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1 Chinese green teas

Grades of Chinese green tea (绿茶 lücha) include:

• Longjing (龙井, "dragon well"; also lung ching) is a famous tea from the town of Longjing, near Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Longjing is further divided into 7 grades: Superior (qiqiang), Special (queshe) and then 1 down to 5.

• Mao feng ("Mao Peak") is a famous tea from Mount Huangshan.

• Gunpowder is a basic green tea from China's Anhui Province. The tea takes its name from the rolled leaf balls that are grey-green color.

• Chun mee ("precious eyebrows"), the most common type in China, is named after the shape of the tea leaves.

• Jasmine tea

• Hyson is an early-harvested tea whose leaves are twisted in a long, thin style.

2 Japanese green teas

Green tea (緑茶 ryokucha) is so ubiquitous in Japan that it is more commonly known as "honorable tea" (お茶, ocha) and even "Japanese tea" (日本茶, nihoncha). Types of tea are commonly graded depending on the quality and the parts of the plant used.

• Matcha (抹茶, "rubbed tea") is the highest grade of green tea, used primarily in the tea ceremony. The tea bushes are shaded from sunlight for 3 weeks before harvesting, producing amino acids that sweeten the taste. The leaves are then ground to a fine powder, which is simply blended in lukewarm water for consumption.

• Gyokuro (玉露, "jewel dew") is unground matcha leaf, prepared for consumption by infusion.

• Sencha (煎茶, "broiled tea") is the most common type of green tea in Japan, accounting for 75% of production. It is made from the young leaves of uncovered plants.

• Shincha (新茶, "new tea") is newly harvested, lightly steamed sencha. It is aromatic but highly perishable, lasting for only about 3 months.

• Genmaicha (玄米茶, "brown rice tea") is sencha mixed with roasted brown rice.

• Bancha (番茶, "number tea") is from the last harvest of the season. It is milder, cheaper and contains less caffeine than other varieties.

• HojichaHojicha (, "roasted tea") is a green tea from Japan. It is set apart from other teas because it is roasted over charcoal, giving the leaves a brown appearance despite the fact that they are actually green tea leaves. This process was first performed in Ky (焙じ茶, "roasted tea") is prepared by roasting bancha leaves.

• Kukicha (茎茶, "stem tea") is made from tea twigs instead of leaves. It contains only a tenth of the caffeine of leaf tea and its flavor is commonly compared to oolongAlternate meanings: Oolong (disambiguation Oolong ( wulong in the Mandarin Pinyin romanization) is a traditional Chinese type of tea somewhere in between green and black in oxidation (traditionally but improperly called "fermentation") time. Sometimes it teas.

There are large variations in both price and quality within these broad categories, and there are many specialty green teas that fall outside this spectrum. The very best green tea is said to be that from Uji region of Kyoto.