Believe it or not, even in the 21st century, Chinese green tea still offers the breadth and depth unparalleled elsewhere, despite widely held concerns about dubious farming practices.

How many times have you heard this before:

"With China becoming the manufacturing capital of the world, its environmental resources are increasingly under threat. Chinese tea is likely to be contaminated by pesticides and pollutants. Avoid them."

Do you agree?

Personally, I think it is too much a sweeping statement to make. Here's why.

Chinese green tea is a complicated beast with many faces. To understand it, we need to know something about China itself.

China is the third largest country in the world, with land area slightly larger than the United States of America.

Unlike other tea-growing countries, Chinese green tea is cultivated in most parts of China. In fact, about 20 out of the 30 provinces grow Chinese green tea.

The diverse growing conditions, tea species and processing methods give rise to thousands of varieties. The cream of the crop is what is known as Mingyoucha, or Famous Superior Tea.

These gourmet teas are found in areas of exceptional beauty, in mountains such as Lion Peak Mountain (Xi Hu Longjing tea), Yellow Mountain (Mao Feng tea) and Lu Shan (Misty Cloud tea).

For hundreds of years, local makers have developed sophisticated handicraft to optimize the quality of these teas.

They are highly organic. Pests are naturally disinterested in tea plants; in these parts of China, there is simply no need to spray pesticides.

Chinese tea experts estimate there are around 700 different varieties of these gourmet teas.

It is a truly staggering number. No wonder tea experts always lament there are too many names to remember in one lifetime.

If experts who spent 4 years in university and wrote dozens of tea books say that, then the rest of us don’t stand a chance.

Luckily, most of these teas are rare. For all practical purposes, it makes sense to focus only on the superstars.

Here is the reason for misconceptions: you can seldom buy high grade Chinese tea in the West.

But I want you to have the quintessential experience of sampling them.