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Black tea, the tea that went from accident to the world

2.6 black tea, the tea that went from the accident

If green tea is the image ambassador of East Asian beverages, then black tea has spread all over the world. From China to Southeast Asia, North America, and Africa, black tea can often be seen. This tea, which was born by accident, has become an international drink with the popularization of tea knowledge.

A failed success

In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, an army passed through Tongmu Village, Wuyi, Fujian, and occupied the local tea factory. The soldiers had no place to sleep, so they slept in the open air on the tea leaves piled up on the ground in the tea factory. These “inferior teas” are dried and brewed and sold at low prices. The tea leaves exude a strong pine aroma.

The locals know that this is green tea that has failed to make, and no one wants to buy it and drink it. They may not have imagined that within a few years, this failed tea would become popular all over the world and become one of the main goods of the Qing Dynasty’s foreign trade. Its name is black tea.

Many European teas we see now are based on black tea, but in fact, as the first country to trade tea with China on a large scale, the British have also gone through a long process of accepting black tea. When tea was introduced to Europe through the Dutch East India Company, the British had no right to rule in Southeast Asia, so they had to buy tea from the Dutch. This mysterious leaf from the East has become an extremely precious luxury in the descriptions of European travelers. It can cure diseases, delay aging, and at the same time symbolize civilization, leisure and enlightenment. In addition, the planting and production technology of tea has been regarded as a high-level state secret by the Chinese dynasties. In addition to getting ready-made tea from merchants, Europeans have the same knowledge about tea raw materials, planting places, types, etc. I don’t know. The tea imported from China was extremely limited. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Portuguese chose to import tea from Japan. However, following Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s extermination campaign, a large number of European Christians were massacred in Japan, and the tea trade was almost interrupted.

In 1650, the price of 1 pound of tea in England was about 6-10 pounds, converted into today’s price, it was equivalent to 500-850 pounds, that is to say, the cheapest tea in Britain at that time was probably sold at the equivalent of 4,000 yuan today / catty price. This is also the result of the drop in tea prices as the trade volume increases. It was not until 1689 that the British East India Company officially contacted the Qing government and imported tea in bulk from official channels, and the price of British tea fell below 1 pound. However, for the tea imported from China, the British have always been confused about the quality issues, and always feel that the quality of Chinese tea is not particularly stable.

In 1717, Thomas Twinings (the founder of today’s TWININGS brand) opened the first tea room in London. His business magic weapon is to introduce different types of blended teas. As for the reason for creating blended teas, it is because the taste of different teas varies greatly. TWININGS ‘s grandson once explained his grandfather’s method, “If you take out twenty boxes of tea and taste the tea carefully, he will find that each box has a different taste: some are strong and astringent, some are light and shallow… By mixing and matching tea from different boxes, we can get a blend that is more palatable than any single box. Plus, this is the only way to ensure consistent quality.” The British sailors at the same time also recorded in their own experience records that they should be vigilant when dealing with Chinese businessmen. Some teas are black in color, and they can tell at a glance that they are not good tea. But in fact, this kind of tea is most likely black tea produced in China.

It was not until later that British people knew that black tea was different from green tea, which aroused interest in drinking black tea. After returning from a trip to China, the British pastor John Overton introduced to the British that there are three kinds of tea in China: Wuyi tea, songluo tea and cake tea, among which Wuyi tea is respected as the first by the Chinese.” From this, the British began It caught the trend of drinking top-quality Wuyi black tea.

However, due to the Qing government’s absolute secrecy of tea knowledge, most British people did not know that the difference between different types of tea was caused by processing, and mistakenly believed that there were separate green tea trees, black tea trees, and so on.

Black tea processing and local culture

In the black tea production process, the more important links are withering and fermentation. The purpose of withering is to dissipate the moisture contained in the tea leaves. There are three main methods: sunlight withering, indoor natural withering and heating withering. Modern black tea production is mostly based on the last method. The fermentation process is to force out the theaflavins, thearubigins and other components contained in the tea leaves, which is why black tea will appear dark red. According to the production process and tea materials, people used to divide black tea into three types, which are Souchong black tea, Gongfu black tea and red crushed tea. It should be mentioned that many people will write Gongfu Black Tea as “Kung Fu Black Tea”. In fact, the meanings of the two are not consistent, and the pronunciation of “Kung Fu” and “Kung Fu” in the southern Hokkien dialect are also different. The correct way of writing should be ” Gongfu Black Tea”.

Confucian black tea and black broken tea are common exports, with the latter mostly used in teabags. As a bulk tea for export, black tea affected not only the United Kingdom in the 19th century. Since Yongzheng signed a treaty with Tsarist Russia in the fifth year, China began to trade with Russia, and black tea was introduced to Russia. For the Russians living in the cold zone, black tea is an ideal warming drink. Unlike the British, the Russians like to drink strong tea, and they will add jam, lemon slices, brandy or rum to large doses of black tea to match Bread, scones and other snacks can almost serve as a meal.

The way the French drink black tea is similar to that in the UK. They focus on a sense of leisure. They will add milk, sugar or eggs to black tea, hold tea parties at home, and prepare baked desserts. Indians almost have to drink a cup of milk tea made of black tea after meals. The method of making it is also very unique. Put black tea, milk, cloves, and cardamom together in a pot to cook, and then pour out the ingredients to make this kind of tea. A drink called “Masala Tea”.

The ideal match between black tea and various raw materials makes it popular all over the world. In the 19th century, in order to ensure the supply of black tea, the British actively encouraged the colonies to grow tea, and began to promote tea drinking culture to other regions along with the gold rush. At the end of the 19th century, Australia and New Zealand became the countries with the largest per capita tea consumption. In terms of planting locations, in addition to encouraging India and Ceylon to compete with each other in black tea planting, the British also opened up tea plantations in African countries, the most representative of which is Kenya. After a century of development, Kenya today has become the third largest producer of black tea in the world. However, due to the limited soil and climatic conditions, the quality of Kenyan black tea is not ideal. Although the output is huge, most of it can only be used for tea bags. raw material.

With the rising wave of black tea planting, how to start their own brand has become a matter for black tea merchants to think hard. In this respect, the winner of the year was without a doubt Lipton. It is said that Lipton is a fanatic who conceives black tea promotion 24 hours a day. Once the cargo ship that Lipton was on broke down, and the captain told the passengers to throw some cargo into the sea. Lipton immediately expressed his willingness to throw away all his black tea. Before throwing away the boxes of black tea, he wrote the name of the Lipton company on each box. These boxes that were thrown into the sea floated to the Arabian Peninsula along the ocean currents, and the Arabs who picked them up on the beach immediately fell in love with the drink after brewing it. Lipton entered the Arabian market with almost zero investment. Given that Lipton himself is a master braggart as well as a master of advertising, the veracity of the story he told has yet to be proven. However, the fierce competition and competition of black tea in the world can be seen from this.

Main species

Keemun Kungfu, Lapsang Souchong, Jinjunmei, Yunnan Ancient Tree Black Tea

 

Souchong black tea

Souchong means that the number is scarce, and the unique process is to pass the red pot. Through this process, the fermentation of the tea leaves is stopped, so as to maintain the aroma of the tea leaves. This process requires that when the temperature of the iron pot reaches the requirement, stir-fry in the pot with both hands. The time must be properly controlled. Too long or too short will seriously affect the quality of tea.

https://www.loopteas.com/black-tea-lapsang-souchong-china-teas-product/

Gongfu black tea

The main category of Chinese black tea. Firstly, the water content of the tea leaves is reduced to below 60% by withering, and then the three processes of rolling, fermentation, and drying are carried out. During fermentation, the fermentation room must be kept dimly lit and the temperature is suitable, and finally the quality of the tea leaves is selected through refined processing.

https://www.loopteas.com/china-black-tea-gong-fu-black-tea-product/

CTC

Kneading and cutting replaces the kneading in the production process of the first two types of black tea. Due to the differences in manual, mechanical, kneading and cutting methods, the quality and appearance of the products produced are quite different. Red crushed tea is usually used as raw material for tea bags and milk tea.

https://www.loopteas.com/high-quality-china-teas-black-tea-ctc-product/

 

Jin Junmei

●Origin: Wuyi Mountain, Fujian

●Soup color: golden yellow

●Aroma: Composite interweaving

The new tea, which was created in 2005, is a high-grade black tea and needs to be made from the buds of alpine tea trees. There are many imitations, and the authentic dry tea yellow, black, and gold are three-colored, but not a single golden color.

Jin Jun Mei #1-8Jin Jun Mei #2-8

 

 

 

Lapsang Souchong

●Origin: Wuyi Mountain, Fujian

●Soup color: red brilliant

●Aroma: Pine aroma

Because of the use of locally produced pine wood to smoke and roast, Lapsang Souchong will have a unique rosin or longan fragrance. Usually the first bubble is Pine aroma, and after two or three bubbles, the longan fragrance begins to emerge.

 

Tanyang Kungfu

●Origin: Fu’an, Fujian

●Soup color: red brilliant

●Aroma: Elegant

An important export product during the Qing Dynasty, it once became the designated tea for the British royal family, and generated millions of taels of silver in foreign exchange income for the Qing Dynasty every year. But it has a low reputation in China, and even changed to green tea in the 1970s.


Post time: Feb-10-2023
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