The area around Jiangsu and Zhejiang has been a traditional green tea producing area since ancient times.
Many famous green teas were born here, the most famous of which are Dongting Biluochun in Suzhou and Longjing in West Lake in Hangzhou.
In everyone's cognition, it seems that Biluochun and Longjing can only make green tea. In fact, in the origin of Dongting Biluochun and West Lake Longjing, not only green tea is produced but also black tea is produced, and its quality is not inferior to that of well-known black tea in China.
Traditionally, because the production of these two black teas is not large, the locals are generally accustomed to drinking green tea, so even in the local area, there are many people who do not know that there are also Biluo red and Longjing red.
Turquoise red
In dongting Biluochun's origin, Dongshan Island and Xishan Island, surrounded by Taihu Lake, local tea farmers have long begun to try to use the process of black tea to process biluochun fresh leaves, called "biluo red".
The shape of Biluo red maintains the traditional shape characteristics of Biluochun: curled like a snail.
The color of dried tea is dark brown, with a little golden, slender curls, and visible fur.
Brewed, the soup is a clear orange-yellow color with a sweet and mellow taste, with a hint of floral and fruity aroma wafting into the lungs.
In the sweltering summer, local tea farmers and fishermen are accustomed to a cup of mellow and elegant biluo red after tea and dinner, to cool off and nourish the stomach, and the fatigue of the day is dissipated.
The season of biluo red production is generally more than that of green tea biluo spring festival, usually from the end of the spring tea season to June.
The raw materials of Biluo red, like Biluochun green tea, all come from the tea green of the small-leaf tea plants of the local group, and all of them are made of delicate bud leaves, so the dry tea is revealed.
Its production technique combines the production method of domestic small leaf kung fu black tea and the traditional process of Biluo spring tea, so biluo red is shaped like biluochun, and has a unique fragrance of black tea.
The emergence of Biluo black tea, on the one hand, enriches the local tea category, on the other hand, for tea farmers, it is also a great thing to make full use of the spring end tea to increase output.
Because the spring tea season in the traditional Dongting Biluo spring is really short, only less than a month. After the Qingming Dynasty, when the temperature is high, the bud leaves will develop quickly, and they can only be made into "fried green". Can be made into black tea, tea farmers have one more choice.
Compared with the traditional Kung Fu black tea, Biluohong has the temperament of "Jiangnan Boudoir": soft, sweet, delicate and long.
Tea lovers who like Biluochun can try the alternative "Biluohong", there will be different surprises.
Longjing red
Longjing black tea, the history is longer than biluohong, and has a very elegant name: jiuqu red plum.
The name has historical origins, and it is said that during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, farmers in Wuyishan and other places in Fujian Province left their hometowns to escape the chaos of war and came to the area of Dawu Mountain in Hangzhou.
They settled down in Hangzhou and spread the skills of making black tea to the local area, because there was a "Jiuqu Xi" in their hometown, in order to remember their hometown, they named it Jiuqu Hongmei.
Jiuqu red plums are produced on the banks of the Qiantang River, in the southwest suburbs of Hangzhou, around Hubu, Shuangling, Zhangyu, Fengjia, Shejing, Shangyang and Renqiao, especially in the Hubu Dawushan production area.
Its dried tea, shaped like a fish hook, the cords are thin and tight, and the grip is hooked to each other in a ring shape, and the color is dark and moist with pekoe.
After brewing, the flowers in the cup are bright red, like red plums in water, and the soup color is orange and red.
Its taste is sweet and refreshing, the aroma is fresh and elegant, and it is a fine product among small leaf black teas.
Jiuqu Red Plum became famous very early, as early as the Republic of China, it sold well at home and abroad, and has repeatedly won the international and domestic exposition awards.
Master Hongyi once praised it as "the color of agate in a white jade cup, and the plum blossom fragrance at the bottom of the red lips and tongue".
Black tea has a history of more than 400 years in China, and it was previously said that it was "red inside the wall and outside the wall", but with the popularity of tea and a more open and diversified consumption environment, the acceptance of black tea in China is getting higher and higher.
Almost all tea producing areas have restored and developed black tea products, in addition to the public familiar Qi Hong, Dian Hong, these small varieties of black tea enrich the black tea variety, but also give tea lovers more curiosity and surprise.
"If we say that the incense of Longjing, the sharp sword qi, is the cold feeling of spring, the fragrance of the biluo spring, then it is gentle and delicate, and it is the smell of the flowers in the cup."