Chinese Black Tea

Black tea, known in China as red tea, is the most common product produced by our favorite Camellia sinensis plant.   It’s the most consume type of tea in the world; however, it is the least popular style in China.  The quality range is also greater than any other tea grown.  It is the Chinese black tea that is known for its highest quality compared to the other mechanically harvested and grown in places like India, Sri Lanka and Kenya.

There is a lot of debate among tea scholars as to when black tea was actually invented.  But everyone definitely agrees that tea appeared in the Chinese market by the 16^th century.  Obviously for that to happen, the origin of tea production had to have gone back farther.

There are those who argue that black tea was created during the beginning of the Ming Dynasty around 1391.    Tea drinking in general had become accepted in Chinese society but was traded in the form of tightly compressed tea cakes.  These teas were considered worth their weight in gold.  At its peak, the tea trade was very well known for its wealth and corruption.

At the beginning of the Ming dynasty, under the rule of Ming Hong Wu Lian decided to put a halt to the corruption by ordering the end of the production of the tea cakes.  With the production halted, the monasteries that produced tea were stuck with tea and nothing to do with it.   The Wu Yi Shan’s monasteries began attempting to try pan-friend loose leaf green tea.   They were never successful because they could not get the teas to stop oxidizing.  This is typical of black tea.   Thus green tea was created by the time the 16^th century rolled around.

Fun history, no?  Are you a fan of black tea, dear readers?

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Blue Tea

Don’t panic! The tea is not really blue!  But it is a type of oolong.  It is actually partly oxidized mix of green and black tea collectively grouped as qīngchá (Chinese: 青茶; literally “blue-green tea”).

But that’s only a part of the category that is oolong.  What is oolong? Why is it so special?  According to some the oolong is considered to be the most complicated tea produced.  One tea master, Lin Zhi, likened tea to painting.    He compared oolongs to oils paintings, green tea to Chinese ink paintings and black teas to water colors.

The word Oolong (or Wulong) comes from the Chinese word 烏龍 meaning ‘black dragon tea.’

There is a legend that during the Ming Dynasty, there was a ban on tea production for about 150 years.  The tea makers essentially had to find different techniques. There were some (likely Buddhist monks) who had invented charcoal roasting techniques in drying their teas.  This slow charcoal roasting along with the oxidization became the defining flavor of Oolong is today.

If you have to look at oolongs more literally, green tea is one extreme while black tea is the other.  Oolongs are the ‘middle ground’ of teas, so to speak.  Greens are not oxidized; black is completely oxidized while the oolongs are everything in between.  The complexity of the tea is due to the fact that oolong is not completely oxidized like black teas.  There’s not even an exact science as to how much the tea can be oxidized to be considered oolong.  The range is anywhere between 15%-75% oxidation.  Because of this fact, the flavor of oolongs is never officially consistent.  The flavors have been known to wood and thick with roasted aromas, green and fresh with a bouquet or sweet and fruity with honey aromas.

The combinations are mind boggling.  But I love the idea of a tea flavor being a form of roulette, you never know what kind of flavor you’ll get.

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Chinese vs Japanese Green Teas

In the beginning there was a plant.  A green plant. Well…Green tea.   Grown in either Japan or China, this plant is harvested the same way but when it comes to the processing, there are differences:

Chinese – these green teas are mainly roasted or oven dried or sometimes steamed.  Other times the methods are combined.  Some examples are Biluochen (roasted then oven), Zhuyeqing (all three methods) or Houkui (simply ovened).

Japanese – is mainly steamed because it allows the tea to maintain its bright green color and more attractive.  There are sometimes that the tea is pan-roasted.

There are also a lot of varieties in the Chinese green teas.  There are about nine different shapes like loose balls (Dragon Pearls), tight balls (Gunpowder), or gently curled (White Monkey Paw).  There are those with flowers and fruits and others have jasmine.  It is also said that Chinese teas are more likely to be hand-processed instead of made in a factory; however that is only speculation.

Japanese green teas only come in two varieties: needles shaped pieces (Sencha and Gyokuro) and powder (Matcha).   There is also a type of green tea (Sencha) that is mixed with roasted rice that is quite popular in Japan.  It is called Genmaicha.  It is said that it goes quite well with stir-fried foods.

There is also the geographic variety between the teas.  In China, green teas are grown in 15 different provinces while Japan is not big enough to have 15 different provinces.

Who would have thought that there would be such a difference in green teas?  Here’s a challenge: the next time you go to buy green tea, try to found out its origin.  Is it Chinese?  Is it Japanese? Then consider and compare the flavors, do you notice a difference?

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This morning’s cup is a Keemun Needle from PeLi Teas.

Keemun’s are great because of their chocolatey textures and unique flavorful brews. This tea is no different, and I’ve come to expect such quality from PeLi Teas’ products. Even those in bags and/or sachets.

The aroma is light, every so slightly insinuative of the astringency within. The flavor is also light, punctuated with chocolatey textures and a nicely elongated tail.

Morning Cup #38

What’s in your cup?

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Huangshan

This green tea (also known as Huangshan Maofeng) is grown in the mountains of Huangshan (which translates to Yellow Mountain) in the Anhui province of China.  The rest of the tea’s name is derived from the furry down that is found on the bud when picked.  Once brewed, the tea becomes a yellow liquid that is well known for its flowery flavor.  It is said to have a gentle flavor of apricots and orchids.

The legend of this tea’s origin is actually a love story.

There was once a beautiful young tea picker.  She had fallen in love with a young and handsome scholar and he, too, was in love with her.  Their love was not meant to be.  A wealthy landowner saw the tea picker one day and became mesmerized with her beauty.  He knew that he must have her.  He went to the tea picker’s parents and convinced them to allow him to marry their daughter.  On the night before her wedding, the beautiful tea picker snuck out of her house and ran to her lover’s home.  She had wanted to see her handsome scholar at least one more time before she was wed to another man.  When she arrived at the scholar’s home, she was horrified to find that her lover had been murdered by the wealthy landowner.  The tea picker managed to find her lover’s grave.  She sat at the grave and wept.  She wept for days and nights until eventually she turned into the rain itself.  She continued to rain onto the grave until the first Maofeng tree grew.  The scholar’s body had become the tree.

What do you think of this story, dear readers?  Like any other myth on tea is full of magic and mystery.  I think it is a beautiful story.

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