Chinese green tea is the oldest of the six tea categories—and the foundation of all others.
From renowned regional teas to loose-leaf varieties cherished in villages for generations, we bring these green teas from China directly to the world.
Long Jing Green Tea (Dragon Well) - Pre-Qingming
Zhejiang • China Tea
Chinese Green Tea (known in Chinese as “Lv Cha”) is the oldest of the six tea categories. Its history is a three-thousand-year journey—from chewing leaves to brewing fragrant tea, from imperial tea cakes to loose leaf enjoyed by everyone. It reflects a long-standing question in Chinese culture: how can this leaf taste better?
It all began with chewing. Long before medicine was a separate field, tea leaves were eaten fresh and used as a detoxifying plant.
By the Western Zhou (c. 1046–771 BCE), tea had moved from the wild into the pot. According to the Huayang Guozhi · Ba Zhi, the Bashu region (today’s northern Sichuan and southern Shaanxi) already had cultivated tea gardens. Leaves were sun-dried or roasted—an early form of Chinese Green Tea. Later, they were boiled into mingzhou, or “tea porridge,” making tea both food and drink.
At this stage, tea was not yet something to steep and discard. It was consumed whole.
During the Tang (c. 618–907) and Song (c. 960–1279) dynasties, green tea production became more refined.
Lu Yu’s The Classic of Tea (c. 780) recorded the full process of making steamed tea cakes: picking, steaming, pounding, pressing, baking, threading, and sealing. To drink, the cakes were roasted, ground, sifted, and whisked with hot water into froth. The powdered leaves and liquid were consumed together.
This method represents the earliest form of what we now call Matcha Green Tea and later influenced the development of the Matcha tea ceremony.
For centuries, tea—whether chewed, boiled, or whisked—was still eaten.
The modern method of brewing loose leaf green tea began in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).
In 1391, Emperor Hongwu decreed: “Stop making dragon cakes; present only tea buds.” This decision ended the labor-intensive steamed cake tradition and promoted loose leaf tea instead.
Tea was no longer ground into powder. Whole leaves were placed in a teapot, infused with hot water, and removed after brewing.
This shift marked the decisive transition from eating tea to drinking tea.
Today, Matcha Green Tea preserves the Tang–Song tradition—powder whisked into water, froth remaining in the bowl. Chinese Green Tea, however, fully embraced loose leaf brewing after the 14th century.
For nearly three thousand years, the Chinese consumed tea leaves directly. Only in the last six hundred years has loose leaf green tea become the standard way of drinking.
This long evolution—from leaf to cup—is the true story of Chinese Green Tea.
Chinese Green Tea is the origin of the six tea categories. It is not only the oldest in history, but the starting point of Chinese tea craftsmanship. Over centuries of refinement, its processing methods became the structural foundation from which every other major tea type developed.
Other tea types developed from Chinese green tea:
• Green tea that wasn’t cooled or dried in time after fixation—resulting in smothered leaves that turned yellow.
• A technical flaw, yet the resulting softness earned it a category of its own.
• Partially processed green tea leaves were piled and allowed to ferment.
• Microorganisms transformed the leaves from green to deep brown, giving rise to the long history of post-fermented teas.
• No fixation—just withering and drying.
• The leaves fade naturally, silvery buds intact.
• Green tea reduced to its most essential form.
• Before fixation, an oxidative step was added.
• Edges reddened while centers remained green.
• Without the logic of green tea fixation, oolong’s “green leaf with red rim” would not exist.
• Fixation was never introduced.
• Leaves withered, rolled, and oxidized fully.
• Green turned to red, grassy notes became floral and fruity.
• A broken green tea process became a complete and independent system.
These six categories are not siblings born side by side—they are branches of the same tree. Chinese green tea is the trunk. This is the root of it all.
No tea travels farther or is made in greater quantity than Chinese green tea.
From Wuzhishan in Hainan to Laoshan in Shandong, from the southeastern coast to the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, wherever tea is grown, green tea is present. It is not singular, but plural.
This gives it a unique power structure—distinct from other tea types:
Oolong tea is dominated by four centers: southern Fujian, northern Fujian, Guangdong, and Taiwan. Black tea has its classic regional styles—Qihong, Dianhong, Minhong, Chuanhong. Green tea, however, has no absolute center. Its power is decentralized: Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Henan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Shandong, Hubei, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Guangxi, Yunnan, Fujian, Hunan…
Any tea-growing region inevitably produces green tea.
On this boundless map, a succession of celebrated names has emerged.
West Lake Longjing enshrined “flat and smooth” as an aesthetic ideal.
Dongting Biluochun curls into spirals—fine hairs woven into the texture.
Huangshan Maofeng: sparrow tongues, tipped with white down.
Liu’an Guapian discards stems and buds, staking everything on a single leaf.
Taiping Houkui presses two leaves and a bud into a dragon shape.
Anji Bai Cha, white in name only, bursts with amino acids—a new branch on the green tea tree.
Other notable examples include: Enshi Yulu, Emei Zhuyeqing, Nanjing Yuhua Tea, Xinyang Maojian, Duyun Maojian, Lushan Yunwu, Guzhu Zisun, Jingshan Tea, Yongxi Huoqing, Xiuning Songluo, Kaihua Longding, Wuyang Chunyu, Mengding Ganlu, Laoshan Green Tea, Rizhao Green Tea, Ziyang Maojian, Lingyun Baihao…
With each new name, the map expands. No other tea type boasts so many famous teas.
Yet these celebrated names are only the tip of the iceberg.
Beneath the surface are countless local teas that never make it into textbooks or leave their home regions. They have been drunk for centuries in a single county, a single village. Outsiders may never have heard of them, but locals cannot live without them. They, too, are Chinese green tea.
Guangdong green tea, sold by the Chinese Tea Group, is one such example.
Its cultivars and processing logic are closer to Guangdong oolong than to Jiangnan green tea. Its shape, aroma, and flavor belong to a different aesthetic system. And it possesses a rare trait among green teas: it improves with age.
Stored for years, its astringency fades, the liquor deepens, the flavor turns from crisp to mellow. In a tea landscape where most greens are meant to be drunk fresh, Guangdong green tea charts its own timeline.
Limited in quantity, it cannot be widely distributed. Yet it sustains a stable circle of drinkers and collectors.
That is the capacity of Chinese green tea.
It makes room for West Lake Longjing, and for teas without a name.
It allows both drinking fresh and aging gracefully.
Chinese green tea is the hardest tea to buy.
Not because of its price, but because its evaluation system has never been unified.
The world of green tea spans from bitter to sweet, from delicate to rich, from needle-straight to snail-curled, from sword-flat to hook-shaped curls. Shape tells you its name; name tells you its region; region tells you its taste.
This is both the challenge and the charm.
You don’t need to master every green tea. Two principles are enough.
West Lake Longjing, Dongting Biluochun, Huangshan Maofeng, Taiping Houkui, Liu’an Guapian, Anji Bai Cha—these names carry provenance.
Their core zones are small, their output limited. Most tea in circulation comes from peripheral areas or follows the same craft. This isn’t fake tea. It’s the layered geography of green tea.
Authentic core-region tea has a price floor and a narrow channel. The soundest choice: trusted brands that clearly state the origin.
The map of Chinese green tea is vast. Most local teas are never tasted nationwide—yet they have been the daily drink of a single place for generations.
You don’t need a complex scoring system. Trust the people who grew up with it. Trust the old shops. Trust “this is the tea my family has always drunk.”
Often, that brings you closer to the truth of green tea than any famous name.
Chinese Tea Group began in exactly such shops and tea houses—rooted in local trust, steeped in tastes passed down through decades.
Today, it shares these teas with the world, bringing the flavor of local green teas to international cups.
Explore our “green tea Chinese” and “green tea loose leaf” collections.
Visit the Chinese Green Tea Album →
