What is Dark Tea?

Dark tea, also known as Hei Cha, is one of China’s significant tea classifications. It derives its name from the dark appearance it assumes during processing. Predominantly cultivated in regions such as Sichuan, Yunnan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Anhui, and others, it is divided based on geography into Yunnan Pu’er tea, Hunan dark tea, Sichuan Tibetan tea, Guangxi Liubao tea, Hubei Qingzhuan tea, Shaanxi Fuzhuan tea, and Anhui Guxi dark tea.

The fundamental production stages of dark tea encompass withering, initial rolling, pile fermentation, re-rolling, and baking. Typically, the raw materials for black tea consist of coarse and aged leaves. The prolonged fermentation period in the processing imparts an oily black or black-brown appearance to the leaves, giving rise to the term “black tea.” Primarily, dark tea is provided to ethnic communities residing in border regions, earning it the alternative name of “border tea.”

Hunan Dark Tea

Originating from Anhua County in Hunan, it was initially cultivated in the Baohui Garden along the Zijiang River. Over time, production shifted to locations along the Zijiang River, such as Yaqueping, Huangshaping, Xizhou, Jiangnan, Xiaoyan, with Jiangnan emerging as the primary production hub, notably Gaojiaxi and Majiaxi renowned for quality.

Production Process

The raw tea undergoes five processes: fixing, initial rolling, wet piling, re-rolling, and drying. Hunan dark tea presents varieties like the “Sanjian,” “Sizhuan,” and “Hua Juan” series. “Sizhuan” encompasses black bricks, flower bricks, green bricks, and Fuzhuan bricks. “Sanjian” includes “Tianjian,” “Gongjian,” and “Shengjian.” The “Hua Juan” series features “Qianliang tea,” “Bailiang tea,” and “Shiliang tea.”

Characteristics

Tightly rolled, straight and round, with relatively tender leaves and a glossy black appearance. Hunan dark tea demands a rich and mellow aroma with a pine smoke fragrance, no coarse or astringent taste, an orange-yellow liquor color, and a yellow-brown leaf bottom.

Yunnan Pu’er Tea

Renowned globally, Pu’er tea is crafted from sun-dried large-leaf tea leaves in specific Yunnan regions, primarily referring to ripe Pu’er tea when associated with dark tea.

Characteristics of Ripe Pu’er Tea

Reddish-brown or deep chestnut in color, commonly known as “pig liver red.” The tea soup is red, thick, transparent, with a mellow and aged taste, smooth, sweet, and without musty or other off-flavors.

Benefits

Ripe Pu’er tea has a mild nature and offers health functions such as stomach nourishment, stomach protection, warmth, and lipid reduction.

Sichuan Tibetan Tea

Harvested from tea trees above 1000 meters, Tibetan tea undergoes special processing to become post-fermented, characterized by its dark brown color.

Characteristics

Kang brick tea has a rectangular appearance with rounded corners, a flat and solid surface, obvious spraying, and a brown color. Internal quality includes a pure fragrance, red-brown and still bright tea soup, pure and strong taste, and a slightly aged brown leaf bottom. Jinjian tea has a rectangular appearance with rounded corners, slightly tight, without layering, brown color. Internal quality features a pure aroma, yellow-red and still bright tea soup, mellow taste, and a dark brown aged leaf bottom. Kangjian tea has a rectangular appearance with rounded corners, a flat and solid surface, brown color. Internal quality presents a rich and pure fragrance, red and translucent tea soup, mellow and sweet taste, and a brown slightly aged leaf bottom.

Benefits

Antioxidation, reducing the three highs (blood pressure, blood sugar, blood lipids), inhibiting atherosclerosis, anti-radiation, anti-mutation, antiviral, regulating gastrointestinal inflammation, improving metabolism, detoxification, optimizing water quality, and supplementing trace elements and vitamins.

Hubei Qingzhuan Dark Tea

Produced using fresh leaves from high-mountain tea trees, Qingzhuan tea has a production history of over six hundred years in Southern Hubei.

Characteristics

Various grades, with Grade 1 having tight strips, slightly white stems, and dark green color. Grade 2 has strip-shaped leaves, mainly red stems, with dark green and slightly yellow color. Grade 3 has curled and wrinkled leaves, red stems, dark green color with flowers, and tea stems judged by the new shoots of the current year.

Benefits

Qingzhuan tea offers benefits such as clearing the mind, refreshing, generating saliva, quenching thirst, warming to ward off cold, promoting digestion, killing bacteria, and treating diarrhea. Aged brick tea enhances effects.

Guangxi Liubao Tea

A unique product of Wuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Liubao tea belongs to the dark tea category, made through specific processes.

Characteristics

Low-temperature fixing, focusing on shaping during rolling, with wet piling crucial for unique quality. Sticky juice appearance and a unique mellow fragrance indicate moderate processing, making it a post-fermented tea.

Benefits

Known for its betel nut flavor, Liubao tea is warm, relieving summer heat and dampness, clearing vision, refreshing the mind, aiding digestion, and providing a cool feeling in hot weather.

Shaanxi Fuzhuan Tea

Mainly referring to Jingyang Fuzhuan Tea, similar to Anhua dark tea’s Fuzhuan, both belonging to the Fuzhuan category in dark tea with a longer history.

Characteristics

Tight structure, black-brown and oily color, abundant golden flowers, a lasting and unique fragrance, a clear and reddish liquor color, and a mellow, thick, and sweet aftertaste.

Benefits

Jingyang Fuzhuan tea surpasses other tea types in dispelling greasiness, invigorating the stomach, and refreshing the mind. Consumption benefits human metabolism regulation, playing a role in health maintenance and pathological prevention. Fuzhuan tea has unique qualities, unmatched by other tea types, in resolving greasiness, invigorating the stomach, and refreshing the mind.

Anhui Guxi Dark Tea

Also known as “An tea,” it is a traditional tea crafted through semi-fermentation and compression, falling between red and green tea.

Characteristics

Dark black finished product, slightly red and thick soup, offering a fragrant yet astringent taste. Sold domestically in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, and exported to Southeast Asian countries, earning the title of “Sacred Tea.”

Benefits

Modern pharmacological analysis has found that An tea has significant effects such as clearing heat, stopping bleeding, detoxifying, reducing swelling, killing bacteria, relieving thirst, generating saliva, and preventing miasma and evil influences. Consuming An tea is recognized for its beneficial effects on longevity and mental alertness.

Where to Buy Dark Tea?

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