Tea Glossary: 65+ Tea Terms, Clearly Defined (2026)

Key terms

Camellia sinensis

The evergreen plant whose leaves and buds make all true tea — black, green, white, oolong, yellow, and dark. The two main varieties are C. sinensis var. sinensis (small-leaf, China) and var. assamica (large-leaf, Assam).

True tea

Tea made from Camellia sinensis. The term exists specifically to distinguish real tea from herbal infusions, which contain no tea leaf at all.

Tisane (herbal "tea")

An infusion of herbs, flowers, fruit, bark, or roots — chamomile, peppermint, rooibos, hibiscus — that contains no Camellia sinensis. Naturally caffeine-free (unless built from yerba maté or guayusa), it is not technically tea.

Cultivar

A cultivated variety of the tea plant bred or selected for specific traits — flavor, hardiness, yield, or suitability to a processing style. Japan's Yabukita and China's Da Hong Pao parent bushes are famous examples.

Terroir

The combined effect of soil, altitude, climate, and geography on a tea's character. The same cultivar grown in two regions can yield noticeably different cups.

Flush

A harvest of new tea growth. Regions that pluck several times a year name their harvests by season — first flush, second flush, and autumn flush — each with its own character.

First flush

The earliest spring harvest of new shoots, prized in Darjeeling for its light, brisk, floral, often green-edged character. Generally the most delicate and sought-after pluck of the year.

Second flush

The early-summer harvest, classically associated with Darjeeling's rounder, fruitier "muscatel" character. Fuller-bodied than first flush.

Autumn flush

A later-season harvest yielding a darker, mellower, often woodier cup. Typically less expensive than spring or summer flushes.

Single-origin / single-estate

Tea sourced from one defined place — a single garden, estate, or region — rather than blended across many. Single-estate is the tighter claim, naming one specific farm or garden.

Blend

A tea built from multiple leaves, origins, or harvests combined to hit a consistent flavor target year over year. English Breakfast and Earl Grey base are classic blends.

Tea garden / estate

A farm where tea is grown and usually processed. "Garden" and "estate" are used interchangeably for the named source of a single-origin tea.

Withering

The first processing step: fresh-plucked leaves are spread out to lose moisture, becoming soft and pliable enough to roll without shattering. Withering also begins the chemical changes that develop aroma.

Oxidation

The enzymatic browning reaction that happens when bruised tea leaf meets oxygen — the same process that turns a cut apple brown. It is the single most important variable separating green tea (minimally oxidized) from black tea (fully oxidized).

Fermentation

True fermentation is microbial — molds, yeasts, and bacteria transforming the leaf — and in tea applies properly only to pu-erh and other dark teas. The word is widely misapplied to black and oolong tea, which are actually oxidized, not fermented.

Why "fermented" is often a misnomer

Most teas labeled "fermented" (especially black tea, called hong cha or "red tea" in China) are in fact oxidized — an enzyme-and-oxygen process inside the leaf. Genuine microbial fermentation is the exception, reserved for pu-erh and hei cha.

Rolling / shaping

Working the withered leaf — by hand, in cloth, or by machine — to bruise cell walls, release juices, and shape the leaf. Rolling regulates how fast oxidation proceeds and sets the finished leaf's appearance.

Firing / drying

Applying heat (pan, oven, or hot air) to halt oxidation and drive off remaining moisture, locking in the tea's character and making it shelf-stable. Also called "kill-green" (sha qing) when used to stop oxidation in green tea.

Kill-green (sha qing)

The deliberate application of heat — pan-firing or steaming — early in processing to deactivate the leaf's enzymes and stop oxidation in its tracks. It is what makes green tea green.

Steaming

A kill-green method using hot steam rather than a hot pan, characteristic of Japanese green teas like sencha. It yields a brighter green color and a more vegetal, marine flavor than Chinese pan-firing.

Pan-firing

A kill-green method that stops oxidation in a hot wok or drum, typical of Chinese green teas. It produces nuttier, toastier notes than steaming.

Orthodox

The traditional, often partly hand-guided method of making tea — withering, rolling, oxidizing, and firing whole leaves to preserve their structure. Orthodox teas yield larger, more intact leaf grades.

CTC (crush-tear-curl)

A mechanized black-tea process that shreds leaf into small uniform pellets, maximizing strength, color, and speed of infusion. CTC dominates tea-bag and mass-market production, especially Assam and East African black tea.

Wet-piling (wo dui)

The accelerated fermentation used to make ripe (shou) pu-erh: leaves are heaped, moistened, and covered for weeks so microbes do in months what natural aging would take decades to accomplish.

Roasting

Heat applied to finished tea (notably oolong) to deepen color, mellow astringency, and add toasty, caramelized, or mineral notes. Roast level is a major stylistic variable in Wuyi and Taiwanese oolongs.

Green tea

Unoxidized tea: the leaf is heated soon after plucking to stop oxidation, preserving fresh, grassy, vegetal, or nutty character. Examples include sencha, dragonwell (longjing), and gunpowder.

White tea

The least-processed type — young buds and leaves simply withered and dried with minimal handling and little to no rolling. It brews a pale, delicate, lightly sweet cup; Silver Needle and White Peony (Bai Mu Dan) are classics.

Yellow tea

A rare Chinese type similar to green tea but with an added slow, gentle "sealing yellow" (men huang) step that mellows the grassiness into a softer, rounder cup. Junshan Yinzhen is the famous example.

Oolong

A partially oxidized tea sitting between green and black — anywhere from roughly 10% to 80% oxidized. Styles range from green, floral, lightly oxidized rolled oolongs to dark, roasted, fruity ones; the category is the most stylistically diverse in tea.

Black tea

Fully oxidized tea, called "red tea" (hong cha) in China for the color of its liquor. It brews a robust, malty, brisk, or fruity cup and holds up to milk; Assam, Ceylon, Keemun, and Darjeeling are examples.

Dark tea (hei cha)

A category of genuinely post-fermented teas that undergo microbial aging after the kill-green step. Pu-erh is the best-known member; others include Liu Bao and Fu brick tea.

Pu-erh (pu'er)

A dark tea from Yunnan, China, that undergoes true microbial fermentation and is often pressed into cakes or bricks and aged. It is the clearest example of a genuinely "fermented" tea, as opposed to a merely oxidized one.

Sheng (raw) pu-erh

Pu-erh that is processed and pressed, then left to ferment and mature slowly through naturally occurring microbes over years or decades. Young sheng can be bright and astringent; aged sheng grows mellow, deep, and complex.

Shou (ripe) pu-erh

Pu-erh fermented quickly via wet-piling (wo dui), compressing decades of aging into a couple of months. It brews dark, smooth, and earthy and is ready to drink young.

Matcha

Finely stone-ground powder of shade-grown green tea (tencha) that is whisked into water rather than steeped, so the whole leaf is consumed. Shading before harvest boosts chlorophyll and amino acids, giving matcha its vivid green color and savory umami.

Gyokuro

A premium Japanese green tea shaded for roughly three weeks before harvest, which raises L-theanine and lowers bitterness. The result is an intensely sweet, umami-rich, low-astringency cup brewed at low temperatures.

Sencha

The everyday steamed green tea of Japan and its most-consumed type. It balances grassy, marine umami with a clean, slightly astringent finish.

Tencha

The flat, unrolled, shade-grown leaf that is de-stemmed and de-veined, then stone-ground into matcha. It is matcha's raw material rather than a tea typically steeped on its own.

Gongfu / gong fu cha

A Chinese brewing method using a high leaf-to-water ratio and many short infusions in a small vessel, drawing out a tea's evolving character across steepings. Translates roughly as brewing tea "with skill and care."

Gaiwan

A lidded Chinese brewing bowl (lid, bowl, and often saucer) used to steep and pour leaf tea, prized for control and for letting the drinker observe the leaves. A staple vessel of gongfu brewing.

Steeping / infusion

Soaking tea leaves in hot water so soluble compounds — flavor, color, caffeine, antioxidants — dissolve into the liquid. One round is an "infusion" or "steep"; good leaf often gives several.

Decoction

Extraction by actively simmering or boiling the material in water, rather than steeping off the boil. Used for tough botanicals and spiced preparations like masala chai, but generally too harsh for delicate leaf tea.

Cold brew

Steeping tea in cold or room-temperature water for several hours, yielding a smooth, low-astringency, naturally sweeter cup with gentler caffeine extraction. Works especially well with green and white teas.

RTD (ready-to-drink)

Pre-brewed, bottled or canned tea sold ready to drink, the largest commercial tea segment by volume worldwide. Quality ranges widely from real brewed-leaf products to heavily sweetened flavored drinks.

Liquor

The brewed tea itself — the liquid in the cup. Tasters describe its color, clarity, aroma, body, and flavor; "bright" and "brisk" liquor are prized in black tea.

Agony of the leaves

The evocative trade term for the way dried leaves twist, unfurl, and dance as they rehydrate and release their flavor in hot water. It is also a sign of whole-leaf quality.

Astringency

The dry, puckering, mouth-gripping sensation in tea, caused largely by polyphenols (tannins) binding to proteins in saliva. In balance it gives a tea structure and "briskness"; in excess it reads as harsh.

Tannins

A loose, everyday term for the astringent polyphenols in tea (more precisely, catechins and their oxidized derivatives). True botanical tannins are larger molecules; in tea talk, "tannins" usually just means "the astringent stuff."

Body

The perceived weight, thickness, or fullness of the liquor in the mouth — from light and watery to rich and mouth-filling. Assam is classically full-bodied; a delicate white tea is light-bodied.

Briskness

A lively, refreshing, slightly astringent quality, especially valued in black tea. A brisk cup feels clean and invigorating rather than flat.

Finish (aftertaste)

The flavor and sensation that linger after you swallow. A long, evolving, pleasant finish — sometimes a sweet returning aftertaste called hui gan — is a mark of fine tea.

Umami

The savory, brothy "fifth taste" prominent in shaded Japanese greens like gyokuro and matcha, driven largely by amino acids such as L-theanine. It reads as a mouth-filling, almost marine richness.

Catechins

The main group of polyphenol antioxidants in green tea, including EGCG. They are widely studied for potential health-associated effects; this is a description of the compounds, not a medical claim.

EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate)

The most abundant and most-studied catechin in green tea, often cited in antioxidant research. As with all such compounds here, it is described as "studied for," not promised to treat anything.

L-theanine

An amino acid found almost uniquely in tea, associated in research with a calm, focused alertness and thought to temper caffeine's jolt. Shade-grown teas like gyokuro and matcha are especially rich in it.

Caffeine

The natural stimulant in Camellia sinensis. Per cup it generally runs lower than coffee, but actual content varies widely with leaf type, plucking, processing, and brewing — making blanket "green has less than black" claims unreliable.

Polyphenols

The broad family of plant compounds — including catechins, theaflavins, and thearubigins — that drive much of tea's color, astringency, and studied antioxidant activity. Oxidation converts catechins into the theaflavins and thearubigins of black tea.

Theaflavins & thearubigins

The orange-red and brown-red polyphenols formed when catechins oxidize during black-tea processing. They give black tea its coppery liquor, body, and briskness.

Tippy

A tea rich in young leaf buds (tips), often a sign of careful, fine plucking. Tippy teas tend toward smoothness and complexity.

Golden tips

The downy, golden-colored buds visible in high-grade black teas (especially Yunnan and Assam), prized for the smooth, sometimes honeyed character they signal. Their presence drives several leaf-grade designations.

Orange Pekoe (OP)

A grade denoting a whole-leaf black tea of a particular leaf size — confusingly, it has nothing to do with the fruit or the color orange. It is the baseline of the Western (orange-pekoe) grading system.

FTGFOP

"Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe" — a high orthodox black-tea grade indicating an abundance of fine golden tips and well-made whole leaf. Adding a "1" (FTGFOP1) marks the best lot within the grade.

SFTGFOP1

"Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe Grade 1" — typically the top rung of the orange-pekoe ladder, with the highest proportion of golden tips. It describes leaf quality and tip content, not a guaranteed flavor.

Broken grades (BOP)

Grades like Broken Orange Pekoe denote intentionally broken (not whole) leaf, which brews faster, stronger, and darker than whole-leaf grades. Common in everyday black teas and many quality tea bags.

Fannings

Small, broken leaf particles — larger than dust, smaller than broken-leaf grades — that infuse quickly and strongly. They are a standard tea-bag filling.

Dust

The finest grade of all: tiny tea particles that brew very fast and very strong. Used in mass-market and CTC tea bags, not a sign of low-quality leaf per se, just the smallest sieve fraction.

Whole leaf

Tea with its leaves left largely intact rather than broken, generally associated with orthodox processing and higher grades. Whole leaf typically gives a more nuanced, slower-developing infusion.

Maocha

The semi-finished "rough" tea — leaves processed up to drying but not yet sorted, aged, or pressed. In pu-erh, maocha is the base material that is then fermented or pressed into cakes.

Tea bag vs. loose leaf

Loose-leaf tea is sold as unbagged whole or broken leaf; the bag format usually holds smaller fannings or dust for fast, strong infusion. The format affects extraction speed and the room leaves have to unfurl, not whether something is "real" tea.

Scented vs. flavored tea

Scented tea takes on aroma from a natural source during processing (jasmine blossoms layered with green tea); flavored tea has flavorings, oils, fruit, or botanicals added afterward (Earl Grey's bergamot). Both can be excellent; the distinction is how the aroma got there.

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