Start with the information panel as well as the decorative front. Keep the outer box and inner packets together until you have found the name and directions. This is a reading aid: it cannot authenticate the tea or tell you its condition.
Read your packet in three passes
This is a sequence to use with your own packaging, not a reconstruction of a modern product. The annotated tin linked below is a historical museum example.
- Front: copy the complete name. Keep the Chinese characters alongside the translation. Do not substitute the company name, “premium” wording or an attractive box for the tea’s identity.
- Information panel: find the supporting fields. Photograph the ingredients, net quantity, date wording and storage directions together. Keep the wording beside each number, not just the number.
- Inner packet: check what belongs to this portion. Keep it with its outer box. Record any portion weight and preparation directions actually printed there; if the connection is unclear, ask the giver or supplier rather than assigning the box information to an unidentified sachet.
Before choosing a recipe, aim to have a name, ingredients or tea base, leaf form, readable date/storage information, and directions suited to your vessel. Mark anything you cannot establish as unknown. Missing information is a question to resolve, not a reason to guess a temperature or grade.
Find the name before choosing a recipe
Look for 品名 or 产品名称: product name. Match the Chinese characters with the guide, keeping the original wording beside a camera translation.
| Printed tea name | English guide | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| 龙井 | Longjing / Dragon Well | Check any separate origin claim. |
| 正山小种 | Zhengshan Xiaozhong / Lapsang Souchong | Check smoked or unsmoked in the product description. |
| 茉莉花茶 | Jasmine tea | Check the tea base and whether it is loose, rolled or bagged. |
| 铁观音 | Tieguanyin | Read the guide’s style distinctions and mug method. |
| 大红袍 | Da Hong Pao / Big Red Robe | Check the product description and complete brewing method. |
| 金骏眉 | Jin Jun Mei | Match the product and leaf form before using a recipe. |
These are name examples, not photographs of current products. For a different name, browse the encyclopedia. The first-packet guide’s annotated historical tin shows how a name, company line and weight occupy different parts of one real label; it is not a model of every modern packet.
What the historical tin can actually tell you
In that photograph, 茉莉花茶 gives the name jasmine tea, the smaller 福建茶叶进出口 line is company wording, and 454 克 is a weight statement. Those are three separate readings. They do not establish a brewing dose, today’s contents, an expiry date or a quality grade. Open the annotated photograph and its credit.
For your own packet, save the same three items separately: printed tea name / company wording / stated quantity. Leave other fields unanswered until you find them. A readable front is only the beginning of the label check.
Separate the tea from the sales wording
品牌 means brand; a company name is not necessarily the tea name. 等级 means grade. 特级 is commonly rendered “special grade” and 一级 “grade one”; read them within the product’s stated grading system. They are not a TeaPlain score or a guarantee that differently named teas from different shops are directly comparable.
Read origin wording separately from the name and grade. For example, our Longjing guide explains why the name alone is not a West Lake origin claim. If a term or a claim is unclear, ask which product, origin or grading standard it refers to rather than guessing from prominent lettering.
Read the weight as a quantity, not a dose
净含量 means net quantity; 克 means grams. 规格 describes the pack specification. A box total and an individual sachet’s weight answer different questions.
For arithmetic only, an invented specification of 5 g × 10 packets means 50 g in total. It does not say that all 5 g should go into your particular mug. Use the tea amount and water amount from one complete brewing method. This example is not a real product label or a serving recommendation.
Keep dates and storage directions together
生产日期 means production date, 保质期 shelf life, and 贮存条件 or 储存条件 storage conditions. A production date is not an expiry date. A shelf-life statement must be read with the stated conditions; it does not establish how long a packet left open in your kitchen will remain usable.
Keep any date-format explanation beside the printed date. Where a packet uses English “best before” or “use by” wording, read that actual wording rather than translating every date field as the same thing. If the stamp or its meaning is unclear, ask the supplier. We cannot establish remaining life from a photograph. Continue with storing an opened packet.
If you only see a date: copy its heading too. If it only says when the product was made, do not relabel it as an expiry date or harvest date. If the label directs you elsewhere on the packaging, keep that instruction with the corresponding stamp. This page does not calculate an expiry date for an unidentified gift.
Find ingredients and preparation directions
配料 or 配料表 introduces ingredients. 冲泡方法 or 饮用方法 introduces brewing or preparation directions. Read these before applying a recipe for plain loose tea to a blend or another form.
For brewing, keep the vessel, leaf amount, actual water amount, temperature, timing and leaf-removal action together. A small-pot recipe with quick pours and a leaves-in-glass recipe are different operations. Choose one of the six first-cup routes.
If the label is incomplete or the translation is strange, ask:
What is the exact tea name in Chinese and English? What ingredients and leaf form does it contain? What amount, water temperature and time would you use in my mug, and should I remove the leaves?
Choose your next step
- Name and form matched, method clear: make a cup with ordinary teaware.
- Name matched, directions incomplete: open its encyclopedia guide and check the recipe’s scope, or send the question above to the supplier.
- Still cannot establish what it contains: keep the packaging and set it aside while you ask. The gift guide explains that route without assigning an arbitrary recipe.
Editorial notes
Reviewed 17 October 2026. Label-field distinctions were cross-checked against original food-labelling guidance from market-regulation authorities and Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety. The three-pass sequence is an editorial reading aid, not a legal compliance checklist for any country. Research records are retained internally; contemporary packet photographs and TeaPlain hands-on trials have not been added to this guide.