Types of tea

One plant. Nine categories. What processing does.

Every true tea comes from one plant, Camellia sinensis. What separates green from oolong from puer is not the bush but what happens to the leaf after picking: how far it is allowed to oxidise, and whether it is then roasted, rolled, pressed or fermented. TEAKI sorts tea into nine categories along that spectrum.

By the TEAKI editors · Updated 21 October 2026 · 11 guides

At a glance

Plant	Camellia sinensis, in two main varieties: sinensis and assamica
Sorted by	Oxidation and what follows it, not the colour of the dry leaf
Least to most oxidised	Green, white, yellow, oolong, red and black
Post-fermented	Dark tea and puer, changed by microbes after the leaf is made
Ground	Matcha: shaded green leaf, stone-milled to powder
Not tea	Herbal infusions. No Camellia sinensis, so no tea

The spectrum

Nine categories in the order the leaf travels, from the kettle-shy greens to the teas that spend years in a cake.

Category	What happens to the leaf	Tastes like
Green	Heated early so it never oxidises	Grass, beans, sea air, chestnut
White	Withered and dried, barely touched	Honey, hay, melon
Yellow	Green tea with a slow, damp yellowing step	Softer, sweeter green
Oolong	Partly oxidised, often roasted	Orchid to toast, by roast
Red	Fully oxidised, the Chinese craft tradition	Malt, cocoa, dried fruit
Black	Fully oxidised, the estate tradition	Brisk, bright, strong
Dark	Post-fermented after processing	Earth, wood, sweetness
Puer	Yunnan's post-fermented tea, pressed and aged	Dates, camphor, bitterness that returns sweet
Matcha	Shaded, steamed, stone-ground	Umami, cream, bitterness

Browse the nine categories →

The guides

11 pieces, in the order most people need them.

With their own guide

Oolong teaTie Guan Yin to Wuyi rock tea, floral to roasted.Puer teaSheng, shou, storage, and the mountains of Yunnan.MatchaGrades, whisking, regions, and the coffee question.

Start here

Tea TypesEvery tea comes from one plant. What separates them is processing. The long-form companion to Tea Types: nine categories, from green to puer to matcha. · 10 min read After MatchaMatcha got you into good tea. Here is the other half of the tea world: Chinese and Taiwanese loose-leaf, brewed small and many times over, that tastes nothing like the bowl and keeps changing as you steep. · 4 min read

Reference

The Tea SpectrumNine categories as cards, each opening the teas in that family.Tea ShapesThirteen ways tea is shaped, from pressed cakes to powder.CultivarsVarieties of the tea plant, region by region.

Going deeper

Seasonal Tea: When to Buy WhatThe same garden, the same tree, picked two weeks apart. Completely different tea. · 10 min read Purple, invented several timesPurple tea is not one thing. How Yunnan, Fujian, Kenya, Japan and Taiwan each bred or found a purple tea from different plants, and why they taste so different. · 8 min read Purple buds and the Ya Bao familyZi Ya, Zi Juan and the silver, purple and red Ya Bao, explained: why some tea buds are purple (pigment) and some turn red (oxidation), and how to tell them apart. · 5 min read

Questions people ask

How many types of tea are there?

The classic Chinese system has six: green, white, yellow, oolong, red and dark. TEAKI uses nine so that black tea, puer and matcha each get their own shelf, because they are made, brewed and bought differently.

Is black tea the same as red tea?

Mostly. What English calls black tea, China calls red tea, after the colour of the liquor. TEAKI keeps both names: red for the Chinese craft tradition, black for the estate teas of India, Sri Lanka and Kenya.

Are herbal teas tea?

No. Chamomile, rooibos, mint and the rest are infusions of other plants. Tea is only Camellia sinensis, which is why every herbal is caffeine-free and every true tea is not.

Which type is best for beginners?

A lightly roasted oolong or a good red tea: both forgive hot water and long steeps. Green tea punishes mistakes and is the one most people give up on first.

Keep going

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