About the Tea Gallery

Located on the ground floor of the T. T. Tsui Building, the Tea Gallery aims to promote Chinese tea culture. Museum visitors are invited to rest here while appreciating the exhibits on display. You can choose from specially chosen varieties of tea which are served in the appropriate Yixing teapot and with traditional tea utensils. The Tea Gallery was established with the support of Ms Pearl Poon and the Hong Kong Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce and has become a popular venue with students and Museum visitors as a peaceful place in which to enjoy a cup of tea alone, or with friends.

Tea Classification and
the Preparation of Chinese Tea

The production of tea has a very long history in China and has resulted in many categories. Each category can be further divided into many species and grades according to their place of production, species of plant, processing and resulting characteristics. The West simply classifies tea into semi-fermented, fermented and unfermented tea. The Chinese classify tea into the following categories according to their different processing methods.

The preparation of Chinese tea is a skilled and precise art. Different teas each require different brewing conditions that need to be followed to ensure optimum flavour and taste. The following are brewing guidelines for teas available in the Tea Gallery:

Green tea
Green tea is a non-fermented tea which goes through a process of pan-firing process immediately after plucking. It retains the freshness of tea leaves. Examples of green tea include Longjing produced in Hangzhou of Zhejiang province and Biluochun produced in Taihu district of Jiangsu province.

Green Longjing tea from Zhejiang province may be brewed up to three times.
The first infusion should last one to two minutes;
The final one three minutes.

Scented tea
Scented tea is a mixture of fried tea leaves and fresh fragrant flowers. It is a kind of re-processed tea and can be divided into scented green, scented black and scented oolong tea. Among them, scented green tea is the most popular and this includes jasmine tea.

Jasmine, a popular floral tea, may be brewed five times.
Five to ten seconds for the first infusion,
Sixty seconds to two minutes for the third to fifth infusions.

Oolong tea
Oolong tea is a semi-fermented tea made from fresh mature tea leaves that go through procedures of withering and dry-frying. After brewing each tea leaf presents two different colours: the fermented part is reddish and the unfermented part is still green - resulting in "green tea with red border".

Tieguanyin tea, a type of Oolong tea which comes from Fujian province may be brewed up to five times
Ten to twenty seconds for the first and second infusions, add five to ten seconds for each subsequent infusion.

White tea
White tea is a light-fermented tea and is characterized by white floss (hairy leaf-buds) on the tea leaves. The "white peony" species has white tips and dark green leaves.

White tea, Peony (Shoumei), may be brewed up to five times.
Ten to fifteen seconds for the first and second infusions
Twenty to forty seconds for the third and fourth infusions.
The final infusion should last one minute.

Black tea
Black tea is a fully-fermented tea and its infusion has a bright reddish colour. Qimen gongfu tea of Anhui province is the most renowned black tea in the world. Most black tea manufactured in China is in the form of integral tea leaves in contrast to the crushed and chopped black tea leaves of India and Sri Lanka.

Pu'er (Bo Lei) tea from Yunnan province. It is a fully-fermented tea produced from green tea, oolong tea or red tea. It has to undergo the heaping procedure to generate its unique structure and flavour. may be brewed seven times.
Eight to ten seconds for the first and second infusions
Fifteen to forty-five seconds for the third to fifth infusions
One to three minutes for the sixth and seventh infusions.

The cover lid should be removed during the final infusion of all the above teas.

Chinese Tea Culture and Tea Utensils

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Opening Hours

Monday to Saturday : 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Sunday : 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m
Closed on public holidays.

The University Museum and Art Gallery wishes to thank the Hong Kong Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce Limited for their assistance in setting up the Tea Gallery.

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MORE DETAILS >> GO TO VIRTUAL TOUR OF TEA GALLERY