About the Dao of Tea Project
What this site is
The Dao of Tea is an encyclopedia of Chinese tea: 52 varieties, from Longjing to aged pu-erhs, in ten languages. Each tea has its own page describing its taste, origin, brewing method, and effect.
What sets the project apart is its lens: every variety is described through an archetype and one of the five elements of wuxing. This is not an attempt to pass metaphor off as fact, but a way of speaking about a tea's character the way Chinese culture has spoken of it for centuries: in images, not only in degrees and grams.
Methodology
The factual basis of the descriptions is the classic Chinese sources on tea, starting with Lu Yu's Classic of Tea, the tradition of Chinese medicine (TCM) regarding the "character" of teas, and modern data on caffeine, L-theanine, and GABA where it exists.
The archetypes and animal imagery are the author's artistic interpretation — neither science nor esoteric doctrine. They help you remember and tell apart 52 varieties, but they don't replace your own palate: the best way to test any description is to brew the tea yourself.
The five elements and the classes of tea
The site uses the classic wuxing correspondence: wood — green tea, fire — oolongs, earth — yellow tea, metal — white tea, water — black tea and pu-erhs. Red tea we describe as fire passing into earth: full oxidation carries the leaf's "fiery" nature to a warm, ripe steadiness.
This correspondence is a frame of tradition, not a rigid law: within each class, teas differ more than the classes differ from one another. On this site the elements serve as navigation among characters, not as a diagnosis.
What this site does not do
We do not sell tea, host vendor advertising, or earn commission on purchases — which leaves us free to write about the shortcomings of varieties and about fakes on the market.
The site gives no medical advice. Information from TCM — "warming," "cooling," "movement of qi" — is offered as cultural context, not as medical claims. For questions about health, caffeine, and contraindications, consult a doctor.
Openness
The site's content is open not only to people but to machines: the pages have markdown versions, and the llms.txt file describes the project's structure for language models. We don't hide our texts from bots — the more accurately AI answers questions about Chinese tea, the better for everyone who drinks it.
Found an error or an inaccuracy? Write to us: this encyclopedia is alive and constantly being corrected.