate greens and whites do not take milk and suit afternoons.
- Buy loose leaf rather than bags where you can.Bags usually contain broken leaf and dust, which extracts fast and unevenly. Whole leaf is noticeably better.
- Buy small quantities of several rather than a lot of one.Tea deteriorates, and variety is most of the pleasure. A large tin of one tea usually goes stale.
- Check the harvest or packing date if given.Green tea in particular fades within months. Black tea is more forgiving.
- Note the brewing parameters on the pack and follow them.Green tea brewed like black tea will taste bitter regardless of quality.
Tips
- If you always add milk and sugar, spend the money on quantity rather than quality — the differences that justify expensive tea are largely masked.
- Blends like English Breakfast are built for consistency and to take milk. Single-origin teas are more distinctive and often better drunk without.
- Caffeine content varies more with brewing time and leaf quantity than with tea type, despite common belief.
Common mistakes
- Choosing by origin name alone — Oxidation level and processing predict flavour far better than country does.
- Buying a large quantity of one tea — It goes stale, particularly green tea, and you learn less than buying several small amounts.
- Brewing every tea the same way — Green and white teas need cooler water and shorter steeps than black. Brewing them like black tea produces bitterness.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between green and black tea?
Oxidation. Both come from the same plant, but green tea is heated quickly after picking to prevent oxidation, while black tea is allowed to oxidise fully. That single difference produces all the flavour distinction.
Is herbal tea actually tea?
No. Chamomile, peppermint, rooibos and fruit infusions contain no leaf from the tea plant, and no caffeine. They are infusions, which is a different category rather than a lesser one.