Chinese tea can be classified by its color, or by its processing procedure during the production, which will determine the color of the tea finally.

There are three major types of Chinese tea according to its color: the Green Tea (processed tea), the WuLong Tea (semi-processed tea) and the Black Tea (un-processed tea).

During the production of the tea the tea leaves will be dried together. When they are put in piles there is a ferment reaction in the leaves. The fermented leaves will appear darker and there will be a mellow and mild sweet taste of the tea soup. Before Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) Chinese people didn't know how to stop the ferment procedure of tea, all the tea has a black color. This type of un-processed tea is called black tea. In China, people like to call the black tea as "Red Tea" because the tea soup appears a ruby-like reddish color when the tea leaves are soaked in hot water. Today, black tea is the most popular tea in the world. China is only the third biggest black tea export country, behind Sri Lanka and India, where the soil and humid weather are more suitable for the growth of large-leaf tea trees. The most famous black tea is produced by Lipton Co., established by Sir Thomas Lipton in 1880. The most famous black tea in China is YingDeTea made in GuangDong Prov..

Green tea is made from relatively small-leaf tea trees. In the early Ming Dynasty people came to know that a heating procedure could stop the fermentation of tea, this procedure is called "Sha-Ching (Kill the Green)". There are many ways to perform the Sha-Ching procedure: in China, people like to stir-fry the tea leaves in a large iron pot, or expose the leaves directly to the sun light, the heat will kill the leavening in the leaves, so that the tea will keep its green color and original flavour. In Japan, the tea will be steamed to kill the leavening. The steamed tea will have a brighter green color than Chinese tea, but the flavour of tea soup is mild and shorter. There are hundreds of famous green tea brand names in China, such as LongJing, BiLuoChun, HuangShan MaoFeng and GuaPian, etc. Green tea is enjoyed by most people in China for its refreshing flavour.

WuLong tea is half processed tea. The Sha-Ching will be performed when the tea is half fermented during the production, only the outer edges of the tea leaves have the ferment reaction before the ferment is stopped. Therefore the WuLong Tea will have a green leaf with a reddish border. WuLong tea is very popular in South China. The most famous are TieGuanYin and ShuiXian, both made in FuJian Prov., and Tuo Tea made in YunNan Prov..

Besides all these three kinds of tea, people also like to mix tea with flowers, thus increase the fragrance of the tea soup. The most famous is jasmine tea. Jasmine tea is enjoyed by people everywhere in the country. Jasmine flower petals can be mixed with green tea, slightly fermented green tea (controlled to be 1/16 fermented) or half fermented WuLong tea. It is rarely mixed with black tea. Many people like to put the flower in the tea containers and make jasmine tea by themselves. Some other flowers like lotus, rose or chrysanthemum can be also mixed with tea together for the flower tea, they can be also used alone (like rose and chrysanthemum) as a special "tea" without any tea leaves included.

Some people also heard about "white tea". Basically white tea is 1/4 fermented green tea. This special species of tea is most planted in ZheJiang Province. The sprouts and leaves are covered with white fuzz, some time the tea soup also appears white color. White tea is believed to have the therapeutic effect on many pulmonary diseases such as empyema or T.B.

In the remote area of China such as YunNan and Internal Mongolia, tea used to be the major resource of vitamin C. It is a very necessary part for the daily life and important for the local business. In such provinces tea has to be imported from other area like ZheJiang or FuJian, in order to keep the tea convenient for transportation and preservation, tea has been produced into compressed tea bricks. Most compressed tea bricks are made from WuLong Tea, like Tuo Tea just mentioned earlier in this article.

Today, tea can be made into other forms like tea powder or tea bags, but people are still using green tea, WuLong tea and black tea to distinguish their types and procedures.