Speaking of black tea, I believe that many people are not strangers, black tea is because the color of the tea soup it brews is dark red, so it got its name. However, because the vast majority of Chinese people are still accustomed to drinking green tea, people do not know much about the varieties, origins, transmission history and the formation of drinking habits of black tea. The following are described separately:
01. Black tea varieties. The varieties of black tea are distinguished according to the production method and the output product. Although the classification standards on the market are not consistent at present, there are only three recognized varieties:
One is a small variety of black tea. Small black tea is the oldest black tea and is also the originator of other black teas. Other black teas have evolved from small black teas. According to the origin of raw materials and the different smoking processing methods, it is divided into two products: Zhengshan small species and Outer Mountain small species. It is divided into Zhengshan small species and Outer Mountain small species, both native to the Wuyishan region of Fujian.
The second is Kung Fu black tea. Gongfu black tea is a strip tea, which basically does not destroy the integrity of the buds and leaves in the production, and forms strips after kneading. Gongfu black tea production area is very wide, many products, generally named after the place name of its products, Keemun black tea is the most famous kung fu black tea in China, belongs to one of the world's four famous teas, it and Sri Lanka's Uba tea, India's Assam black tea, India's Darjeeling black tea is the same name.
The third is red crushed tea. According to its appearance, red crushed tea can be subdivided into leaf tea, broken tea, slice tea, and end tea, and the production area is widely distributed, mainly for export. In recent years, with the progress of tea processing technology, there is an instant black tea in red crushed tea, which uses pure natural tea raw materials, through modern biological extraction technology, the essence of tea is extracted and concentrated, and then dried and sprayed into granular solids, which can be quickly dissolved in water solid drinks.
02, the spread of black tea. The spread of black tea originated in the 17th century during the Age of Discovery in the West. From that time on, Europe began to import black tea from China, which led to the real black tea. According to historical records, the exact time when Europe began to import black tea was in 1610, and black tea was first brought back to Europe by the Dutch, so the history of drinking black tea in Europe should have begun in the Netherlands.
03. European tea drinking culture. The real influence on black tea drinking is British high society. In the 17th century, the breakfasts of the British high society were very sumptuous, and the lunch was relatively simple, while the social dinner did not start until about 8 p.m., and people used to eat snacks and drink a cup of tea around 4 p.m. One of them, a countess who knew how to enjoy life, anna maria, sent a maid to prepare a pot of black tea and snacks for her every afternoon, and she felt that this feeling was really good, so she invited friends to share it. Soon, afternoon tea became popular in British high society.
There is another way to say that it is more interesting. It is said that at that time, the British materials were still relatively scarce, even if it was high society, lunch was not enough, in order to offset the hunger, the upper class people could only drink some black tea, eat some refreshments, but also used to pass the time. One after another, people thought it was fashionable and spread it as a fashion.
The history of black tea drinking is more interesting. China produces black tea, but what they drink is green tea, not black tea; Europeans do not produce black tea, but have hundreds of years of drinking history, black tea has become a typical wall flowering wall outside the incense. However, with the diversification of domestic consumption, more and more people are drinking black tea today.