Season, oxidation family, processing steps, shaping, roast level, terroir, leaf lineage, and Japan's rare post-fermented teas — the "elements" that combine to produce every tea on the market. Scroll sideways on small screens.
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Suggested citation: Chen, Y. (2026). Periodic Table of Tea-Making. Formosa Phoenix Tea Farm.
Dark-tea sub-types note: raw (sheng) ages naturally over years; ripe (shou) uses pile fermentation (wo dui) to compress decades of aging into weeks, invented at Kunming Tea Factory in 1973; golden-flower (jin hua, Eurotium cristatum) is a different fungal route used in Hunan's Fu brick tea.
Oolong aroma note: this progression tracks oxidation degree, roughly matching Baozhong (10–15%, clear-floral), high-mountain oolong (15–30%, floral), and Oriental Beauty (50–60%, ripe-fruit/honey) — but it's a guide, not a strict rule; cultivar and processing can shift the result. A fifth stage, rich caramel, sits beyond honey: Red Oolong (Taitung) pushes oxidation to oolong's upper limit and adds 20–60 hours of repeated roasting, so Maillard/caramelization notes stack on top of the fruit-honey base — officially still a "roast-fragrance ball oolong," not black tea, even though the liquor looks amber-red like one.
Roasting note: heat drives off residual moisture, triggers the Maillard reaction between sugars and amino acids (the source of caramel/nutty notes), and — per common tea-trade claims — reduces caffeine at high heat (partly sublimation, partly thermal decomposition; this specific mechanism isn't independently verified here). These are sequential/ concurrent chemical changes, not parallel categories, so they're described here rather than turned into grid cells.
Roasting method note: infrared radiation isn't unique to any one method — any hot surface radiates it, charcoal included, more so at higher temperatures. What actually distinguishes these three is the heat source: charcoal is direct combustion (adds smoke/charcoal character); electric and far-infrared are both electrically powered, with far-infrared using a specific radiant-panel element rather than a plain resistance coil, claimed to give deeper, more even penetration.
Phenol-Amino Ratio Quick Reference
Phenol-amino ratio = total catechins ÷ total amino acids. Lower ratio → sweeter, mellower; higher ratio → more astringent, more body.
| Tea | Oxidation | Catechin retention | Phenol-Amino tendency | Flavor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 0% | 100% | Low | Fresh, grassy |
| White | ~10% | ~90% | Low–Mid | Sweet, delicate |
| Baozhong / Light Oolong | 8–25% | ~75–90% | Mid | Floral, bright |
| Dongding Oolong | 25–30% | ~70–75% | Mid–High | Mellow, lingering finish |
| Tieguanyin | ~40% | ~60% | High | Rich, deep throat-feel |
| Oriental Beauty | 50–60% | ~40–50% | High * | Honeyed, intense |
| Black | 100% | lowest, converted to theaflavins/thearubigins | Highest | Full-bodied, low bitterness |
* Oriental Beauty is an exception: leafhopper-bitten leaves trigger extra biochemical changes, so its aroma intensity doesn't track the ratio alone.
- Altitude — high-mountain gardens (>1000m) lower catechins, raise theanine → lower ratio, mellower cup.
- Season — spring tends lower ratio (slow growth, more amino acids); summer tends higher (fast growth, more catechins).
- Cultivar — e.g. TTES No.12 (Jinxuan) has a higher catechin baseline than Qingxin Oolong in raw material.
- Terroir — even the same cultivar can vary catechin content nearly 3× across growing regions.