红茶 - Red tea

For more information about the naming tea ,please refer to  Chinese Tea Vocabulary at the footer of the website.

Grade

Song Zhen - 1 tip and 1 or 2 or 3 leaves , Jin Zhen , Jin Si , Jin Ya, Jin Luo - only tips , Gu Shu - older / bigger leaves and Huang Pian ( yellow leaves ) and some tips

Processing

Fujian style with temperature final roast in short time called " Ti Xiang or Gao Xiang  ", like Zhong Guo Hong , Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong which promotes nutty and chocolate sweet notes.

Yunnan traditional style with light withering and sun dried called  " Shai Hong " , promoting fruity notes and suitable for ageing even in less humid environment.

Typical Dian Hong style like Classic 58 tea which is made with light withering and post processed on low temperature roast in order to preserve fruity notes and provide rich tea same time.

Shape

Apart of the loose form also in various shapes are available,  like cakes , bricks , tuo , balls called " Long Zhu ". The reason is not only convenience of storing but also ageing purposes and mostly done with aging ability black teas like Sun Dried " Shai Hong " .

Trees

Generally made of "tai di cha" - tea bushes from plantations like in Feng Qing area or Simao ( Puer ) . In Yunnan , the red tea is also made from older arbor tea trees called Gu Shu Hong Cha.

Varietal

Many varietals like Jin Pu Hao in Ailao Shan and Jing Gu area , Yun Keng Shi Hao from Feng Qing  but also Zi Jiuan or Zi Ya- the purple varietal is used along with Ye Sheng Hong Cha from Camelia Taliensis wild tea trees.

Origin

We generally focus on Yunnan tea , but Fujian also offers large variety of black tea but only from small young bushes. In Yunnan the most famous areas are Feng Qing and Simao  ( Puer ).

Harvest

In Yunnan generally red tea is made of spring , summer or autumn harvest. It is falsely believed that the spring harvest is always the best. Some red ( blacks ) are the better in autumn edition than spring. Also some black teas might take year or two to develop a better taste, so the fresh ones also not always better.

Brewing

Brewing parameters ( volume , amount of tea , time of brewing ) depends on personal taste preference and desired strength of the tea. Temperature is recommended 90 - 100C where lower temperature for more tipsy blacks or light withered sun dried ones and higher for dark oxidized and heavy roasted black teas like Keemun , Zhen Shan Xiao Zhong etc.

In brewing the white tea, the size of the leaf ( grade )  , age of trees ( bush or Gushu ) or shape ( loose / pressed and soft or hard pressed ) factors also need to be concerned.

The products listed below is a representative selection of the elements written above , helping you to understand the differences by trying particular examples.