https://xuecha.orgA quiet place to writeenSun, 06 Sep 2026 19:46:06 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/privacy-policy.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/privacy-policy.htmlPrivacy Policy Welcome to this website ("the Site"). The Site is run independently by its owner (Old Lu) for sharing tea and writing. We take your privacy seriously; below, in plain words, is what we collect and how we use it. What we collect Comment information: the nickname, optional email (never published), optional personal website and the comment text you submit, used for display and spam prevention. Read statistics: to count article views we store an anonymous marker of "whether this visitSun, 06 Sep 2026 06:22:16 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/suggestion.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/suggestion.htmlThis is a tea-learning website built for tea enthusiasts. If you find anything worth sharing after browsing, please send me your feedback - thank you! Feedback can be about the content itself, or about proofreading and corrections to any article. Please just leave a comment on this page. You can also reach Old Lu through this page.Sat, 08 Aug 2026 11:56:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/a-guide-to-enjoying-tea-for-a-comfortable-body.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/a-guide-to-enjoying-tea-for-a-comfortable-body.htmlThis is the 32nd article of my "Talking About Tea on Paper" series. Click for more Talking About Tea on Paper articles. This article is pure experience - my personal feeling and understanding, no data. "Scientific tea drinkers" may exit now! Tea that feels good in the body should taste comfortable, run smoothly through the body, and linger long in the aftertaste. Often when I drink tea I hardly attend to the mouthfeel; I feel the tea as a whole. Frequently, when tasting with friends and agreeingSat, 08 Aug 2026 11:51:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/drinking-tea-is-a-process-of-improving-ones-aesthetic-sense.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/drinking-tea-is-a-process-of-improving-ones-aesthetic-sense.htmlFor certain reasons I have been quite anxious these past years - yet the more I drink tea, the better I understand it, and the better I make it. Do you know why? Because of aesthetics. I found in aesthetics the ultimate answer for tea. And aesthetics fits not only tea but wine, aged tangerine peel, and every craving of the palate. Before 2015 I hardly drank alcohol; I thought liquor was the most unnecessary thing in the world - stimulating to taste, stimulating to the body, emboldening cowards aSat, 08 Aug 2026 11:45:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/the-ecological-beauty-of-ancient-tea-trees-in-yunnan.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/the-ecological-beauty-of-ancient-tea-trees-in-yunnan.htmlNote: this is a record I made in 2022 for the purpose of giving tea talks; it has sat idle as a prepared script for off-site talks. In these past years there has been nowhere to go give tea talks, and if I did not publish it, the ink would have faded. I will not revise it — I am simply releasing it as is, into the "Talking About Tea on Paper" series. This is the thirty-third article of my Talking About Tea on Paper series; click to read more Talking About Tea on Paper articles. I am Lü Jianfeng.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 17:00:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/health-tea.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/health-tea.htmlEarlier I wrote an article, How to Drink Tea Healthily?, which drew a great deal of attention and was widely reposted; it was about the dos and don'ts of drinking tea. This time I want to anchor on one specific point: "healthy tea", and talk about it from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine. Starting in 2017, we began producing tea that is completely and thoroughly processed: the eighth crowdfunded tea. If you are interested, you may try it. Ever since, I have kept researching how toThu, 06 Aug 2026 15:00:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/tea-that-needs-to-be-viewed-with-suspicion.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/tea-that-needs-to-be-viewed-with-suspicion.htmlWhen we evaluate tea we are often puzzled. It may be our body or mood causing all kinds of problems in the tasting, or it may be the tea itself; we cannot decide. The taste is flat, the aroma doubtful, the liquor empty and astringent - but what exactly is wrong with the tea? We wonder and cannot pin it down. What to do? At such moments we should stop, rest, and taste again - or try another day. But maybe there is another way. If we eliminate in reverse - a method of exclusion by suspicion - we mWed, 18 Mar 2026 12:36:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/learn-tea-to-learn-a-full-set.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/learn-tea-to-learn-a-full-set.htmlScrolling videos, we often meet wellness advice: one says exercise hard, another says rest and avoid strenuous movement; one says fast, another says eat plenty of staples; one says eat on schedule, another says eat only when hungry, ideally one meal a day... Have you noticed how contradictory it all is? What do you do? The videos you watch may all be right - the key is your choice. If you choose both strenuous exercise and fasting, you may run into serious trouble. Wellness has many schools, andMon, 16 Mar 2026 11:03:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/buy-tea-according-to-tea-picking-time.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/buy-tea-according-to-tea-picking-time.htmlNowadays it is easy to go up to the tea mountains to buy tea, but do you really know how to buy? I think it is worth writing about. I have summarized three rules: 1. Do not buy the earliest spring tea. 2. Spring tea is supreme. 3. The ugly ones may taste the best. Let me go through them one by one. Do not buy the earliest spring tea From my experience, tea that sprouts early in spring usually does so for one of these reasons: It was treated with pesticide or chemical fertilizer (or both); It is Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:01:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/how-to-learn-tea.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/how-to-learn-tea.htmlThree principles for learning tea: Do not worship anyone; Do not worship any tea; Trust yourself. In one line: do not blindly idolize masters, do not canonize a single tea, and believe in yourself. The previous article explained why you should not blindly worship masters. Trusting yourself is simple and easy to understand. But why not canonize a single tea? The greatest "divine tea" in the industry? I would say it is 88 Qing. Let me use 88 Qing to explain why you should not worship any particulaFri, 20 Feb 2026 13:05:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/don-t-be-superstitious-about-the-master.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/don-t-be-superstitious-about-the-master.htmlThe tea industry has many "masters". Yesterday a man could not tell raw from ripe pu-erh; today he may be a pu-erh master - I wrote about this in my column on tea people. The industry also has a chain of contempt: drinkers of ancient pure-tree look down on plantation-tea drinkers, raw drinkers look down on ripe drinkers, aged-tea drinkers look down on raw-tea drinkers, and "master tea" drinkers look down on brand-tea drinkers. Most masters are self-appointed. The tea industry does have official Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:04:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/the-joy-of-drinking-tea.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/the-joy-of-drinking-tea.htmlWhy write this? Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, and I had some reflections, so I am writing this. As a child, New Year was pure delight - did anyone else count the days until it came? New Year meant the new clothes we had fitted in summer but could only wear on New Year's Eve, ring candies, firecrackers, delicacies we never ate otherwise, and Grandma's sausages when we paid New Year visits. Those are the flavors of Spring Festival in my memory. Now the holiday is all worries - how Tue, 17 Feb 2026 20:48:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/does-beautiful-looking-tea-mean-good-tea.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/does-beautiful-looking-tea-mean-good-tea.htmlTea livestreams love to highlight how pretty their tea is, and many tea shops advertise good looks as a hint that it also tastes good. Is that really so? The short answer: not necessarily. Where good-looking tea comes from Picked tender Take pu-erh. If you think like a green-tea maker, you prefer tender picking - one bud with two or three leaves, some even insisting on no more than one bud with two leaves - so the compressed or loose tea looks nicer. In reality, experienced pu-erh makers prefer Sat, 14 Feb 2026 21:35:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/should-we-store-compressed-tea-or-loose-tea.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/should-we-store-compressed-tea-or-loose-tea.htmlThe previous article covered warehousing; this one is about how we should store tea at home. What is your purpose in storing tea? You must know why you are storing tea. Never store blindly, without a plan, or on impulse - say, buying a batch because the tea seller happens to be pretty. (Of course, if you are rich, gift the batch away.) Storing tea must be planned. Buying tea to drink Buying tea to finish quickly Beginners should buy only enough to finish soon - for example, if pu-erh interests ySat, 14 Feb 2026 03:48:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/how-to-store-tea.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/how-to-store-tea.htmlGrowing more fragrant with age is the result; storage is the process. There are many schools of thought on tea storage, and I will only share my own understanding. Let's Start with Kunming Storage Is Kunming Storage Mainly Oxidation? I have recently watched quite a few videos arguing this view, and I don't think it is. The appeal of compressed tea lies in the fact that its aging is driven by anaerobic post-fermentation, which is also why I prefer to press tea a bit tighter. Since it is compresseThu, 12 Feb 2026 02:35:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/tea-party-talk.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/tea-party-talk.htmlWe often hear that "tea speaks" - the question is how do we understand it? How to learn to taste tea? Build a relatively fixed tea-drinking habit Based on your taste and current conditions, fix your routine. For example, if you have a 130cc gaiwan, fix the leaf amount, the brewing method and the temperature at which you drink the liquor. Approximations are fine - no need to measure with a thermometer; pedants, please stay out. Fixed habits remove the distracting differences of teaware and techniTue, 10 Feb 2026 13:07:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/LCPF.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/LCPF.htmlName: Old Lu's Tea Scoring System Sub-name: "Fragrance, Sweetness, Flavor, Charm and Liveliness" five-factor scoring system Abbreviation: LCPF Applicable teas: all six tea categories Copyright owner: Lu Jianfeng Phone: 13908842493 Total score: 100 points; suggested pass: 60; excellent: 80. Version: 0.1, updated 2021.11.13 LCPF PDF download: Download the LCPF tea scoring system PDF Scoring system screenshot: Notes (2026-02-10): This system applies to all teas; It has been validated for nearly 5 yTue, 10 Feb 2026 13:01:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/Is-expensive-tea-always-better.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/Is-expensive-tea-always-better.htmlLet me start with a short story. In a tea market in the north, I was drinking tea with the shop owner when a customer came in. The shop was small, so I watched how the owner served him. Customer: Do you have Jin Jun Mei? Owner: Yes. What level would you like, sir? Customer: Try high, middle and low. I sat to the side; the customer sat in the middle with his back to the door. The teas were kept in cardboard boxes by the entrance. I watched the owner scoop three samples from the same box, set themTue, 10 Feb 2026 03:26:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/what-is-high-end-tea.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/what-is-high-end-tea.htmlPreviously written, source: https://laolv.org/what-is-high-end-tea Since 2015 we have been emphasizing forest tea; Houyue's slogan is "big-tree tea from the forest" - many crowdfunding partners will know this. What makes forest tea good? Ecology! This is why, in my good-tea formula article, I give material a 90% weight. Material is mainly ecology; only once ecology is guaranteed does tree age matter - whether it is ancient tree is actually not that important (of course, under equal ecology, anciTue, 10 Feb 2026 02:54:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/if-it-s-neither-bitter-nor-astringent-it-s-not-tea.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/if-it-s-neither-bitter-nor-astringent-it-s-not-tea.htmlWe often hear: "If it is neither bitter nor astringent, it is not tea." Is that right? I believe it is wrong. Is bitter the mark of good tea? I entered the tea industry in 2008. Back then I studied humbly, and most people told me the key qualities of good tea - including "power" (baqi), a major indicator. Powerful teas are usually bitter, such as Laobanzhang and Laomane. In her book on the first impression of tea flavor, Li Shuyun discusses bitterness specifically (writing from memory since I doTue, 10 Feb 2026 02:11:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/how-to-drink-tea-healthily.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/how-to-drink-tea-healthily.htmlPreviously written, source: https://laolv.org/how-to-drink-tea-healthily First, memorize the tea-drinking mantra I spent months refining: Prefer warm over hot, prefer fermented over green; Prefer aged over new, prefer fully processed over raw; Prefer early over late, prefer snacks over an empty belly; Prefer light over strong, prefer moderate over excessive. Months of work - not because the content is hard, but because I wanted these lines symmetrical and easy to remember; I revised many versionMon, 09 Feb 2026 14:20:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/the-older-the-better.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/the-older-the-better.htmlIs "the older the better" exclusive to pu-erh? More than a decade ago I wrote that pu-erh's rise rode on two keywords: "the older the better" and "ancient-tree tea". I discuss ancient trees elsewhere. But is "the older the better" unique to pu-erh? The short answer: no. Old teas I have drunk I have drunk green tea several decades old, both Dianlv and Biluochun. The fresh, young aroma is gone, but the taste is mellow with decent sweetness; the fragrance is not flashy, and it has its own charm. I Sun, 08 Feb 2026 20:21:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/introduction-to-the-six-major-tea-categories.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/introduction-to-the-six-major-tea-categories.htmlWhere does tea come from People often ask me what a red-tea tree looks like, or a pu-erh tree, as if each tea comes from a different tree variety. I think it is worth writing a dedicated article about the six tea categories. Take a cabbage as an example: cabbage comes in many varieties, and common ways to cook it include steaming, salad, plain stir-fry, stir-fry with meat, pickling, and so on. Fresh tea leaves are like the cabbage, and tea, like cabbage, can be prepared in many ways. Tea is madeSat, 07 Feb 2026 02:23:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/how-to-brew-tea.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/how-to-brew-tea.htmlHaving written several long articles about brewing, I should summarize my understanding. Control the amount of leaves Leaf-to-water ratio Let me first define this concept. I only share my understanding; if it differs from other teachers', and if you learn tea from me, I suggest you listen to me for now. Example: suppose an empty gaiwan weighs 100g, and filled to the normal brewing level (not overflowing) it weighs 220g - so the capacity is 120g. I recommend a leaf-to-water ratio of 1:20, which mThu, 05 Feb 2026 04:00:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/tea-art-specialist.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/tea-art-specialist.htmlMy previous article discussed tea ceremony, so I cannot skip the people who practice it: tea artists. People often ask how I see the profession of tea artist, and I think it is worth stating my view clearly. Tea artists, as I see them Tea artists are one of the most beautiful sights in the tea industry, important contributors to popularizing tea, and for many people the key entrance into loving tea. Most tea artists are women. Tea itself is quiet and introverted; a graceful woman combined with tThu, 05 Feb 2026 02:24:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/what-is-tea-ceremony.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/what-is-tea-ceremony.htmlWhat is the tea ceremony? Is it the flowery, graceful performance of a tea artist in long robes, or the earnest serving of a long-bearded man in traditional dress, or a stage performance of tea ceremony without even water... All of that may be called tea ceremony, but it is not what I mean by tea ceremony. The tea ceremony as I understand it Tea ceremony is the craft of brewing tea well. The purpose of tea ceremony is to brew good tea. Whining, affectless ceremony performance may fall under "teaThu, 05 Feb 2026 01:00:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/original.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/original.htmlI'm Old Lu, and here is why I built this site. I already have a lot of tea writing Since I formed my own understanding of tea in 2015, I have kept writing about it, and today there are quite a few articles. Yet when it comes to teaching people about tea, none of my writing forms a systematic course. Too much repeated explanation Over the past decade or so I have released many tea products. Promoting them meant repeating the same fragments of knowledge again and again - a huge amount of duplicateSat, 31 Jan 2026 03:14:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/laolv.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/laolv.htmlI am Old Lu - just a very ordinary middle-aged uncle. In 2003 I opened my personal website netbei.com; in 2004 I helped build codepub.com; in 2008 I founded 51 Puer Tea Net; in 2012 I made the Zhongmu brand of pu-erh; in 2015 I ran a crowd-funded tea project; in 2017 I founded Houyue Ancient Tea; at the end of 2018 I co-founded Dehong Ancient Tea; and in 2026 I started building this tea-learning website. My original tea scoring system lives here: /LCPF.html All my tea writing is on my blog - welSat, 31 Jan 2026 02:22:00 +0800https://xuecha.org/en/what-is-tea.htmlhttps://xuecha.org/en/what-is-tea.htmlWhat do you think tea is? I do not sell second-hand knowledge; I only share my own perceptions. Tea is a drink. Tea exists to quench thirst - and it tastes better than water. If you agree with that, congratulations: you have found tea's core function. The main job of a beverage is to quench thirst. Like iced black tea on a hot summer day, tea that cannot quench your thirst is simply playing tricks. Yet many teas fail to quench thirst. Remember: quenching thirst comes first. Tea is a healthy beveSat, 31 Jan 2026 02:22:00 +0800