Brief Guide to Chinese Tea

Here are a few tips that might help you navigate a Chinese tea store:

The same tea is often spelled several different ways. They are pronounced the same but thanks to the various methods of Romanization of Chinese characters (Wade-Giles, Pin Yin, and other variants) they may look completely different. Bao Zhong is the same as Pouchong. Tie Guan Yin is the same as Ti Kuan Yin. Da Hong Pao and Da Hong Bao. Long Jing and Lung Ching.   Then you toss in the English translations and you get Iron Goddess of Mercy, Big Red Robe and Dragon Well out of the last three.

THEN you also toss in fancy names the tea company made up to mark their version but have no real meaning in the tea industry: Grand Imperial Dragon Well is just Dragon Well. Monkey Picked Oolong is just a good tie guan yin. Flying Dragon Ginseng Oolong is just a ginseng-coated oolong.

Oolong is a VERY generic term. It's a huge world of tea unto itself. It's every tea that is more oxidized than green tea, but less oxidized than black (red) tea. Thus oolongs include teas so green that they are often mistaken for greens, like bao zhong, and oolongs so dark that they're nearly inky like an aged re-roasted Tung Ting oolong. Oolongs can be grassy, fruity, vegetal, roasty, smokey, nutty, sweet, bitter, buttery, milky, floral, and just about anything else you can imagine.
  Pu-erh teas are tea of growing interest in the west, as shown by the large number of posts about it on /r/tea. If you get into Chinese tea it's worth giving pu-erh teas a try. Be aware though that pu-erh is a lot like oolongs in that it's another whole world of tea -- there are hundreds of varieties.
The key pu-erh fact to know though is that it comes in two main varieties: raw (sheng) and artificially ripened (shu).

Raw tends to be more expensive, at least when aged, but a good raw pu-erh a dozen years old or more will blow your mind (and cost at least a hundred dollars, often two or three times that amount). Young raw pu-erh is frequently sharp and astringent (but can be sweet and mellow) and is not very popular with most tea drinkers.

Ripened pu-erh though is what is mostly on the market. If the tea doesn't specify if it is raw or ripe, then it's almost certainly ripened. Ripened pu-erh is usually very cheap compared to raw tea of similar age, and it was created to mimic the darker flavors and smoother texture of an aged raw pu-erh. It frequently tastes rather earthy or even outright muddy, but can be sweet and woody as well. It's very popular and is drunk often with meals to ease digestion (it's commonly served with dim sum).

Taiwanese high mountain oolongs. Try them. They can be expensive, but they are a key experience in Chinese tea. These are the teas that hook many people on the world of Chinese tea, including myself. They are best served gongfu cha style, so if possible try finding a shop that will serve you some this way before you try it on your own.

Taste teas before you buy them if at all possible. The quality and varieties of Chinese tea are so vast that this is the best way to get exactly what you want. In fact, tasting the tea before purchase is the standard in traditional Chinese tea shops. If you have a Chinatown near you, see if they have a tea shop with a tea desk where they will sit you down for a tasting before purchase.