新手怎么选茶？先看它怎么做的，别先看形容词How to Choose Tea as a Beginner: Read the Processing, Not the Poetry
怎么选茶，没有一个放之四海都准的说法：水温、牌子、产地，甚至你那壶水，每一样都会改变味道。再隔着中文和英文两套讲法，很多差别根本没法用词准确描述，所以这篇只能给你一个大概的标准，当起点用——具体的，还得你自己泡过才算数。如果只让我说一句最直接的：第一次别从黑茶开始，尤其在美国。从绿茶、白茶这类清淡的开始更稳妥。There is no description of tea choice that holds everywhere: water temperature, brand, origin, even the water in your kettle all change the cup. Put the Chinese and English ways of naming it side by side and much of the difference cannot be put into words at all. So this is only a rough standard to start from — the specifics have to come from your own brewing. If I had to say one thing: do not start with dark tea, especially in the US — start light, from green or white.
六大茶类的区别，其实只有一个变量The six categories turn on one variable
所有真正的茶（不是花草茶）都来自同一种植物。决定它是绿茶还是红茶的，不是产地，也不是品种，而是采摘之后——叶子氧化到什么程度，又经过了哪些工序。把这件事搞懂，货架上那一片名字立刻会收拢成六类。Every true tea — not an herbal infusion — comes from the same plant. What makes it green or red is not the region and not the variety. It is what happens after picking: how far the leaf oxidises, and what else is done to it. Once that clicks, a shelf of unfamiliar names collapses into six groups.
先说清楚我的底子：我是中国人，在杭州长大，真正喝过的基本只有中国茶。日本抹茶、阿根廷马黛茶这些我几乎没碰过，所以这篇只讲我了解的中国茶。Let me be clear about my footing first. I am Chinese, I grew up in Hangzhou, and the tea I have actually drunk is Chinese. Japanese matcha, Argentine mate, everything else — I have barely touched them. So this covers only the Chinese tea I know.
我家乡杭州出西湖龙井，而爷爷奶奶从小给我泡的，就是绿茶这种清淡的口味。所以我对黑茶和乌龙茶没什么经验：喝得很少，也不喜欢。Hangzhou is where West Lake Longjing comes from, and the tea my grandparents brewed for me as a child was green tea — the light end of the range. So I have little real experience of dark tea or oolong: I drink them rarely, and I do not much like them.
家里条件一般，我也没喝过最顶级的茶，说得出的是平常茶之间的差别。西湖龙井的「最好」其实主要在名气上——它在中国几乎人人皆知，历史上曾是进贡给皇帝的茶。Nor have I drunk the top grades; my family did not have that money. What I can describe are the differences between ordinary teas. Longjing’s fame as “the best” is mostly fame — it is the tea everyone in China has heard of, and it was once sent to emperors as tribute.
我不是茶叶品鉴专家，只是替没喝过茶的人把门推开一道缝。真正了解你口味的只有你自己，喝过一轮发现自己根本不喜欢茶，也非常正常，不值得硬撑。I am not a tea expert. I am only easing the door open for someone who has never drunk tea. What you like, only you can find out — and it is entirely normal to work through a round of teas and decide you do not like tea at all.
所以有条件就从组合装、试用装开始，最稳妥；价格拿不准，或者怕买贵了、被中间商以次充好，可以发邮件问我，我会尽力帮你把关。So start from a mixed pack or a sample pack if you can. And if you cannot tell whether a price is fair, or you are afraid of paying whole-leaf money for broken leaf, write to me and I will do what I can to check it for you.
| Category茶类 | What is done to it怎么做出来的 | Brew at冲泡水温 |
|---|---|---|
| Green (lu cha)绿茶 |
Not oxidised at all. Heated the moment it is picked to stop the leaf changing.完全不氧化。采下来就用高温杀青，把变化停住。 | 75–85 °C75–85 ℃ |
| White (bai cha)白茶 |
Barely processed: withered and dried, nothing more. The least handled of the six.几乎不加工：萎凋、干燥，就这两步。六类里动手最少的一类。 | 80–90 °C80–90 ℃ |
| Yellow (huang cha)黄茶 |
Lightly oxidised, then given an extra slow-warming step that turns the leaf yellow.轻微氧化，再加一道「闷黄」的慢热工序，把叶子闷成黄色。 | 80–85 °C80–85 ℃ |
| Oolong (wu long)乌龙茶 |
Partially oxidised — and “partial” spans a wide range, from about 10% to 80%.部分氧化。这个「部分」幅度很大，从约 10% 到 80% 都有。 | 90–100 °C90–100 ℃ |
| Black (hong cha)红茶 |
Fully oxidised. This is the category most of the world simply calls “tea”.完全氧化。世界上大多数人说的「tea」，其实就指这一类。 | 95–100 °C95–100 ℃ |
| Dark (hei cha)黑茶 |
Post-fermented by microbes and often aged, the way pu-erh is. The only category whose taste is meant to change with years.靠微生物后发酵，常常还要陈放，普洱茶就属于这一类。六类里唯一把「年份会改变味道」写进工艺的一类。 | 100 °C100 ℃ |
| Category茶类 | Look (dry leaf and liquor)长什么样（干茶与茶汤） | Rough taste大致口感 | Names you will hear常听到的名字 | Beginner score新手推荐 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green绿茶 | Flat or needle-shaped and green, with pale down on the bud tips. Liquor a pale yellow-green.扁平或针形，绿色，芽尖上有白色的细毫。茶汤浅黄绿。 | Light and fresh; turns bitter if you over-steep it.清淡、鲜；泡久了会涩会苦。 | West Lake Longjing, Biluochun, Xinyang Maojian西湖龙井、碧螺春、信阳毛尖 | ★★★★★★★★★★ |
| White白茶 | Covered in white down, silver on the underside of the leaf. Liquor very pale, near colourless to apricot.满披白毫，叶背泛银。茶汤很浅，近无色到杏黄。 | Gentle and sweet; almost never bitter.轻、甜，几乎不苦。 | Silver Needle, White Peony, Shoumei白毫银针、白牡丹、寿眉 | ★★★★★★★★★★ |
| Yellow黄茶 | Yellow-green, leaning yellow. Liquor yellow and bright.黄绿色偏黄。茶汤黄而明亮。 | Softer than green tea, with less astringency.比绿茶柔和，涩味少。 | Junshan Yinzhen, Mengding Huangya君山银针、蒙顶黄芽 | ★★★★☆★★★★☆ |
| Oolong乌龙茶 | Rolled into balls or twisted into strips, dark green to deep brown. Liquor gold to amber.揉成球状或条索，墨绿到深褐。茶汤金黄到琥珀色。 | High aroma; changes noticeably from one steep to the next.香气高，几道之间变化明显。 | Tieguanyin, Da Hong Pao, Phoenix Dancong铁观音、大红袍、凤凰单丛 | ★★★☆☆★★★☆☆ |
| Black红茶 | Black, sometimes with golden tips. Liquor orange-red to red.乌黑，有的带金色芽毫。茶汤橙红到红。 | Sweet and full; stands up to milk.甜、厚，加奶也撑得住。 | Lapsang Souchong, Keemun, Dian Hong正山小种、祁门红茶、滇红 | ★★★★☆★★★★☆ |
| Dark黑茶 | Pressed into cakes or bricks, deep brown to black. Liquor dark red-brown, darker again if you boil it.常压成饼或砖，深褐到黑。茶汤深红褐，煮过更浓。 | Heavy and deep, close to bitter.厚、沉，接近苦。 | Pu-erh (Bingdao, Laobanzhang), Anhua heicha, Liubao普洱（冰岛、老班章）、安化黑茶、六堡茶 | ★★☆☆☆★★☆☆☆ |
「大致口感」那一列是最通行的说法，不是我替每一款都盖过章——里面我对绿茶有把握，黑茶和乌龙基本是在转述别人的描述。The “rough taste” column is the common description, not my personal verdict on each one. Green tea I can speak to; for dark tea and oolong I am mostly repeating what other people say.
星星是按「第一次买不容易出错」给的，不是按茶的好坏。黑茶两颗星，不代表它差，只代表它不适合当第一包。The stars rate “least likely to go wrong as a first purchase”, not how good the tea is. Two stars for dark tea does not mean it is poor — only that it is a hard place to begin.
这两张表只需要记一句话：口味越清淡的茶，水温越低、泡的时间越短。但无论哪一类，都别拿刚烧开的水直接冲——要么把茶冲苦，要么把自己的嘴烫到。The two tables reduce to one line: the lighter the flavour, the cooler the water and the shorter the steep. But whichever category you pick, never pour water straight off the boil — you will either brew it bitter or burn your own mouth.
这也是为什么我们的口号是「慢慢泡」：喝茶本来就是一件要耐心的事，乐趣就在那些细微的差别里——同一款茶，少泡十秒和多半分钟，就是两杯不同的茶。这种要慢下来才分辨得出的东西，是酒和可乐给不了的。It is also why our slogan is “brew it slow”: tea asks for patience, and its pleasure lives in small differences — ten seconds less or half a minute more is two different cups from the same leaf. That is something alcohol and cola do not offer.
一个几乎所有人都会撞上的名字坑The naming trap almost everyone falls into
中文的「红茶」，英文叫 black tea（黑茶）。中文的「黑茶」，英文叫 dark tea（深色茶）。这不是翻译错，是两边按不同的东西命名：中文看汤色（红茶的汤是红的），英文看干茶颜色（全氧化的叶子是黑的）。所以你在英文站上看到 black tea，说的是红茶；看到 dark tea 或 pu-erh，才是我们说的黑茶。Chinese hong cha, literally “red tea”, is what English calls black tea. Chinese hei cha, literally “black tea”, is what English calls dark tea. Neither side mistranslated: Chinese names tea after the colour of the liquor, English after the colour of the dry leaf. So on an English page, “black tea” means hong cha; “dark tea” or pu-erh is the fermented one.
而「普洱」这一个词下面，其实还压着两种互不相干的茶：生普和熟普。它们的做法在某一处分岔，之后的味道就再没有交集。这是选茶时最容易买错的一格，所以普洱喝起来到底是什么味道单独写了一篇。And the single word “pu-erh” still sits on top of two unrelated drinks, raw and ripe. Their processing splits at one point and the flavours never meet again. It is the easiest cell on the shelf to buy wrong, which is why what puerh actually tastes like has its own piece.
一句话记住：英文 black tea ＝ 中文红茶；英文 dark tea ＝ 中文黑茶。这两个词对调过一次，是海淘买茶最常见的错。Keep it straight: English “black tea” is Chinese hong cha; English “dark tea” is Chinese hei cha. The two words swapped places, and it is the most common mistake when buying Chinese tea abroad.
第一次买，先回答自己三个问题Before you buy, answer three questions about yourself
- What do you already drink? If you drink coffee and like it strong, black tea sits closer to your range. If you only drink light green teabags, start from green or white. Note the wording: this is about direction, not flavour — the flavour is the part only you can judge, after you brew it.你平时喝什么？爱喝咖啡、喜欢浓一点，红茶更接近你的区间；只喝清淡的绿茶包，就从绿茶或白茶进。注意这是在说「口味方向」，不是味道描述——味道那部分得你自己泡过才算。
- When will you drink it? Mornings with milk point to black tea; after a heavy meal points to dark; a slow solo afternoon points to oolong, which rewards being brewed several times. There is also a moment that works well: after fried chicken or a burger, a light green or white tea does more for you than another strong cup.你打算什么时候喝？早上加奶提神＝红茶；饭后＝黑茶；下午一个人慢慢泡＝乌龙，它经得起反复冲几道。还有一个很好用的时机——吃完炸鸡、汉堡这类油腻的东西，来一点清淡的绿茶或白茶，比再灌一杯浓茶舒服得多。
- How much fiddling will you tolerate? This is the most practical question of the three. Green tea punishes a wrong temperature; white is forgiving to about twenty degrees either way. Buy for the kitchen you actually have, not the one you imagine.你能忍受多麻烦？三个问题里最实际的一个。绿茶对水温敏感，差一点就苦；白茶上下二十度都不至于毁掉。按你真实的厨房条件买，别按想象的那个买。
下单前，问店家这四个问题Four questions to ask before you pay
- Which year, and which season, was it picked? Tea is a farm product with a vintage and a season. Green tea above all is judged on freshness: this year’s leaf and last year’s are two different things. Asking also shows you whether the seller knows their own stock.这是哪一年、哪一季采的？茶是农产品，有年份、也有季节。绿茶尤其看新鲜——今年的新茶和隔年的陈茶，是两件东西。问这一句，也顺便看看对方答不答得上来。
- How should I store it, and how long does it keep? The answer flips depending on the tea. Green tea is best fresh, which makes it the hardest to keep: light, heat and damp all strip the aroma out, and a year on a shelf is a visible loss. Dark tea is the opposite — time and microbes keep working on it, and some need years before they are worth drinking. Do not store every tea the same way.怎么存、能放多久？这一问的答案会因茶而反。绿茶越新鲜越香，所以最难存——怕光、怕热、怕潮，放上一年香气就明显流失，要尽快喝掉。黑茶正相反：它靠时间和微生物继续发酵，放得越久越厚，有的要放够年份才好喝。所以别用一个办法存所有茶。
- What water temperature and how much leaf do you suggest? This one doubles as a test: a seller who cannot answer, or who only says “about right”, probably does not know the batch in their hands. Write the number down, too — a wrong temperature on the first steep is the easiest way to wreck good leaf.你建议的水温和投茶量是多少？这题同时是一道考题：答不上来、或者只会说「差不多就行」的卖家，未必真了解自己手里那批茶。顺便把那个温度记下来——第一泡用错水温，是最容易把好茶泡坏的一步。
- Do you have a mixed pack, or a small size? Most sellers will not split a bag, so do not count on buying fifty grams on its own. But many carry a mixed pack, or a small box with several teas inside — worth asking. Your first purchase should not be half a kilo of something you have never tasted.有没有组合装，或者小规格？一般店家不会把一斤茶拆开单卖，所以别指望「先来五十克」。但很多店有组合装，或者几种茶装一盒的小规格，问一句比不问强。第一包茶不该是五百克——你还没喝过，不知道自己喜不喜欢。
包装上哪些字，别当真Words on the packet you should not take at face value
- “Reserve”, “Imperial”, “Rare”, “Monkey Picked”. These are marketing words with no agreed definition. Anyone can print them.「珍藏」「御用」「稀有」「猴子采的」。这些是营销词，没有统一标准，谁都能印上去。
- “Made by a master”, “ancient trees”. Unless a verifiable name and year come with it, there is nothing to check.「大师制作」「古树」。除非能给出可查的名字和年份，否则无从核实。
- “Organic”. Look for a certification number that you can look up with the issuing body. The word alone proves nothing.「有机」。看有没有认证编号、能不能在发证机构的网站上查到。只有这两个字，说明不了什么。
- “Special grade” / “first grade”. These are real national-standard grades, but only if the packet also prints the standard number it was graded under. No number, no grade.「特级」「一级」。这是国家标准里真有的等级，但前提是包装上同时印了执行标准号。没有编号，等级就只是一句话。
- In the US these words are harder to check than they are in China. On a third-party marketplace like Amazon you are usually fairly safe — the platform itself has to get the goods through import. On an independent site, a non-marketplace channel, or a merchant’s own page, be more careful. Getting into the US at all means the shipment met FDA requirements for imported food. That is the floor, not a quality guarantee.在美国，这些话比在中国更难验证。大部分情况下，在亚马逊这类第三方平台上买，出大问题的时候不多——平台自己得过进口这一关。但如果是在独立站、非第三方渠道，或者干脆是茶叶商人自己的页面上买，就要多留个心眼：能进到美国市场，说明它至少满足了 FDA（美国食品药品监督管理局）对进口食品的要求，但这是准入门槛，不是质量证明。
一句话概括：能被第三方核实的字，信；只能由卖家自己说了算的字，先放一边。这条标准跟你在别的领域买东西时用的，其实是同一条。The rule in one line: trust the words a third party can verify; set aside the ones only the seller can vouch for. It is the same rule you already use when you buy anything else.
还有一个更现实的判断办法：看价格落在什么区间，别只看包装。同一类茶，去几个电商网站扫一眼，大概就能看出正常价钱在哪一段；明显低于那一段的，通常是等级更低、或者更陈的茶。买贵了，亏的是你自己的钱，卖家不会替你心疼。One more practical check: look at the price bracket, not just the packet. Scan a few e-commerce sites for the same category and you will see where normal pricing sits. Anything far below that is usually a lower grade, or an older harvest. Overpaying costs you, not the seller.
最后一句实话，可能是这篇里最有用的一句：真正顶尖的茶，很少流通到市场上。中国人自己都不够喝，好茶基本在产地就被分完了。And the most useful line in the whole piece: the very best tea rarely reaches a market at all. There is not enough of it for China to drink, so it is largely spoken for at the source.
这也是普洱在 Reddit 这类茶友社区里特别受欢迎的原因之一——它不怕放，没有「必须趁新鲜卖完」的物流压力。It is one reason pu-erh is so popular among tea people on forums like Reddit — it does not fear time, and carries no “sell it while it is fresh” pressure.
我常喝的绿茶正好相反：刚做好的香气，和在船上待了两周的香气，差别不小。说得夸张一点，有点像刚开的冰镇可乐和开盖放了半天的常温可乐——你明白那个意思就行。The green tea I drink daily is the opposite: fresh off the drying floor and after two weeks at sea are not the same cup. Put it this way — a cola just opened over ice, against one left open on the counter. You get the idea.
新手最常亏的三次The three ways beginners lose money
- Buying the big bag first. You have not tasted it yet, so you cannot know whether you like it. Look for a mixed or a small pack first, then decide. Half a kilo is a bet, not a purchase.第一次就买一大包。你还没喝过，不知道自己喜不喜欢。先找组合装或者小规格，试完再决定——五百克是在赌，不是买。
- Reading the name and ignoring the year. Green tea above all: even a good one loses part of its aroma within a year. The green tea I drink, fresh, and the batch that spent two weeks at sea are not the same cup.只看名头，不看年份。尤其是绿茶：再好的绿茶，放一年香气就掉一截。我自己常喝的绿茶，新茶和在船上待过两周的那批，闻起来就不是一回事。
- One method for every tea. Water straight off the boil onto green leaf is the single most common way a beginner ruins a bag. It is also why our slogan is “brew it slow” — the water and the clock both have to slow down. The exact temperatures and grams are in how to brew loose-leaf tea in a normal kitchen.所有茶一个泡法。拿刚烧开的水直接冲绿茶，是新手毁掉一包好茶最常走的那一步。这也是为什么我们的口号是「慢慢泡」——水和时间都得慢下来。具体的温度和克数，写在美式厨房里怎么泡散茶那篇里。
Questions I get asked常有人问我的问题
I know nothing about tea. What should I buy first?完全不懂茶，第一包买什么？
Start light — green or white — and buy a small amount. Do not start with dark tea: if your everyday food runs sweet and oily, the heavy side of it is likely to put you off. Green tea is the most famous and also the most sensitive to water temperature, so keep the first pour below boiling.从绿茶、白茶这种清淡的开始，量买小一点。别从黑茶起——尤其是平时吃得偏甜偏油的人，很可能一上来就喝不惯。绿茶名气最大，但它对水温最敏感，所以第一泡一定要用低于沸腾的水。
Is black tea the same as dark tea?红茶和黑茶是一回事吗？
No. Black tea is fully oxidised — Chinese hong cha. Dark tea is post-fermented and ages: pu-erh is dark tea. The English and Chinese words swapped, which is what confuses people.不是。红茶是完全氧化，中文叫红茶；黑茶是后发酵、能陈放，普洱就属于黑茶。中英两个词对调过一次，混乱就是这么来的。
Do I need a gaiwan?一定要用盖碗吗？
No. A mug and a strainer are enough. A gaiwan buys you control across repeated steeps, which matters for oolong and dark tea and matters little for black or white.不用。一只杯子加一个滤网就够。盖碗给你的是「同一种叶反复冲几道」的控制力，这对乌龙和黑茶重要，对红茶白茶意义不大。
Are loose leaves better than tea bags?散茶真比茶包好吗？
Usually — a bag hides what is inside, and broken leaf takes up less room per gram, so it is easy to sell you less tea for more. But a whole-leaf bag beats a bag of dust, so what matters most is whether you can see the leaf.通常是的——茶包看不见里面装了什么，碎茶占的体积又小，很容易拿更少的茶卖更高的价。但装了完整叶片的茶包，胜过装满茶末的茶包，所以最要紧的是「你能否看见叶子」。
How do I tell whether a seller is trustworthy?怎么判断一家店靠不靠谱？
Ask for the year of harvest, how to store it, and the water temperature they suggest. Plain answers beat good stories. If nobody can say which year the tea is from, that alone is your answer.问年份、问怎么存、问建议的水温。答得实在，比故事好听更管用。如果连「这是哪一年的茶」都答不上来，这个答案本身就已经够了。
墨言—茶选好了，它得有东西装。一人份的入门，我们建议先从盖碗还是茶壶这篇里选定出汤的器物；想要一步到位的成套器具，可以看冰灰釉功夫茶具、米黄汝窑西施壶套装或祥龙茶具，件数都逐件写明。Curated by Moyan — once the tea is chosen, it needs something to go in. For a one-person start, first settle the pouring vessel in gaiwan or teapot. For a complete set, look at the Ice Grey Kung Fu set, the Ru-ware Xishi set or the Dragon tea set — every piece count is listed line by line.
下一步Next
茶定了，接着是容器和手法。先看先买盖碗还是先买茶壶选出汤的器物，再照着盖碗入门笔记走一遍完整顺序；只想最快喝上，就走美式厨房里怎么泡散茶那条最短的路。器物的基础，可以从什么是盖碗和茶道六君子读起；盖碗总烫手，烫手那篇讲怎么调。With the tea settled, next comes the vessel and the method. Start with gaiwan or teapot to choose what you pour from, then follow the gaiwan starter notes for the full sequence. If you just want tea tonight, take the short route in brewing loose-leaf tea in a normal kitchen. For the basics, begin with what a gaiwan is and the six gentlemen of tea. And if your gaiwan keeps scalding you, the burns piece covers the fixes.
配送范围和退换政策，配送与退换页有完整说明。Shipping coverage and returns are fully explained on the Shipping & Returns page.
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