Reference
The glossary.
Every term worth knowing. None of the filler.
What this covers
Fifty tea terms — from brewing mechanics to leaf categories to the clay that remembers your cup. Each one defined in a sentence or two, linked to the review or guide that proves it.
A
- Astringent
- The dry, puckering mouthfeel caused by tannins. Oversteeping amplifies it. Some teas wear it well — most don't.
B
- Bai Mu Dan
- White Peony. A white tea made from buds and young leaves — fuller-bodied than Silver Needle, more forgiving of a long steep.
- Bloom
- The moment dry leaves open in hot water. Rolled oolongs and gunpowder pellets put on the best show.
- Body
- The weight of the tea on the tongue. Full-bodied blacks coat the palate. Light whites barely register. Neither is better — match it to the moment.
- Brew temperature
- The water temperature at which a tea extracts best. Whites and greens want 160–175°F. Blacks and herbals take a full boil.
C
- Caffeine
- Present in all true teas (Camellia sinensis). Herbals and rooibos have none. Matcha delivers the most per cup because you consume the whole leaf.
- Camellia sinensis
- The plant behind every black, green, oolong, white, and pu-erh. One species, hundreds of cultivars, infinite processing variation.
- Chai
- Hindi for tea. In the West it means black tea armored with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, clove, and pepper — usually built to take milk.
- Chasen
- The bamboo matcha whisk. Hand-carved from a single piece of bamboo with 80–120 tines. Not decorative — it does actual work.
- Chawan
- The wide ceramic bowl used for whisking matcha. The width matters — it gives the chasen room to aerate.
- Cold brew
- Steeping tea in cold or room-temperature water for 6–12 hours. Extracts sweetness, suppresses bitterness. Patience does the work heat usually does.
- CTC
- Crush, tear, curl — the industrial process that turns tea into small uniform pellets. Brews fast and strong. Most tea bags contain CTC leaf.
- Cupping
- Professional tasting method. Standardized leaf weight, water, time — the goal is comparison, not pleasure.
D
- Da Hong Pao
- Big Red Robe. A heavily roasted Wuyi rock oolong — mineral, dark fruit, gets compared to single malt.
- Dragonwell
- Longjing. A pan-fired Chinese green — flat leaf, nutty, sweet, no grass. The green that converts skeptics.
E
- Earl Grey
- Black tea scented with bergamot oil. The perfume note is the point — some versions dose it loud, others barely whisper it.
F
- First flush
- The first spring harvest. Lightest, most delicate, most expensive. Darjeeling First Flush barely reads as black.
- Full-bodied
- Heavy on the tongue. Coats the palate. The descriptor people reach for when a black tea means business.
G
- Gaiwan
- Lid, bowl, saucer — the gongfu standard. Porcelain stays neutral. Yixing clay learns your tea.
- Genmaicha
- Japanese green blended with roasted brown rice. Popcorn aroma, savory finish. Built to drink with food.
- Gongfu
- The Chinese method. Small vessel, high leaf ratio, very short steeps — 15 to 45 seconds — repeated many times. Each infusion shifts the cup.
- Gooseneck
- A kettle with a thin, curved spout for precise pouring. Essential for pour-over coffee. Quietly essential for gongfu and matcha.
- Gunpowder
- Chinese green tea rolled into tight pellets that unfurl in hot water. Smoky, vegetal, theatrical to watch.
H
I
- Infuser
- A mesh or perforated container that holds leaves in the cup. Baskets give room to expand. Balls restrict it.
K
- Keemun
- Single-origin Chinese black from Qimen county. Winey, cocoa finish, brewable five times. The black tea that gets named.
L
- Lapsang Souchong
- Pine-smoked black tea from Fujian. Campfire in a cup. The tea people either chase or flee from.
- Loose leaf
- Whole or large-cut tea leaves sold unbagged. More surface area per leaf means more nuance in the cup.
M
- Malty
- Biscuit-like sweetness found in full-oxidized Assam blacks. The backbone of every English Breakfast blend.
- Matcha
- Stone-ground green tea powder from Japan. Whisked into suspension, not steeped. You consume the whole leaf.
- Muscatel
- The grape-wine sweetness specific to Darjeeling teas, especially second flush. Terroir-driven — the altitude does it.
O
- Oolong
- Partially oxidized tea — somewhere between green and black. Light oolongs are floral. Dark oolongs are roasted and mineral.
- Oxidation
- The enzymatic browning of tea leaves after picking. Green = minimal. Oolong = partial. Black = full. It defines the cup.
P
- Pu-erh
- Fermented and aged tea from Yunnan. Sheng (raw) ages like wine. Shou (ripe) arrives ready. Both are earthy.
- Pyramid bag
- Silk or nylon sachet in a three-dimensional shape. More room for the leaf to move than a flat paper bag. Premium convenience.
R
- Re-steep
- Brewing the same leaves again. Oolongs and pu-erh improve over multiple steeps. Blacks usually don't.
- Rooibos
- South African red bush. Not Camellia sinensis. Naturally sweet, caffeine-free, and genuinely impossible to overbrew.
S
- Sencha
- The most common Japanese green. Steamed rather than pan-fired — grassy, bright, vegetal. The baseline Japanese cup.
- Sheng
- Raw pu-erh. Compressed green tea that ferments slowly over years. Astringent young, honeyed and deep with age.
- Shou
- Ripe pu-erh. Wet-piled at the factory to accelerate fermentation. Earthy and ready the day you open it.
- Silver Needle
- Bai Hao Yin Zhen. White tea made from buds only — the most delicate cup in the world. Demands you under-brew it.
- Steep
- To soak tea leaves in hot water. Also: what happens to your standards once you start drinking whole-leaf.
T
- Tannin
- Polyphenols that produce astringency and body. Present in all true teas. Blacks have the most. Oversteeping releases more than you want.
- Terroir
- The altitude, soil, and climate where the tea grew. Same cultivar, different mountain — different cup. Darjeeling and Assam prove it.
- Ti Kuan Yin
- Iron Goddess of Mercy. Light-roast Anxi oolong — orchid on the first steep, sweet biscuit by the third.
- Tisane
- The formal name for herbal infusions. Anything that isn't Camellia sinensis. Technically not tea. Nobody cares.
U
- Umami
- The savory fifth taste. Strong in shade-grown Japanese greens and gyokuro. Matcha has it. Your morning English Breakfast does not.
W
- White tea
- Minimally processed — picked and dried, nothing else. The most delicate category. Silver Needle is the pinnacle.
- Wuyi
- The Wuyi Mountains in Fujian province — birthplace of rock oolongs. Mineral-rich soil, cliff-grown bushes, and the reason Da Hong Pao tastes the way it does.
Y
- Yixing
- Unglazed purple clay from Jiangsu province. Seasons over time — the pot learns your tea. One tea per pot, forever.
FAQ
Tea terms, answered.
What does steep mean in tea? +
Steeping is soaking tea leaves in hot water to extract flavor, caffeine, and aroma. Time and temperature together decide the cup — too long and the tannins take over.
What is the difference between tea and tisane? +
Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant — black, green, oolong, white, and pu-erh. Tisane (herbal tea) is everything else: chamomile, peppermint, rooibos, hibiscus. No caffeine by nature.
What does full-bodied mean in tea? +
Full-bodied describes tea that feels heavy on the tongue and coats the palate. Assam blacks and dark oolongs are full-bodied. Silver Needle and light greens are the opposite.
What is oxidation in tea? +
Oxidation is the enzymatic browning of tea leaves after picking. The more oxidation, the darker and stronger the tea. Green tea is barely oxidized. Black tea is fully oxidized. Oolong sits in between.
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