A tea egg cut in half, orange-red yolk still molten, chilli and Sichuan peppercorns scattered on the stone slab

MULAN XU® · the emotional engine

Your type
your Benming tea food

MULAN XU®, the AI emotional engine of MULAN TEA STORY, does more than choose your tea — it extends one cup into a whole table.

When you drink tea, what are you looking for?

Generated by the MULAN XU® emotional engine · the result maps to one standard, in store and cold-chain to home

FOUR TYPES · The Four Benming

Fresh · Bone · Aged · Sweet
which one is yours

Fresh

Spring Fresh

THE SPRING TYPE

「Freshness cannot wait」

Like a Mingqian mountain plot — bright, clean, right on time.

Benming colour · Deep Green

Bone

Rock Bone

THE FIRE TYPE

「The fire must be kept」

You carry rock bone — deep, steady, built to take the fire.

Benming colour · Deep Brown

Aged

Long Life

THE AGED TYPE

「Age is worth the wait」

Time adds to you — and never hurries.

Benming colour · Russet Red

Sweet

Clean Sweet

THE SWEET TYPE

「Sweetness must be clean」

The sweetness does not come from sugar — clean, with restraint.

Benming colour · Off-White

Below — the four Benming are the first division; each divides again into four, sixteen types in all — with portraits, Benming colours and ways to eat, in the next section.

MULAN XU® 16 · Sixteen Types

Four dimensions
sixteen kinds of people

MULAN XU® draws your taste coordinates along four dimensions — no end of a dimension is better, only different. Take one end from each, and your four-word code takes shape.

I

Time · Fresh / Aged

The fresh bite of the season, or the aged depth time has grown for you? The first is bright; the second, deep.

II

Texture · Bone / Soft

Do you lean toward flavour with bone and edge — something to bite into — or the soft, smooth kind that melts as it arrives?

III

Tempo · Fast / Slow

Is a meal five minutes wedged into the day, or an hour the day is made to give?

IV

Scene · Solo / Shared

Is this mouthful yours alone, or the table's? Eating alone has its own care; a shared table has its own heat.

Fresh Bone Fast Solo

The Early Riser

FRESH · BONE · FAST · SOLO

Up at the second alarm. The water is not yet on, and you are already at the counter. Twenty minutes of half-light — the whole kitchen is yours.

Five-Colour Tea DumplingsDeep Green

Fresh Bone Fast Shared

A Table of Steam

FRESH · BONE · FAST · SHARED

First to the chopsticks, last to sit down. The steam clears faster than you eat — so you eat while it is still hot.

Five-Colour Tea DumplingsDeep Green

Fresh Bone Slow Solo

Particular, Even Alone

FRESH · BONE · SLOW · SOLO

Eating alone, you still warm the bowl and square the vinegar dish. Not for show — you simply refuse to make do.

Five-Colour Tea DumplingsDeep Green

Fresh Bone Slow Shared

A Spring Table

FRESH · BONE · SLOW · SHARED

You remember what everyone avoids. Only when all have arrived does the freshest plate go out — not a step early, not a step late.

Five-Colour Tea DumplingsDeep Green

Fresh Soft Fast Solo

Sweet on the Move

FRESH · SOFT · FAST · SOLO

On the metro, at the desk, in an eleven-at-night kitchen. The sweet you want must be ready in three minutes — and owe your body nothing.

Sugar-Free Tea TangyuanOff-White

Fresh Soft Fast Shared

The Night Return

FRESH · SOFT · FAST · SHARED

The stairwell light answers a sound; the soup in the pot is rolling. One bowl down — only then is the day truly over.

Sugar-Free Tea TangyuanOff-White

Fresh Soft Slow Solo

A Slower Sweet

FRESH · SOFT · SLOW · SOLO

You are in no hurry to swallow. Let the tangyuan sit a while longer in the soup, and the returning sweetness travels further — good things can wait.

Sugar-Free Tea TangyuanOff-White

Fresh Soft Slow Shared

The Round of Reunion

FRESH · SOFT · SLOW · SHARED

At the round table you have already counted who is served first and who after. Round things keep no order — that is their kindness.

Sugar-Free Tea TangyuanOff-White

Aged Bone Fast Solo

Fire in the Cracks

AGED · BONE · FAST · SOLO

You have known hard years, so you know a real fire when you taste one. Other eggs are boiled; yours is simmered through — the cracks are roads the fire has walked.

Da Hong Pao Tea EggDeep Brown

Aged Bone Fast Shared

The Ones by the Stove

AGED · BONE · FAST · SHARED

You say little, but you keep sliding the hot things toward everyone else. One pot, a circle of people — the stories start there.

Da Hong Pao Tea EggDeep Brown

Aged Bone Slow Solo

The Fire Keeper

AGED · BONE · SLOW · SOLO

The fire must not flare, must not go out. You keep it like a task only you know how far along it is.

Da Hong Pao Tea EggDeep Brown

Aged Bone Slow Shared

A House Full of Aroma

AGED · BONE · SLOW · SHARED

You smell it before the door opens. What you want is not to eat — it is for the whole building to know: this household has something hot today.

Da Hong Pao Tea EggDeep Brown

Aged Soft Fast Solo

One Within Reach

AGED · SOFT · FAST · SOLO

There is always one in the bag. When the day runs past mealtime, it is the reserve you kept for yourself.

Da Hong Pao Tea ZongziRusset Red

Aged Soft Fast Shared

A Table for the Seasons

AGED · SOFT · FAST · SHARED

Duanwu, the winter solstice, a child's first full month. You remember to leave a mark on the days — nothing grand, only a reason.

Da Hong Pao Tea ZongziRusset Red

Aged Soft Slow Solo

The Patient One

AGED · SOFT · SLOW · SOLO

The rice soaks long enough; the tea simmers all the way through. You know time adds its own points, so you never rush it.

Da Hong Pao Tea ZongziRusset Red

Aged Soft Slow Shared

Four Seasons, One Table

AGED · SOFT · SLOW · SHARED

Four tables a year, the same few faces at each. You are not chasing novelty — you are keeping the table there.

Da Hong Pao Tea ZongziRusset Red

How to read — the four-word code = time · texture · tempo · scene. For example, 「Fresh Bone Fast Solo」 = loves freshness, loves a bite that holds, eats fast, often eats alone. The colour dot on each card is that type's Benming colour — one of the five dumplings.

FIVE COLOURS · The Five and the Sixteen

Five colours
that hold sixteen kinds of people

The sixteen types fall into four groups of taste coordinates, each group landing on one colour; the fifth colour belongs to no type — it is kept for the you not yet defined

Deep GreenFresh · Bone

Bright, with something to bite

4 types
Off-WhiteFresh · Soft

Fresh-sweet, and soft

4 types
Deep BrownAged · Bone

Deep, with an edge

4 types
Russet RedAged · Soft

Settled, and soft

4 types
Mulan OrangeBelongs to no type

Five to a serving — one never labels you

1 dumpling

Five to a serving, four belong to you
one more belongs to the you not yet defined

The five colours come from the Mulan pattern palette; the three fillings are Longjing with sweet corn, rock tea with carrot, pu-erh with sweet potato — whole leaves in the filling, never ground to powder. Four colours go out by taste coordinate; the fifth belongs to no one.

See the Five-Colour Tea Dumplings →

Note: the five colours come from the brand's Mulan pattern palette — five to a serving, one colour each; the mapping of colours to taste coordinates on this page is the brand's own reading, and does not change the product's set colours or ingredients

METHOD · how it is worked out

A preference quiz
that keeps its measure

What we borrowed is a mature structure of personality and preference measurement — not an invented mysticism.

  • StructureFour Dimensions

    A four-dimension, two-pole type scheme, modelled on the classic structure in personality typology — four dimensions, two poles each, sixteen combinations (isomorphic to the MBTI sixteen types). We use the same structure to describe taste, not personality.

  • DimensionsBig Five

    Dimension choice follows the research approach of the Big Five (OCEAN): take the vague thing called personality, split it into a few continuous dimensions that can each be answered on its own, then read a lean on each — instead of labelling the whole person at once.

  • FormatSelf-Report

    Self-report items: each question a situation, four options, weighted between the two ends of a dimension. Answers accumulate, majority sets the lean, and the lean maps to your four-word code and your Benming tea food.

  • BoundariesNot Clinical

    MULAN XU® is a branded test of taste and dining preference — not a psychological diagnostic tool, and it carries none of the validity of a clinical or psychometric scale. The result is not a judgement of your personality, nor life advice. Retake it any time.

Note — the methodology above cites public psychological models and measurement paradigms, to explain the structure of the quiz; the MULAN XU® questions and results are designed by the brand itself, with no affiliation to, or endorsement by, the rights holders of those models.

I

You are recognised

MULAN XU® reads your preferences from your choices — fresh, bone, aged, sweet. Not a label; a profile of your taste.

II

The table is composed

Beyond your Benming tea food: the tea to pair, the ware to serve it on, the temperature to bring it at — all given together. For one, or for a full table, each with its measure.

III

The taste is held

In store or cold-chain to home, one central-kitchen standard and one cold-chain supply present it — one taste, everywhere.