Learning about tea with Lucy Laoshi

Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage. - Catherine Douze

I've always said that China is all about seizing opportunities for me - so what do you do when you absolutely love tea and a Chinese tea enthusiast offers to take you to discover the world of tea at the tea market?  You say yes thank you!

Around three weeks ago, my great Italian friend Alessia had organised for a group of us to go to a tea market located on the north third ring road. Chinese teacher and tea enthusiast Lucy was going to meet us there. Lucy is a larger than life character. Always super elegant, this time dressed in red from top to toe, speaks perfect English and is extremely knowledgable.  Lucy took us to one of the many small tea shops where a lovely young woman was waiting for us. She is the daughter of tea producers from southern China and was proud to let us sample various types of tea - both from the family farm and other producers.

The basics

Lucy had prepared a booklet for each of us with basic information about the different types of Chinese tea. We were introduced to green tea, yellow tea, white tea, Wulong tea, black tea (called red tea - hongcha - in Chinese) and dark tea.

Here are a few of the interesting facts we learned:

• The different types of tea vary in fermentation degree and lower the fermentation degree the more caffeine it contains. Green tea is the type of tea that contains the most caffeine. It has a fermentation degree of 0%. 
• Wulong tea is actually a blend of green and red tea
• Dark tea - heicha - is normally pressed into brick-shaped or round molds and left to dry. Then sold as tea bricks or tea "cakes" (Cha bing 茶餅 in Chinese).
• Yellow tea is produced by letting damp tea leaves turn yellow naturally.
• Dark tea - (heicha) is the type of tea that contains less caffeine. 

Shop til you drop

I decided to buy two of the teas we tasted:

• ​A special green tea called Taiping Huikui - made of very long leaves. I only bought 50 grams as it was very expensive.
• An oolong tea called Tieguanyin (from the Fujian province). I chose the "old Tieguanyin" (lao Tieguanyin) which is characterised by brown leaves which have been left to dry and ferment longer.