This content comes from @What's worth buying APP, and the views only represent the author's own |Author: 老衲不老
After reading it, I feel that it is necessary to write a common sense about "black tea", so that more tea lovers can correctly understand the basic knowledge of black tea, so as to know more clearly how to buy dark tea and reduce the risk of being deceived. Hence this article.
The article is long, about 13,000 words, and it takes about 35 minutes to read the full text.
1. Definition and production area
Black tea is one of the six traditional Chinese teas, and it is also a fermented tea in the true sense of the word with the participation of microorganisms in the quality formation process, and is also commonly known as "post-fermented tea".
When it comes to black tea, many people think of the peculiar packaging for the first time, such as a long cylinder, or a unique square brick type, as well as loose tea packaged in a basket, etc., which are very different from the "exquisite" packaging of other teas, and always feel that it reveals a "local specialty" taste, which is also very distinctive, not only the packaging has characteristics, but also the packaging specifications are usually very large, often weighing one or two kilograms, or even larger, which should be the first impression of black tea to many people.
(The "black tea" of different forms are: black bricks, flower rolls, Tianjian, and Ancha)
From the perspective of tea packaging form, black tea can be mainly divided into pressed brick type, pressed basket type, pressed Tuo cake type, pressed column, and non-pressed basket type.
Black tea has a long history, and the earliest written record is found in the third year of Jiaqing in the Ming Dynasty (1524 AD) in the imperial history Chen Jiao Shu: "To business tea low hypocrisy, to learn about black tea." The real estate is limited, and it is still the first and second grade, and the name of the bookseller is examined. Every ten catties of steaming and drying is transported to the tea department, and the official and commercial are divided, the official tea is easy to horse, and the commercial tea is sold" ("Gansu Tongzhi"). The "black tea" mentioned here is the tea that has been steamed and stepped on the bag, which has the characteristics of fermentation, and is undoubtedly the black tea that is spoken of today.
The production process of black tea is more complex, the main processing process is generally divided into "finishing", "rolling", "Wudui", "drying", etc., the details of the black tea process in different production areas are also very different, such as some will increase "re-kneading", the temperature and time of Wudui in different regions are also different, and so on, but among them, "Wudui fermentation" is the most critical processing link, and it is also the most important link in the production process of black tea that distinguishes it from other teas.
(Pu'er ripe tea traditional fermentation workshop)
(Fermentation of small frame off the ground for the innovative development of ripe Pu'er tea)
Wordui fermentation is a kind of microbial led fermentation process, the reason why the flavor of dark tea products in different regions is different, in addition to the different varieties of tea trees, one of the very important reasons is that the standards of their respective "Wodui fermentation" are different, including the amount of pile, pile temperature, fermentation time and other aspects, these differences make different black tea in different stages of the Wodui fermentation process The dominant strains are different, thus bringing different flavor characteristics.
The fermentation time of different black teas varies greatly, for example, Anhua black tea Wudui only takes less than a day (16-24 hours in spring and 8-16 hours in summer), while Pu'er ripe tea takes 45-90 days to ferment. In addition, the Wodui process of black tea can be divided into two types: "dry billet Wodui" and "wet billet Wodui", the former is represented by Hubei Laoqing tea and Yunnan Pu'er ripe tea, and the latter is represented by Hunan Anhua black tea and Guangxi Liubao tea.
(Comparison of Wodui fermentation process parameters of different black teas)
Most of the black tea is the traditional "border tea", the materials are relatively coarse and old, used to exchange horses with the nomadic residents of the border areas, in order to consolidate the political and military power of the Central Plains, that is, the so-called "tea for horses", which is also the origin of the name of the "Ancient Tea Horse Road". Sichuan Ya'an Tibetan tea, Hunan Anhua black tea, Hubei Laoqing brick tea, etc.
When it comes to dark tea, many people may only know Anhua black tea, but Anhua black tea is only a representative of the mainland black tea category, divided by provincial production areas, in addition to Anhua black tea in Hunan, there are also Sichuan black tea (Ya'an Tibetan tea) mentioned above, Guangxi black tea (Wuzhou Liubao tea), as well as Shaanxi black tea (Jingyang tea), Yunnan black tea (Pu'er ripe tea), Hubei black tea (Laoqing brick tea), Anhui black tea (Qimen Ancha).
If we think of black tea as a "family", then this "black tea family" is composed of these seven brothers. As shown in the figure below:
(Schematic map of the distribution of China's "black tea family" production areas Source|Authentic Tea Hunting)
When it comes to black tea, many tea lovers easily think of the "golden flower" of black tea.
"Golden flower", whose scientific name is Coronary Spaniculus, originally appeared only in the "Fu brick tea" in black tea, and is one of the key factors determining the quality of Fu tea. Jinhua is a probiotic that grows naturally under specific temperature and humidity conditions through the "flowering" process, which is an important symbol to distinguish Fu tea from other teas, and the color, density and fullness of its particles are important indicators to judge the quality of Fu tea.
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Due to the different raw materials used in wool tea and the processing habits accumulated over a long period of time, the dark tea from different origins also has different flavor characteristics, forming their own unique flavor characteristics, and on this basis, they are also divided into many varieties of colors.
Second, the color and classification
When it comes to black tea, many people's first reaction is "tea bricks", and it is "all kinds of tea bricks". Therefore, before introducing the specific varieties of colors, we will first popularize a few terms that are easy to be confused: Fu brick, Kang brick, flower brick, and green brick.
The four types of bricks are all relatively common products in black tea, but tea lovers who don't know anything about black tea are easily confused and unclear about their differences. The specific differences between the four types of bricks are as follows:
Fu brick: Fu brick tea, also known as "Fu tea", is basically a brick type, so it is called Fu brick. Because of its unique post-fermentation process, it is endowed with a unique taste, aroma and even efficacy similar to "Poria cocos", so it is called "Fu Tea", and because it is mostly processed in "Futian", it is also called "Fu Tea". Fu tea came out around 1860, when the black hair tea produced in Hunan was transported to Jingyang, Shaanxi Province to build "Fu brick", because the raw materials came from Hunan, it was also called "Hu tea" in the early days (Fran tea friends read out is not "fu tea"). At present, the more well-known tea producing areas include Jingyang in Shaanxi, Yiyang in Hunan, Guan County in Sichuan and other places.
Compared with other black teas, the biggest difference between Fu tea and other black teas is that there is a unique "flowering" process, and the tea bricks will produce obvious "golden flowers" (of course, with the maturity of flowering technology, other black teas and even some white teas can also produce golden flowers). Fu brick tea is probably the earliest black tea product to appear, "Gan, Qing, Ning Shi Luo" contains: "Lanzhou and Hexi like to use Shaanxi tea many brick tea called 'Fu brick', also known as official tea, its leaves are harvested from Hunan, its manufacture in Shaanxi, the leaves are thick and black. ”
Kang brick: Kang brick is a kind of "South Roadside Tea" in Sichuan. In the early days of the South Roadside Tea, there are five colors of "Maojian, Bud Fine, Kang Brick, Jinyu and Jincang", which have now been simplified into two kinds of "Kang Brick" and "Jinjian", the main difference is that the grade of Mao Tea raw materials is different, Kang brick grade is higher, and Jinjian grade is slightly lower. Kang bricks are mainly sold in western Sichuan and Tibet, with Kangding and Lhasa as the center.
Flower Bricks: Flower Tile Tea is evolved from "Flower Roll Tea". In 1958, Anhua County, Hunan Province changed the production method of "flower roll tea" (thousand taels of tea and tea pillars). All three-grade raw materials are used, with a stem content of less than 15%, each piece weighs 2 kg, and the specifications are the same as those of black bricks. The name "flower brick" comes from the shape and pattern of the finished tea, because it is shaped like a brick and printed with various patterns and patterns, so it is called "flower brick". Flower brick tea is mostly found in Hunan Anhua black tea.
Green bricks: Green brick tea, generally refers to the brick-like black tea produced in the Yangloudong area of Chibi, Hubei, and is named because the color of the tea bricks is "blue-black". Green brick tea is generally made of fresh leaves of local tea varieties in Hubei Province as raw materials, and is made into green hair tea by steps such as killing, initial kneading, piling, re-kneading, and drying, and then pressed into a brick type. Hubei green brick tea has been called "Sichuan brick" and "hole brick" in history.
There are many colors of black tea, in addition to the four "bricks" mentioned above, the common ones are Qianliang tea (also known as flower roll tea), Tianjian, Gongjian, Shengjian, Jinjian, Fangbao, Liubao tea, Pu'er ripe tea, etc. Specifically, the following dark tea producing areas are introduced in detail.
3. Hunan black tea: Anhua black tea
Anhua black tea can be said to be the most representative and well-known in the entire black tea family, and it is also the most produced. Basically, when it comes to black tea, most of the time the default is to say Anhua black tea.
Anhua black tea is also a national geographical indication product, and there are seven main varieties of traditional Anhua black tea, namely: three tips, three bricks and one roll.
Three-tip: Jiancha is also known as Xiangjian tea, three-tip, refers to Tianjian, Gongjian, Shengjian, Jiancha is "bulk black tea", the difference between the three is that the raw material grade of black hair tea is different. Tianjian uses first-grade black hair tea as the main raw material, and a small amount is spelled into second-grade black hair tea, which has a strong taste. Gongjian is mainly based on second-grade black hair tea, and a small amount of first-grade and slightly higher first-grade black hair tea is spelled in, which has a mellow taste. Shengjian mainly uses three-grade black hair tea, which is mostly mature leaves, relatively coarse and old, with more stems, and slightly astringent in taste.
(Three-tip tea is packed in bulk with a basket, which is the oldest existing tea packaging method)
Three bricks: refers to bricks, black bricks and tiles, bricks and tiles have been mentioned earlier. Black brick tea, to put it bluntly, is the most "basic" tea brick, without the "brick" flowering process, and the grade of raw materials used is lower than that of "flower bricks" and is not as rich and exquisite as the embossed pattern of the tiles. Compared with Fu bricks and flower bricks, black bricks can be understood as the beggar's version of "plain bricks". Black brick tea generally uses three or four grade raw materials, or has a pine smoke aroma, and the soup color is orange or orange red. The brick surface is smooth, black brown, and free of mold. Dry to a humidity of 11% and bake the package. The traditional size of black brick tea is 2 kg and the dimensions are 35x18x3.5 cm.
One roll: refers to the flower roll tea, which is also the most unique packaging method of Anhua black tea. The fermented tea leaves are packed in a lattice-shaped basket, which also adds zongzi leaves and palm leaves, after several times of twisting, rolling, rolling, pressing, etc., the final pressing is cylindrical, and each roll (column) weighs 1000 taels (36.25 kilograms now), so it is also named Anhua thousand taels of tea. Flower roll tea is mostly stepped on by ancient methods, each process is completed by hand, the operation is complicated, the technical requirements are high, the production efficiency is low, the labor intensity is large, the quality specifications are difficult to be consistent, and the material consumption is also more.
In addition to the "huge" thousand taels of tea, there are now smaller "five hundred taels", "three hundred taels", "one hundred taels of tea", "sixteen taels of tea" and other specifications, which are more convenient to sell.
(Flower roll thousand taels of tea traditional rolling process display: large bar pressing, small bar twisting)
Historically, the earliest flower roll tea was mainly operated by Jin merchants, and in the heyday, there were more than 30 business names operating flower roll tea in Anhua, with an annual output of 3 to 40,000 pieces, mainly sold in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Hebei and Chahar, Suiyuan. Until now, there are still many descendants of the Jin people in the Anhua area.
Flower roll tea is large in size and suitable for long-term storage, but how to dissolve and brew it? The dissolution of flower roll tea is generally divided into two steps: slicing and prying. Slicing is the shape of a long cylindrical shape sawed into a piece by a saw like sawn wood (pictured below), which is usually done by tea merchants, and is more convenient for retail slicing. The flaky pressed "flower rolls" bought by the end consumer can be dissolved with tea needles along the stripe lines, or they can be roughly untied with special "tea tongs" and "tea scissors" before brewing.
(Flower roll tea cut into slices)
The "good raw materials" of Anhua black tea pay attention to "two streams, two mountains, six holes", two streams refer to "Gaoma Erxi", two mountains refer to Furong Mountain and Yuntai Mountain, and six caves (fire hole, fish hole, drifting hole, sandalwood hole, deep water hole, fairy tank hole, collectively known as "six holes") because of neglect, in recent years, it has become a climate. In the eyes of senior tea lovers, the tea of Gaoma Erxi is almost the ceiling of Anhua black tea.
【Gaoma Erxi】
Gaoma Erxi is located in Tianzhuang Township, Anhua County, and is named after Gaojiaxi (also known as Gaojia Creek) and Majiaxi. The area around Gaoma Erxi has an average altitude of 800 meters, and is widely distributed with moraine rocks with a history of 700 million years. The original tea is fat and thick, the meridians are clear, the content is extremely rich, the Ming Hongwu twenty-four years (1391) is listed as tribute tea, has the reputation of "born good raw materials." In recent years, after the discovery of the ban on the tea industry (established in the territory in 1824 in the fourth year of Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty), national archaeological experts and authoritative scholars in the tea industry have verified that "Gaoma Erxi is the location of the Royal Tea Garden".
The traditional drying method of Anhua black tea in history is different from other teas, using pine wood open flame, layered accumulation of humidified blanks and long-term one-time drying method. Traditional roasting using a special "Seven Star Stove", baked with pine wood open flame, not taboo smoke, but very test the master's control of the "heat", the excellent tea master baked black hair tea color black oil, has a unique pine smoke fragrance. Of course, large-scale brand tea enterprises have long adopted more convenient modern dryers, although the flavor of Qixing stove drying is better, but the efficiency is still too low and the technical requirements for tea makers are too strict.
(Anhua black tea traditional "Seven Star Stove" + Masson pine drying process schematic diagram)
4. Hubei Black Tea: Hubei Old Green Bricks
Hubei Laoqing Tea/Green Brick Tea is a characteristic black tea variety in Hubei. The main raw material production areas are concentrated in Puyi, Xianning, Tongshan, Chongyang, Tongcheng and other counties and cities in Hubei Province, and there is also production in Linxiang area of Hubei Province.
Green brick tea is mostly made of coarse and old tea raw materials, and after the processes of killing, rolling, initial drying, re-frying, re-kneading, worrdi, and drying, it forms different quality characteristics from other dark teas. The dried loose tea is called "old green tea", and it is pressed into bricks on the basis of the old green tea, and it becomes the famous green brick tea. In other words, old green tea is the raw material tea of green brick tea. Green brick tea processing can be divided into two stages:
Initial production of hair tea: fresh - spread - finishing - rolling - drying - storage;
Brick tea pressing: material selection - humidification - gathering - fermentation - natural drying - aging - replication - blending - steaming - high-pressure pressing - drying - packaging.
The history of old green tea can be traced back to the Qing Dynasty about 140 years ago, and the "Hubei Tongzhi" recorded: "In the tenth year of Tongzhi (1872 in the Gregorian calendar), the regulations of Chong, Jia, Pu, Ning, Cheng, and Shanshan counties were reformulated to distribute tea, and there were two items of black tea and old tea. "The old tea here refers to the old green tea, which is the raw material of green brick tea.
The most well-known origin of Hubei green brick tea is Yanglou Cave in Chibi Puqi area, and the quality of tea is the best produced in Furong Mountain in Yanglou Cave, so it is also called "Cave Tea".
Yanglou Cave is a thousand-year-old town, tea making has a long history, is the birthplace of green brick tea, to the Ming Jianwen period (about 1400 years), Yanglou Cave town tea industry has been quite developed, plays an extremely important role in the history of the development of China's tea industry, known as "the hometown of Chinese brick tea". During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Shanxi tea merchants opened "Sanyuchuan", "Jushengchuan" and other tea estates in Yanglou Cave, produced hat tea, and later improved the process into green brick tea, because the word "Sichuan" was printed on the tea brick, and the green brick tea was called "Sichuan word brick" again. Nowadays, the "Sichuan" trademark is held by Zhao Liqiao Tea Factory.
("Sichuan brick" produced by Zhao Liqiao Tea Factory)
Hubei's green brick tea and the aforementioned Anhua black tea are the main force in the border tea, and some of them are exported to Mongolia, Russia and other countries. In the mainland, there is a tea trade road that runs through the north and south, that is, the famous "Wanli Tea Road", starting from the southernmost Nanping, Fujian Province all the way north to St. Petersburg in Russia, which is another important international trade route that emerged in Eurasia after the decline of the Silk Road.
On this international tea trade route, Hankou, Hubei Province is one of the three most important distribution centers, and tea from nine provinces, including Fujian, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hubei and Xinyang, Henan, will be transported to Hankou for concentration, and then transported north in batches to the Mongolian and Russian markets. It was also along this trade route that the Jin merchant group from the north sent black/green brick tea from Hunan and Hubei to the nomads of Siberia thousands of miles away for the first time. (For the story of the Wanli Tea Ceremony, you can search for the documentary "The Road of Tea" at station B for in-depth study)
(Schematic diagram of Wanlicha road route)
After brick tea was delivered to the nomads of northern countries and regions, it was mostly used to add milk to make "milk tea" for drinking, and was believed to have the effects of "eliminating food" and "supplementing vitamins".
In addition to green brick tea, some dark tea tea companies in Hubei such as "Zhao Liqiao Tea Factory" also produce a kind of "rice brick tea". Rice brick tea is a kind of red brick tea made by steaming and pressing the end of black tea as raw materials, which belongs to the unique pressed black tea in domestic brick tea, not black tea, and needs to be distinguished by paying attention to it. Like green brick tea, rice brick tea is native to Yangloudong Ancient Town, mainly sold in Xinjiang and North China, some of which are exported to the Soviet Union and Mongolia, and a small amount of them have been exported to Europe and the United States in recent years.
("Juxingshun" brand rice brick tea produced by Zhao Liqiao Tea Factory)
5. Shaanxi black tea: Jingyang tea
When it comes to tea, Jingyang, Shaanxi Province is a place that cannot be bypassed, because the birthplace of tea is Jingyang, and Jingyang is also known as the "birthplace of tea culture".
According to relevant historical data, Jingyang Fu tea first appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty around the year of Emperor Shenzong (1068-1077), and was finalized around the first year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1368), and has a history of more than 600 years.
Jingyang is located in the northwest, under the jurisdiction of Xianyang, not far from Xi'an, the local climate is cold, not suitable for planting tea trees, there is no tea garden, Jingyang to make Fu tea raw materials are basically from Hunan and other places.
Jingyang only makes tea, not tea, and is a transit processing station. The Ming Dynasty royal "to (tea) system Rong Di", in the Xianyang area of Shaanxi Province set up a tea and horse division, "mainly Han tea, lake tea with it", converged in Jingyang, which occupies the geography and transportation convenience, and was inspected separately, made bricks and fermented, and then transported to northern Shaanxi, Gansu and other places where horses were traded.
(Tea maker in a street tea shop in an ancient town in Guanzhong)
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jingyang successively produced "Ma Hesheng", "Tiantaiquan", "Taihecheng" and other trade brand Fu brick tea, which was favored by the market in the northwest region. For more than 600 years, the production area of Fu tea has been in Jingyang, Shaanxi.
(Jingyang is under the jurisdiction of Xianyang City, less than 50 kilometers away from Xi'an City, close to Xianyang International Airport)
During the Qing Dynasty, there was a saying that Jingyang Fu brick tea could not be made in three ways, one could not be made without the water of the Jing River, the second could not be made without the climate of Guanzhong, and the third could not be made from the technology of the Jingyang people. The most important factors should be the local water quality and climate.
On the eve of the Anti-Japanese War, there were still more than 60 tea factories in Jingyang, but most of them closed down due to the war, and there were few left. In 1951, in the form of public-private partnership, Jingyang renovated and integrated the old tea shops and tea shops, and established the Jingyang County People's Fu Brick Tea Factory, and the products were sold to the outside world as "Red Star" brand People's Fu Tea; in 1953, Jingyang Fu Brick Tea Factory was revoked and merged into Xianyang People's Fu Tea Factory. In 1958, the Tea Bureau of the National Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives took into account the reasons that "Shaanxi processing Fu brick tea, there is a secondary transportation of raw materials, which does not conform to the principle of how fast and good the province is", and canceled the Xianyang Jingyang Fu Brick Factory, and the central government ordered that all the tasks of Fu brick processing be handed over to Hunan Province, and since then Qindi has stopped the processing and production of Fu tea.
The tea factory in Yiyang, Hunan Province only produced ordinary black tea before, and the Anhua Jiangnan Brick Tea Factory and Hunan Brick Tea Factory began to trial produce Fu bricks as early as 1942, but due to differences in climate and water quality, the flowering was not good, and it has not been successful. It was not until 1953 that under the help and guidance of Shaanxi tea workers, technicians and professors of the Department of Biology of Wuhan University, after three years of repeated exploration and experimentation, the trial production was finally successful in the Anhua Brick Tea Factory (now Baishaxi Tea Factory) of China Tea Company. Therefore, we can successfully undertake the task of Jingyang tea production transfer. To this day, the main production areas of Fu tea are still Jingyang, Shaanxi and Yiyang, Hunan.
The construction procedure of Jingyang Fu tea is roughly as follows: Mao tea cleaning - cutting and screening - matching and stacking - fried tea cooking sauce - filling and sealing construction - sealing and bundling - hair flower drying - off the shelf inspection - printing and storage.
The golden flower in black tea used to be the exclusive of Fu tea, and decades ago, the golden flower could only be formed naturally, and the demand was very strict, which also caused the preciousness of "golden flower black tea". With the development of modern tea-making technology, tea factories can now attach the spores of S. coronoides to tea cakes or tea bricks through artificiality, and then artificially control the external environment to meet the best reproduction conditions of S. coronoides, and produce golden flowers, so that Liubao tea, ripe Pu'er tea, and even Fujian white tea have appeared "Golden Flower" technology.
6. Guangxi black tea: Wuzhou Liubao tea
Many people know Liubao tea, but what many people don't know is that unlike other dark teas, the traditional sales area of Liubao tea is not the "border tea" in the northwest and southwest border areas, but the "overseas Chinese tea" in the Nanyang region in the opposite direction.
(The origin of Liubao tea, the archway of Liubao Town, Guangxi)
According to the official definition, Liubao tea is a black tea with unique quality characteristics such as red and mellow aging by selecting fresh leaves from Cangwu County group species, Guangxi large and medium leaf varieties and their separated and bred varieties and strains of tea tree (Camellia sinensisL.0.Kunts) as raw materials, processed according to a specific process, and has unique quality characteristics such as red and thick mellow aging. (From the National Recommended Standard Black Tea No. 6 Bao Tea GB/T 32719.4-2016)
The traditional production area of Liubao tea is Liubao Town, Cangwu County, Wuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which belongs to the extension of the Dagui Mountains and is located on the north side of the Tropic of Cancer. There are more than 70 high mountains above 500 meters above sea level, and tea trees grow on the mountainsides or canyons of these mountains.
(Alpine Tea Garden in Liubao Town)
(Liubao Town, Cangwu, Wuzhou, Guangxi: the hometown of Liubao tea)
Cangwu is located in the mountainous forest area, the stream is vertical and horizontal, the vegetation is unusually lush, the forest humus is more, the organic matter content is high, the humid climate makes the local tea tree tea tender and thick and large, the taste is strong and fragrant, the tea picking period is also very long, even from March to November.
Cangwu has a long history of local tea making, and the famous tea expert Professor Zhuang Wanfang and others wrote "Chinese Famous Tea" according to the analysis of the ancient book "Tongjun Lu" recorded data: the production of Liubao tea has a history of more than 1,500 years, and may even be the precursor of Hunan black tea. Of course, this claim is currently only a possible interpretation, and there is no definite evidence.
It is more commonly said that "it flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and at the end of the 19th century, with the inflow of Fujian and Guangdong laborers into Nanyang, the Republic of China entered a prosperous period, and then declined due to war, and in the 21st century, it ushered in another revival because of the prosperous era." In 2011, Liubao tea was included in the list of national geographic protected products, and in 2014, the production process of Liubao tea was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list. In 2022, Liubao tea-making technology became the first item on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in Wuzhou.
The taste characteristics of Liubao tea can be described as: red and rich, mellow, smooth and sweet. After more than 200 years of technical precipitation, a variety of fragrance types have been developed, including betel nut, camphor, glutinous, woody, cane, aged and other fragrance types to meet the needs of tea lovers with different taste preferences. Moreover, in some aged Liubao tea, there will also be "golden flowers" that will appear in "Fu tea", that is, the so-called "Jinhua Liubao tea", and the golden flowers here are also the same as Fu tea, which are all probiotics called "Coronary Spares".
The unique taste and flavor characteristics of Liubao tea come from its unique fermentation process.
Like most other types of tea, the processing of Liubao tea is divided into two major stages: "primary" and "refined". In these two stages, Liubao tea undergoes two fermentations: the first fermentation in the initial production, and the second fermentation is completed in the refining of the Wudui (or the initial steaming and baking pile), and this unique "double fermentation" contributes to the mellow and smooth taste style of Liubao tea. Of course, in the long storage process that follows, there will be a slower third time fermentation.
Generally speaking, as long as you can accept the "unique betel nut aroma" of Liubao tea (in fact, there are indeed many people who can't accept it, just like many people can't accept durian), there is a high probability that you will like his mild taste. To a certain extent, the taste characteristics of Liubao tea are similar to those of ripe Pu'er tea from Yunnan, which is due to the fact that the dimensions are relatively similar, and there are also factors that both use large and medium-leaf tea plants as raw material sources.
7. Yunnan black tea: ripe Pu'er tea
Finally speaking of Pu'er tea.
Generally speaking, when we talk about "Yunnan black tea", we usually refer to "ripe Pu'er tea", as for whether "old raw tea" is considered black tea? There have always been cognitive differences on this issue, and there is no accepted statement even in the academic circles for the time being, so I will not discuss it here.
In order to take care of novice tea lovers who don't know anything about Pu'er tea, I would like to briefly add the basic concept of "Pu'er tea".
Pu'er tea is divided into two types: raw tea and cooked tea, and the basic raw materials are the same, which are all sun-dried green hair tea made from the fresh leaves of Yunnan large-leaf tea trees in the specified production area of Yunnan. The sun-dried green hair tea is directly steamed and pressed into cakes/bricks/tuo, and Pu'er raw tea is obtained. The dried green hair tea is fermented in Wudui to become Pu'er ripe tea, ripe tea is also divided into loose ripe tea and pressed ripe tea, ripe tea pressed tea is the same as raw tea, mainly divided into different sizes of cakes, bricks, Tuo and other shapes, the most common daily is cake tea.
(Pu'er ripe tea cake)
Compared with other brother varieties in the black tea family, the production area of ripe Pu'er tea is larger, and the protection scope of geographical indication production areas covers 11 prefectures (cities) in Yunnan Province, including Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Lincang City, Pu'er City, Kunming City, Dehong Prefecture, Dali Prefecture, Baoshan City, Honghe Prefecture, Chuxiong Prefecture, Yuxi City, Wenshan Prefecture, etc., and the core main producing areas basically cover the three prefectures and cities of Pu'er, Lincang and Xishuangbanna. Of course, if the most well-known origin is definitely Menghai County in Xishuangbanna, so that there is also the "Menghai flavor" that everyone in the Pu'er tea lover group knows.
"Menghai flavor" is a unique taste and aroma of Menghai Pu'er ripe tea. To be precise, it is the sum of the dry tea aroma + tea soup aroma + comprehensive taste and flavor of Menghai Pu'er tea. Some say it's like "seafood", some say it's fresh "earthy", others say it's "moss in the forest", and so on.
The flavor characteristics and quality of ripe Pu'er tea are related to many factors, including but not limited to the origin of raw materials, fermentation water, climate of fermentation place, technical level of fermenters, etc
Compared with other "dark teas", the development history of ripe Pu'er tea is much shorter.
Even if the earliest history of "Fashui Tea" and "Red Soup Tea" is counted, there is a saying that there was fermented tea since 1953, and some people go back to the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, which is only a hundred years. According to the more common saying in the industry, the real Pu'er ripe tea was only officially trial-produced in 1973, and it has only been 50 years now.
Prior to this, Pu'er tea in Yunnan had not undergone "Wudui fermentation" in the strict sense, so it could not be regarded as "ripe tea" in the true sense, and of course there was no such thing as "black tea" (in the official definition of black tea, "Wudui" is an indispensable key process, ("Tea Making")).
As for the old Pu'er raw tea that has been stored for decades, in my personal opinion, it is just a "special" vintage green tea, but this special thing is that it is not like green tea in other regions to "convince people with freshness", but has a magical quality of "the older the more charming".
Of course, it's okay if you say that he is black tea, and it is reasonable to naturally ferment it.
Back to ripe Pu'er tea.
(Taetea Menghai Tea Factory is proud of ripe tea fermentation technology)
Although the development history of ripe Pu'er tea is short, the speed of process development and iteration is very fast, and its influence in the market is not weak at all. Especially in the past ten years, many new technologies and concepts of ripe tea fermentation have emerged one after another, including "off-the-ground fermentation", "small pile fermentation", "bamboo basket fermentation", "bacterio-controlled fermentation", "pure material fermentation" and so on......
Because the traditional fermentation of ripe tea requires a large amount of piling, it is easy to pile up several tons or even more than ten tons of wool tea together for fermentation, and according to the traditional saying, under the same conditions, the larger the pile, the better the quality of the fermented ripe tea. Therefore, it has also led to the use of low-end raw materials to ferment for many years, and it is basically difficult for the higher price of famous mountain and cottage raw materials to appear in the field of cooked tea, because the risk of fermentation of cooked tea is still objective, once it fails, it is several tons of wool tea, if it is a high-priced raw material, the loss is too great, and many tea factories can not afford it.
(Iceland's high-end ripe tea products produced by the well-known brand "Lancang Ancient Tea")
With the continuous development of the new process of Wudui fermentation, especially the emergence and increasing maturity of innovative processes such as small pile fermentation and bamboo basket fermentation, many high-end raw materials from traditional famous mountains and villages have gradually entered the field of ripe tea, bringing more choices to ripe tea lovers who pursue the ultimate.
8. Sichuan black tea: Ya'an Tibetan tea
When it comes to Sichuan black tea, the first thing that comes to everyone's mind must be Ya'an Tibetan tea. Ya'an Tibetan tea is the representative of Sichuan black tea, but Sichuan black tea is not only Ya'an Tibetan tea.
Historically, because the border trade of tea was under the unified control of the government, Sichuan black tea was also called "official tea", and now it is customary to call it more "Tibetan tea" or "side tea". According to different production areas, Sichuan side tea can be divided into "South Roadside Tea" and "West Roadside Tea", among which the most well-known Ya'an Tibetan tea belongs to South Roadside Tea. In addition to Ya'an, South Roadside Tea is also produced in Tianquan, Yingjing, Kangding, Yibin, Jiangjin, Wanxian and other places, and the product form is mainly divided into two types: "Kang Brick" and "Jinjian", which are mainly supplied to Tibet, Qinghai and Sichuan Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and other regions.
(Schematic map of the distribution of Sichuan border tea producing areas, marked by Lao G)
The West Roadside Tea is mainly produced in Guan County, Beichuan County, Sichuan, and the product form is divided into two types: "Fu brick" and "square bag". West roadside tea is mainly supplied to Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan and Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang and other places.
In addition, Qionglai City, located between Chengdu and Ya'an, also produces a kind of "Qionglai Black Tea", which is also a national geographical indication protected product, with a long history, and is rumored to have a production history of more than 1,100 years.
From the perspective of the development history of black tea, the Ya'an region of Sichuan is generally regarded as the birthplace of black tea, with a history of more than 1,300 years, that is, from before the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the Ya'an region began to make black tea, and it is also the earliest area to carry out tea and horse exchanges with the Tibetan people, and it is also the starting point of the Sichuan-Tibet Tea Horse Ancient Road (Ya'an-Lhasa) in the Tang and Song dynasties in the mainland.
(Ya'an Tea Horse Road Memorial Sculpture)
There are two kinds of Mao tea in South Roadside Tea: after the fresh leaves are finished, they are kneaded, piled up and dried, which is called "Zhuangzhuang Tea"; after the fresh leaves are finished, they are directly dried, which is called "Maozhuang Tea", which is somewhat similar to the relationship between "ripe tea" and "raw tea" in Pu'er tea today.
Historically, there are six varieties of traditional Ya'an Tibetan tea: Maojian, Yaxiao, Kangzhuan, Jinjian, Jinyu, and Jincang. According to the grade, it can be divided into two grades, the upper grade is fine tea, with hair tip, fine buds, and Kang brick, and the lower grade is coarse tea, with golden tip, golden jade, and golden cang. Now after streamlining, there are only two kinds of Kang bricks and gold tips, Kang bricks have become the representative of fine tea, and Jinjian has become the representative of coarse tea.
The so-called "South Road" in the South Roadside Tea refers to the passage from Chengdu to the south. The southern roadside tea, represented by Ya'an Tibetan tea, is mainly sold to Kham, Tibet and other regions. The Sichuan section of the Sichuan-Tibet Tea Horse Ancient Road, especially the section from Ya'an to Kangding, is one of the most difficult sections. Because the road is rugged and difficult for mules and horses, this section is all transported by manpower, which also gives rise to a special profession - porter, also known as "back brother" or "back", "tea back", this occupation has continued until 1954 after the completion and opening of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, and then disappeared one after another.
(The "tea back" who made a living from tea continued until the Sichuan-Tibet Highway was opened to traffic in the 50s)
West roadside tea includes the border tea produced in Dujiangyan (Guan County) and northern Sichuan in Sichuan, which is packaged in rice bags. The so-called "West Road" refers to the northwest direction from Chengdu. West roadside tea is mainly sold to Maoxian, Songfan and Li County, Jinchuan and other places in northwest Sichuan, and then sold to various ethnic minority areas in the northwest from Longyou Duhufu (now Hexi Corridor), the route is called Guanmao Song Ancient Road, also known as Songmao Ancient Road, which is another ancient tea horse road.
The traditional West Roadside tea has a square and a circle, the one produced in Dujiangyan is a rectangular bag, called the square bag tea, and the one produced in the north of Sichuan is a round bag, called the round bag tea. Nowadays, after technological progress and evolution, round bag tea is no longer produced, and the finished tea has become two kinds of bricks and square bags.
The raw materials of the West Roadside Tea are more coarse and old than the South Roadside Tea, and the branches and leaves of the tea trees that are harvested in the current year or 1-2 years old can be dried in the sun after being finished, with a lot of tea stalks, which can be said to be the most coarse and old tea.
The people in the border areas of the main sales area are accustomed to boiling and drinking, and the coarse and old raw materials are relatively more suitable. These "Sichuan side tea" are made into milk tea and butter tea in the nomadic areas, and they are also the life tea of the local people.
(Coarse old West Roadside tea)
9. Anhui black tea: Ancha
Anhui Qimen, in addition to the world-famous "Qimen black tea", there is also a special black tea: "Ancha", also known as "Guyi black tea", "soft branch tea", "Huizhou green", "Lizi tea" and so on. In the "dark tea family", the popularity of Ancha should be the lowest, although in recent years, with the limelight of short videos and live broadcasts, Ancha has gradually entered the field of vision of more tea lovers, but in general, it is still a very niche black tea category.
Ancha originated in Luxi Village, Luxi Township, Qimen County, and it is known from verifiable historical documents that the production of Ancha originated in the Ming Dynasty and was relatively mature by the end of the Ming Dynasty. In the early days, most of the Ancha was shipped to the imperial capital area for sale, and during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, because the folk believed that Ancha had the effect of dispelling dampness and eliminating food, the sales area gradually expanded to Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, which was the golden age of the development of Ancha, which lasted for many years until the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, when production was stopped due to war.
After 1990, a small number of tea factories producing Ancha were established one after another, and the production process of Ancha was gradually restored, and it became a provincial intangible cultural heritage project in 2013, and was approved as a national geographical indication protected product in 2014.
(A Brief History of the Development of Qimen Ancha)
Like other dark teas, the production and processing of Ancha is mainly divided into two stages: initial preparation and refining.
Initial production: paving - finishing - rolling - drying;
Refining: screening - winnowing - picking - blending - high fire - night dew - steaming soft - basket loading - strip - drying - encircling.
The processing technology of Ancha is more complex than that of other dark teas, and the time span is also longer, up to 8 months before and after. Some people also summarize the production process of Ancha into four main links according to the season:
Chunsheng: Spread green - pot fried - sun-dried - first carbon roasting;
Summer raising: grading-picking-hand-weaving;
Autumn dew: secondary carbon roasting - night dew - steaming soft - loading leaves and bamboo baskets - into strips - three carbon roasting (foot dry) - beating;
Winter storage: warehousing - slow transformation.
Night dew is the most characteristic processing link of Ancha, the initial completion of the hair tea after a stable period of about half a year, before and after the "white dew" solar term, the tea leaves are spread outdoors all night, to accept the moisture of dew, put away before dawn, this process is also similar to other dark tea "Wudui fermentation" process.
(Ancha is usually packaged in the traditional way of "bamboo basket + hoop leaves")
Another feature of Ancha is the traditional packaging method of "bamboo basket + basket leaves", because it is packaged in bamboo baskets, Ancha is also called "basket tea". And the bamboo basket used is almost all handmade, the woven bamboo basket is generally in the summer, and the bamboo basket is woven after the tea is "boiled", and then dried, so that it can be stored in the future to prevent insects.
Before filling the tea leaves in the small bamboo basket, the leaves are also threaded side by side with bamboo skewers and placed in the bamboo basket, and then the high-temperature steamed and soft Ancha can be stuffed into it and pressed tightly. When drinking, tear off a few pieces of the packaging leaves and brew them with the tea leaves, which has a unique flavor.
There are different sizes of bamboo baskets for tea, generally half a catty (250 grams) or one catty (500 grams). After loading the basket, it is necessary to "form a strip", that is, to bundle 6-8 small baskets into a strip (4-6 catties), similar to Pu'er tea 7 cakes into a mention. After the strips are formed, the final roasting and drying is carried out, and finally there is a "wrapping", that is, several strips of Ancha are wrapped in a layer of large-sized hoop leaves, and the whole piece is surrounded by bamboo strips.
(Ancha's unique packaging form: blue - into strips - around the fence)
The old tea customers who really love Ancha like "Lao Lu'an", but the real Lao Lu'an has very little survival, and most of them are returned from Hong Kong, Taiwan or Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, etc.), among which there are many imitations of antique and old tea in other regions, and those who don't understand or don't buy blindly.
10. About the "efficacy" of black tea
When it comes to tea, Chinese like to talk about "efficacy" very much, and the most talked about effect is black tea. Almost every book about black tea, or every merchant who sells dark tea, will talk about various "effects of dark tea" intentionally or unintentionally, as a driving force for buyers to complete their purchase behavior.
The "efficacy" of black tea may be mentioned the most by everyone is what "antioxidant", "food and greasy", "fat reduction and weight loss", "three highs", "regulate the stomach", "prevent cardiovascular disease", "dampness", etc., so that there are some special functions that sound "very magical", and many tea merchants also like to use this as a marketing gimmick to promote and guide consumers to buy.
From the perspective of various professional research results, it has indeed been proved that tea, especially dark tea, has a variety of "health care functions", but as a consumer, I personally recommend not to pay too much attention to "efficacy", but to focus more on "taste and taste" in purchasing decisions.
When buying tea, good taste is the first criterion.
As the only post-fermented tea deeply involved by microorganisms, black tea has unique taste characteristics, mainly mellow and smooth, and because of the low content of tea polyphenols, it is less irritating to the stomach than other teas.
Regarding the views on the "efficacy" of tea, I have also shared it in the previous article, and if you are interested, you can read the old article.
In short, in my concept, the first attribute of tea is "drink", not "medicine" and "health product".
11. Purchase suggestions
The rapid development of various online shopping platforms, especially live e-commerce, has made it more convenient for us to buy tea, but convenience does not mean easy. If you want to buy a good tea, you still need certain purchase skills.
1. Clarify the category: When buying dark tea, you must first clarify what kind of black tea you want to buy, as mentioned above, different black tea varieties in different production areas are very different in taste and quality, if you don't know which one you like, it's best to find an opportunity to try them all;
2. Clear characteristics: After determining what kind of dark tea to buy, it is important to be clear about the quality characteristics of this type of black tea, such as aroma characteristics, taste characteristics, grading standards, etc., so that it can be verified and judged in the purchase process;
3. Determine the budget: any tea has different quality and price positioning, most of the time the quality is proportional to the price, although the price of black tea is not high compared to other teas, but if you want to buy really top quality black tea, especially the excellent storage of vintage tea, you still need a relatively sufficient budget.
4. Choose a brand: Black tea is a tea category with relatively complex processing technology, especially the fermentation process of Wudui often requires years of experience accumulation and cultivation of fermentation environment, and the selection of well-known brands is often more quality assurance.
5. Quality judgment: It is mainly based on the performance of the tea itself to make a preliminary judgment, such as whether the packaging is complete, free of dirt and no damage, whether the appearance is clean and even, whether it is oily, whether the aroma is pure and long-lasting, whether there is no miscellaneous taste, whether the soup color is transparent and bright without impurities, and whether the taste is mellow and full......
Before you don't have enough cognition and understanding of a tea, give priority to well-known brand products with historical heritage, rather than emerging Internet celebrity brands that are good at online streaming advertising, keep in mind the common sense of the market economy of "you get what you pay for", reduce the "low price and high goods" mentality, and do the above, to a large extent, you can avoid most of the pits of buying tea.
Finally, we must beware of suspected pyramid schemes such as "dark tea investment" and "paid distribution", and we must beware of sellers who are full of words such as "efficacy" and "appreciation".
(Examples of well-known brands of dark tea in different production areas, for reference only)
*Some references in this article:
The third edition of the "13th Five-Year Plan" textbook of the Ministry of Agriculture, Xia Tao, China Agriculture Press, 2021.06
Anhua Black Tea, Wu Xiang'an, Hunan Science and Technology Press, 2008.04
"Tea Source Geography: Anhua", Tea Ceremony New Life, 2018.10
"Liubao Tea Grand View", Ma Shicheng et al., Lijiang Publishing House, 2016.10
The official websites of tea companies of well-known dark tea brands
Some published academic papers/journal articles/self-media articles, etc., are not available.
(Note: Some of the pictures in this article are from the Internet, which are only for text to aid understanding, no business, invasion and deletion)
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