meizitang

Tea is a kind of popular beverage nowadays and also a kind of gift. However, there are a few of people who truly know how to drink tea and as for how to choose tea, there are much less. Today, we’ll learn the five wrong ways to choose tie guan yin tea.
1. Buy tea by its names. In the tea market, all the tea may be titled with famous tea names. As for oolong tea, it is titled with tie-guan-yin tea, dongding oolong or dahongpao tea, for dragon well tea, it is called lungching, defang, biluochun or huangshan maofeng tea. Tea-lovers must be clear to know the fact that famous tea would not be everywhere.
2. Buy tea by its packaging. Inferior tea is always shining wrapped in porcelain bottles, tin pots or rosewood boxes, which can be called fair without foul within.
3. Buy the whole set of tea. The wicked businessmen would integrate all kinds of inferior teas and add an so-called elegant or excellent package, then name it as “Five kinds of famous tea or Eight kinds of famous tea”. Tea-lovers must keep it in mind that it would never be so easy to taste all kinds of famous tea.
4. Buy tea by the places. Go to the lands of tea, especially tourist attractions such as Huangshan, Lushan and Wuyi mountain. Never ever buy tea at vendor’s stand or the so-called farmhouses, you’ll 99.99% be fooled. Tea there would be fake or inferior or worth false price.
5. Buy tea by its grade. The words “nonsuch, gold award, superb work and superfine” are always printed on the tea packages. Actually, tea at first had grades and the country had clear rules about that, but now the rules has been messed. In addition, some businessmen are cunning, they make a big fuss about the grades. For example, they divide the dongding oolong tea into nonesuch, gold award, silver award and superfine, while superfine the highest level becomes the lowest level.
According to my humble opinion, if we buy tea by appearance, we’d better choose leaves with green, yellow-green or dark green color; for black tea, leaves are with shining dark red color; for oolong tea, it’s hard to choose, for the north Fujian oolong tea, choose the black color and for the south Fujian oolong tea, pick the tea with dark green color