Liu Yifei plays talented teahouse owner Zhao Pan'er in A Dream of Splendor.

As costume drama A Dream of Splendor attracted many audiences this summer, the way the heroine Zhao Pan'er makes tea also garnered much attention. Heytea, a Chinese boutique teahouse chain, recently launched new flavored tea drinks based on the recipe from the TV show.

China, home of most of the world's tea, also has a series of customs concerning tea making and tea choice according to the seasons.

In the summer, the most recommended one is green tea, for its character is "cold" in traditional Chinese medical theories, suitable to soothe the restlessness caused by hot summer.

Since the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), loose leaf green tea has been popular in China. Emperor Qianlong from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was a tea lover and often enjoyed Longjing, the most well-known Chinese green tea, in summer.

Apart from Longjing, Chinese green tea has many family members with beautiful and poetic names, such as Yunwu (which literally means cloud and mist). 

Biluochun

Produced in Wu county in East China's Jiangsu province, the tea got its name for its curled leaves that look like snail shells.

Xinyang Maojian

Maojian, belonging to a category of green tea, refers to teas which are harvested by plucking one leaf and a bud together. Maojian, produced in Xinyang in Henan province, is the most famous.

Huangshan Maofeng

Compared to maojian, maofeng are teas harvested by plucking a bud with two leaves of equal sizes. Huangshan mountain range in Anhui province is the home of a kind of maofeng tea whose leaves look like the tongues of birds.

West Lake Longjing

Longjing, produced in West Lake Longjing village in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, is the most well-known of Chinese green tea.

Lu'an Melon Seed

Different than other tea, leaves of Lu'an Melon Seed, without buds or stems, are plucked separately from each branch. Produced in Lu'an city in Anhui province, the tea has the fragrance of orchid flowers.

Taiping Houkui

In a popular TV-drama Treading on Thin Ice (Bu Bu Jing Xin), which aired in 2011, Taiping Houkui was often mentioned by the fourth Prince who later became Emperor Yongzheng (1691-1731). In fact, the tea appeared in 1859, more than 100 years later after the emperor's death. Grown in Anhui province, Taiping Houkui was one of the ten most well-known Chinese teas and was given as a gift to the 37th US President Richard Nixon when he visited China in 1972.