As a tea lover, you must know green tea, but most likely you know little about white tea. So last Saturday when I passed by a white tea shop on the Maliandao tea street, I decided to go in and check it out.

The shop owner Ms. Mei greeted me, and asked me to sit at a big tea table to taste their tea. While brewing, she gave me a brief introduction to her products.

The tea leaves here are picked at a large ecological tea plantation in southeast China’s Fujian province. White tea is ranked as one of the 6 major types of Chinese tea. It is rich in amino acids and provitamin A. Drinking white tea often helps lower your blood viscosity, blood pressure, and blood sugar. If you drink a cup of white tea in the hot summer, you will be kept from heat stroke all day long.

With this, she handed me a glass of white tea called Baihao Yinzhen, or White Tipped Silver Needle in English. I saw straight tea leaves floating in the water. Some of them were slowly dropping to the bottom, but they still stayed upright.

The fragrance was not strong, but very agreeable. The apricot yellow color was quite clear. I took a sip, and the tea was soft and smooth in my mouth. After tasting it, I felt relaxed and refreshed both in body and in mind.

Apart from white tea, the shop also carries other kinds of Chinese tea like Pu’er tea and Oolong tea.

What I appreciated

Unique white tea, healthy tea

What customers appreciate

Health-giving white tea, Chinese tea

Tea is good for your health, but maybe you don't like its taste. How about putting some delicious fruits or other food into it to make it more flavorful? Cheng Yuan tea house is a good place to find such tea.

The tea house has a large variety of tea, including green tea, flower tea, black tea, and oolong tea. But the one that I found most attractive was ginseng-oolong tea.

When the shop owner showed me the tea in a brick, I just couldn't believe it. The tea leaves were stuck tightly together, like beautiful green stones. Put them into a teapot, and the bricks immediately open and release the tea leaves with a pleasant aroma.

As a mixture of oolong tea leaves and precious ginseng, so it tastes a bit sweet.

According to the shop owner, drinking ginseng-oolong tea is especially good for the eyes, throat, and teeth. If you drink it after drinking alcohol, it can remove the dry and uncomfortable feeling in your throat.

Another special tea offered in this shop is litchi-black tea. It's mixed litchis and black tea. In the wintertime, drinking this tea can keep your stomach warm, and more remarkably, improve your skin!

The tea shop also has various tea sets: those made of porcelain, glass, and purple clay. The transparent glass tea set is suitable for brewing flower tea. You can enjoy the tea leaves dancing in the cup, and its beautiful color changes in just minutes.

The purple clay teapots are surely indispensable for any tea lover. A brown teapot in the shape of a cute pumpkin looked so appealing. Another teapot has a funny fish lid with beautiful water lines around, so it looks like the fish has just jumped out of your tea!

This shop has so many interesting things to discover. I am sure it won't disappoint you when you come here.

What I appreciate:

Precious and tasty tea

What customers appreciate:

A great variety of tea and tea sets

Drinking tea is good for your health. Different kinds of tea have different tastes and medicinal functions. Near Beijing’s famous Drum Tower, I found a tea shop where you can get almost every kind of tea you want. 

The tea shop is beautifully decorated with red Chinese knots, and gives a comfortable, warm feeling. To my surprise, the shop assistant speaks fluent English.

First she showed me some precious white tea called “silver needle.” I noticed the tea leaves were covered with white hair, and they were shaped like a needle. Drinking this tea is helpful for diabetics, the owner said.

Another kind of tea she showed to me also has an interesting name: phoenix oolong tea. It grows on a mountain called Phoenix Mountain. Oolong tea is especially suitable for drinking in cold weather, as it has a deep, natural flavor, and is good for your stomach.

The tea shop also features a variety of tea sets. They are good quality and look beautiful. A set of bright red tea sets looks quite striking, and is said to have been favored by the emperors in ancient China.

Just before I was ready to leave, the warmhearted shop assistant brewed me a cup of oolong tea. Watching her skillfully prepare the tea with a whole set of tea tools, like a tea funnel, tea clip, tea brush, and tea spoon, I felt overjoyed that I found this lovely tea shop.

Well, if you come to this tea shop, you will have the same opportunity I did, so come taste any tea you like!

What I appreciate:

Tasty tea, good service

What customers appreciate:

Various kinds of quality tea, English-speaking shop assistant

Failed in your effort to get into a naturally healthy lifestyle? Quit midway throughout your 101th diet due to lack of effectiveness? Tired of wasting your hard-earned dollars on health products that refuse to work?

All this can and will be changed if you come and visit GuiShi Tea Shop in Beijing.

With one of the best green tea selections in China, this shop is popular with dieters. The teas, grown and baked in GuiShi’s own plantation high in the mountains, are rich in polyphenols and are proven effective in losing weight.

Also, their teas are original, organic, and free from pollution, thus healthy and safe for dieters.

Some customers drink their teas as a quick way to shoot up their energy level.

The shop owner says that their tea helps get rid of harmful wastes in the body and enhances metabolism.

Aside from these scientific benefits, their teas also taste quite good. After sampling one tea,  Sara E., a patron from the U.K., says she will serve it during a theme party she is planning to throw.

This shop has spent a lot of time finding the best way to brew their tea, and they will demonstrate this method to you for free!

Great tea, great benefits. Ready for a much better life?

Drinking tea is not only healthy, but also enjoyable. Especially when your tea is brewed in an endearing tea pot.

In a famous tea street, I found a shop offering quality tea and tea sets. Tea come in all types, including green tea, black tea, white tea, floral tea, and pu'er tea. The shopkeeper especially recommended the compressed pu'er tea cakes. There are two kinds of pu'er tea cakes: raw tea cake and processed tea cake. Raw pu'er tea can relieve your stress and refresh your mind. Precessed pu'er tea can help you digest food and lose weight.

Among all the tea sets in this shop, a green tea set is quite eye-catching. It is made of mineral material which is beneficial to health. The lid of the tea pot is in the shape of a beautiful butterfly.

A display of numerous purple clay tea pots highlights this shop. Purple clay is a special material, which gives tea a rich and mellow taste, and preserve its quality and color for over one night.

What I appreciate:
Quality tea and tea sets

What customers appreciate:
Various teas, beautiful tea sets with superb craft

Tea pillows help you sleep better, as the faint aroma of the dried tea leaves relieve stress from your brain. Tea pillows can also improve facial complexion.

On a famous tea street, I found a shop named Cha Zhen Shi Jia offering quality tea pillows. According to the shop assistant, the pillows at the shop are made from green tea, floral tea, or oolong tea. They all can help you have a better sleep. The three teas have different aromas:  floral tea is  light, oolong tea is strong , and green tea is between the two.

As early as 500 years ago, Mr. Lu Yu, the Saint of Tea, used tea for pillows.

On a tea table stood cute tea pets, such as the interesting “dragon fish” which has a dragon’s face, and a fish’s body. Tea pets are considered auspicious animals in Chinese lore. They can bring people good luck.

What I appreciate:

healthy tea pillows

What customers appreciate:

a wide choice of quality tea pillows

Known as the "health-giving tea" and "beauty-slimming tea" in China, Puer tea is something you won't regret trying out. This famous tea from the Yunnan province of southern China gives you both taste and health benefits.

For tea-loving tourists, the large Yunnan Pu'er Tea Market offers convenient location near the Tian'anmen Square. It is here on the second floor where I found Leyuanyu Pu'er Tea Shop.

The shopkeeper, Mr. Wang, warmly invited me to sit down and sample their fermented and unfermented teas. Decorated with unique items from the hometown of Pu’er tea, Leyuanyu provided me a great tea-tasting experience. The stone elephants, wooden decorations, and green plants soon led me into a relax state. Fermented tea looks red, and tastes kinda sweet. Unfermented tea looks like amber. They taste somewhat bitter at first, but give a sweet after-taste.

Mr. Wang said all their Pu'er tea comes from naturally grown trees without any human interference. They offer two famous brands: "National Chinese" and "Image of Washan Mountain". The former has won many prizes in Pu'er tea competitions.

Looking around, I found a wide variety of compressed Pu’er tea on display. The compressed nature makes them easy to carry. Some even come in nice small packages fit for presents or souvenirs. Prices are reasonable. One particular 250g "Tea Horse Ancient Road Pu’er Brick Tea" cost only RMB 50, for instance.

What I appreciated

Quality Pu'er tea, a wide variety to choose from

What customers appreciate

Prize-winning Pu'er tea, natural and health-giving tea

Quality tea needs quality tea sets to compliment it. As a large tea shop at Maliandao tea street, Xiang Yuan Shao Pin offers one-stop shopping for both.

Teas offered at Xiang Yuan Shao Pin come in all types, including green tea, black tea, white tea, and floral tea. They’re all produced at China's famous tea plantations.

Pu'er tea is one of the more popular teas on the market today. It’s easily recognizable, with its unique packaging. I especially noticed one kind of Pu'er tea contained in plastic bottles. They look like candies. The shop owner told me Pu'er teas are compressed to make it easier to transport through the mountains where the tea grows.

Price of the pressed Pu'er tea is RMB 72 per 100 grams.

As for tea sets, the highlights of the shop are their ”huo hua” – which means ‘to activate’ – porcelain. The teapot can ‘activate’ the water poured within over 20 different microelements beneficial to one’s health.

Price of this tea set, which contains one teapot and six tea cups, is RMB 1200.

What I appreciate:
Quality tea and tea sets

What customers appreciate:
Various tea, beautiful tea sets with superb craft

Luxueya, more than any other brand, really brought Fujian's tea culture to the capital. They did this by putting their shop on Maliandao street, the largest collection of tea shops in northern China.

However, back in 1997 when their Beijing branch first opened, Maliandao was hardly a major shopping area. But after 10 years of hard work and development, Luxueya has grown significantly along with the tea street itself.

All of Luxueya teas come from the Taimu Mountains back in Fujian province. Their plantation, which covers several mountains, produces organic green tea, white tea, jasmine tea, and black tea. Many of Luxueya's patent tea have won gold prizes in domestic and international exhibitions.

The most famous tea at the shop is white tea, which is uncured and unfermented tea. Prices vary according to their type. For example, 150 g new Bai Mu Dan (white tea) is priced at RMB 88, while 370 g 2-year-old Shou Mei (white tea) costs RMB 256. If you don't mind having a good packaging, Luxueya carries loose tea for comparatively lower prices.

What I appreciate:
Luxueya tea

What customer appreciate:
Good-quality tea

When it comes to Zisha, or purple clay teapot, we usually mean a traditional pot made from Yixing clay, and commonly used to brew tea. The name comes from Yixing in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, and the original place of purple clay teapot production.

Zheng Fu Cao Tang is a shop selling various shapes of clay pots made from teapot masters in Yixing.

Entering the shop, I was enthralled by its atmosphere. In the middle of the spacious exhibition room, four deep sofas create cozy place for visitors to rest, with a glass display of precious teapots in the center. Not far away, a traditional rosewood tea table holds a tea set on top while four wooden chair on four sides. Yellow lights, which casted shadows on clay pots lined up on shelves, produced an odd atmosphere.

Some of the teapots are symbols of blessing, like the fish-shaped teapots for wealth or the fruit-shaped pots for good harvest. The shop also carries a clay pot made by Master Wang Xiaolong. Due to its complex technique, the pot is only for display purposes.

Prices are from RMB 80 to over thousands, according to different skill levels involved.

What I appreciate:
Welcoming environment

What customer appreciate:
High-quality clay pot