Li Xingchang repeatedly stirred leaves in an iron pan at a temperature of several hundred degrees day after day for years. A decade later, Li's mother, Kuang Zhiying, who taught him all about tea, finally smiled after sipping from a cup that Li had made.
At a garden located halfway up Jingmai Mountain in Lancang Lahu autonomous county, Pu'er city, Yunnan province — an area that boasts the biggest ancient tea tree plantations in China — Su Guowen grabs a handful of drying tea from the ground, smells it and knows immediately that it is not ready.
Sitting cozily around a charcoal stove, upon which boils a pot of tea, Sui Xin and two of her friends spend a whole afternoon roasting nuts and fruits while chatting and relaxing.
Many people are familiar with green tea and black tea, but there's more. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently released a document from Chinese experts classifying tea into six types.