Lastea - Know more about tea: December 2020

Monday, December 28, 2020

Complete Guide To Yingde Black Tea & Yinghong No.9 Tea

We’ve talked about Da Ye Qing tea in another post. There is a charming tea that also comes from Guangdong, China; it is Yingde Black Tea. It is regarded as the Top 3 Chinese black tea with Keemun and Yunnan Dianhong. Even though it’s not famous as the other two, or you may never hear about it. But you may know Yinghong No.9 tea, which is the class grade in Yingde black tea.

What Is Yingde Blac Tea

History

Yingde black tea comes from Yingde City, Guangdong, China. Everyone knows, Cantonese loves drinking tea very much, and Gongfu Tea Ceremony is also originated here. But all the time, Cantonese has mainly consumed oolong tea and dark tea. Even the local Da Ye Qing tea only gets small market shares. Black tea is not as popular as green tea in China, so people prefer to produce green ones.

However, Guangdong is the main port for foreign trade, and it adjoins Hong Kong and Macao, which is two the colony of British and Portugal until the late last century. European love black tea more; it accounts for a larger share of exports. So it will get more benefits if to produce black tea locally.

Therefore, the local tea factory Hongqi transplanted the big leaf-type tea trees from Yunnan in 1955, kept iteration and optimization, to find the best ones, which can suitable for the local environment and yield high-quality leaves.

In 1959, the tea factory produced the Yingde black tea successfully. Due to the original intention of tea masters is for export to Europe, almost the tea is broken style. Yingde black tea is taken all over the world with its unique floral and quality quickly after publication.

Characteristic

Appearance. No matter the broken tea or the whole leaf tea, Yingde black tea’s dry leaves look tight. But compared to other types of black tea, the color is not so dark and glossy. And it is just like the Moonlight White Tea, one side of the leaf has fuzz; people called it “golden hao.”

Fragrance. The most significant difference between Yingde black tea and others is its unique fragrance. It is a kind of dancing floral, strong, but feeling soft and fresh. After you little sip, this aroma will stay in your mouth, makes you fresh and comfortable.

Tastes. Because also made from the Yunnan big leaf type tea trees, Yingde black tea tastes similar to the Pu-erh raw tea. Its fermentation degree is just right, a little bitter, and astringency. But it will disappear soon due to the chemical reaction with taste bud, and change into sweet. Besides, just like its fragrance, Yingde tea’s taste is also light, not mellow like other black teas.

Benefits. The leaves from big leaf type Camellia Sinensis typically contains more nutrients. So, Yingde black tea may offer more benefits to the human body. Especially the caffeine in tea is much more than other black tea under the same situation. It may do better on the weight loss.

Besides, Yingde black tea contains more tea polyphenols, such as thearubigins and theaflavin. All these rich nutrients make Yingde tea form a golden ring in the infusion easily, which symbolizes the high-quality.

What Is Yinghong No.9 Tea

How The Name Come

Yinghong No.9 tea is much famous than Yingde black tea. It is the top class of Yingde tea, and also the name of the tea trees. Do you know how this strange name come?

We just mentioned these Yunnan tea trees were transplanted to Yingde in 1956. Among them, 22 clonal line seedlings were picked out for optimal cultivation and tested their leaves in 1964. The result shows that the No.17 tea tree can make the best black tea.

Therefore, tea masters cloned this tea tree to yield the best Yingde black tea in batch. And here comes the question, how to named this type of tea to differentiate others.

The number 9 means living long and exalted in Chinese culture. So for the auspicious reason, the tea masters change the No.17 into No.9. Ying means Yingde, and Hong means black tea; that’s how the Yinghong No.9 tea comes. And in the local language, the pronunciation of Yinghong is the same as a hero.

Yinghong No.9 tea ever has its golden age. The state leaders highly recognize its quality after publication, and they help it develop into a public brand. In the west, it is said the British Queen also loves it and even service the guest with Yinghong No.9. And when Mr.Putin on a visit to China, he was full of praise after drinking it.

Development

The tea masters invented almost all Chinese tea from their rich experience. But Yingde black tea had a different born way.

It was created under the direction of the state, a product of the planned economy age. The purpose is to export to the west and earns foreign exchange and helps the economy growing. Due to it was rarely sold domestically, Yingde black teas almost were broken tea at the beginning. This is to cater to western brewing habits.

By the growth of the large black tea producing countries, such as India and Sri Lanka, the natural disadvantage on the distribution channel makes Yingde black tea getting behind in the competition. And due to its shorter history, it not as famous as Keemun, which also comes from China. Yingde Black tea is becoming unknown gradually.

Under this situation, tea masters began to produce whole leaf Yingde tea and develop the domestic market. Even though the Chinese have a low interest in black tea, Yingde black tea still won a group of fans with its excellent quality.

Fortunately, the laboratory which found the Yinghong No.9 tea tree is still running. The scientists keep researching and hope to find out the new tea tree, which is better than Yinghong No.9 and makes Yingde black tea return to its former glory.

The Tea Grades

Most people thought Yinghong No.9 tea is the same as Yingde black tea; that may be a misunderstanding. Like we talked about previously, Yinghong No.9 is a name of the tea tree, a brand, and a Yingde black tea grade.

After years of research, the local tea laboratory has developed more Yingde black tea grades, according to the different picking standard and processing methods.

Yinghong No.9. One bud, the first and second leaves picking standard;
Golden Yinghong. One bud, the first and second leaves picked in spring;
Golden Fuzz Hao. One bud and the first leaf picking standard;
Golden Hao Tea. Only pick the tender bud;

How To Brew Yingde Black Tea

Yingde black tea has a quick dissolve speed. It doesn’t need to steep long; A porcelain Gaiwan or teapot seems to be a good choice.

Pre-heat the teawares;
Add the leaves in, just full of the bottom is just right;
Add hot water, then pour the liquid out quickly. This is for pre-heat and washing the leaves;
Add 95℃ water and steep for 10-15 seconds;
Pour the tea infusion in a fair cup through an infuser to make the concentration balance;
Enjoy;

P.S. Black tea does not need aging to get better flavor and not suitable for storage for a long time. It is best to finish it in a year when it still fresh. The place for storage needs to be dark, dry, and cool. Besides, a cup of strong Yingde black tea will taste better mix the milk, in my opinion.

Keemun Black Tea, Ever Was The Top Black Tea In The World

Even though Lapsang Souchong is back in vogue in recent years, but before that, the most famous black tea from China is Keemun Black Tea. It ever got various international awards, and it was the favorite of the British Queen, even regarded as “The Queen in Black Tea.” Keemun also has a full aroma, and many blended teas took it as the basic.

What Is Keemun Black Tea

History

Keemun black tea comes from Qimen, Anhui province, China, even with a short history, but it’s famous. It is said Keemun was birth during about Qing Dynasty(1875). Before that, Anhui only produces green tea; the well-known one is Huangshan Maofeng tea.

The world was in a tea-drinking trend at that time, but the sales of Chinese green tea was not good, the export sales only take 10%. Relatively, black tea was selling hot and got a higher price than green tea. On this occasion, to produce black tea instead of green seems to be more economical.

So, a local named Hu Yuanlong made financing and organized a tea factory and began producing black tea in the Ningzhou Black Tea ways. In the second year, another man named Yu Ganchen also began produces black tea. But his processing way was imitating the Minnan Black Tea, which from his hometown Fujian.

The local tea plants in Anhui produce high-quality black tea. Keemun black tea is one of the world’s three high-aroma teas; another two is Darjeeling and the Uva tea from Sri Lanka.

Keemun tea was selling hot all over Europe after it was published. Every time the new teas began for sale, people were snapping up. Turkish poet Nazim· Hikmet even praised Keemun in a poem, “I found the aroma of spring, in the Chinese Keemun.”

But if you ask how Keemun get to the top and became internationally famous, it should owe to the various awards it won.

The decisive one was in the Panama World’s Fair 1951, Keemun black tea won the gold award, which made it catch the eyes of people all over the world. In 1987, Keemun won the gold award again in the 26th World Quality Food Competition in Brussels.

Keemun is the only Chinese black tea that won international gold awards twice. What is worth knowing, in all previous Top 10 Famous Chinese teas appraise and elect, Keemun is the only one finalisted as a black tea.

But the pity is, the yield of Keemun black tea was dramatically reduced later because of the war. All the local tea plantations were almost abandoned in 1948; the product only reached 6% of that of 1939. Simultaneously, the new rose up black tea producing countries, India and Sri Lanka, also have greatly affected the Keemun tea export.

After the founding of New China, with the economic zoning helps from the gov and the Soviet Union’s technical assistance, the yield of Keemun black tea recovery. It was awarded as the national gift tea in 1961, then serving Margaret Thatcher in 1982 when she visited Chian. And as a present for visiting the Soviet Union in 1991. Although Keemun keeps won awards a lot in the following time, it can not reach the top it ever been.

Tea Tree Varieties

Qimen is located in the branch area of Mount Huang, warm and rainy, and soil fertile; it was suitable for the tea trees growing. There is growing a unique type of tea tree, Qimen Zhu Leave variety, a medium leaf bush. Even though it can also produce green tea, its quality is much less than black tea.

Characteristics

Keemun black tea can’t be loved by people so much without its various unique characteristics.

Appearance. The whole-leaf Keemun black tea is strip shape; a tight body makes it looks got a weight. The leaves are black, but not dry-dark; it’s glossy. High-quality Keemun may get some golden fuzz(Hao), which looks very conspicuous.

Infusion color. If you make Keemun tea properly, the infusion will show a beautiful amber and crimson color, bright and transparent. Some high-quality products may form a golden ring inside the cup’s wall because of the rich thearubigins content.

Aroma. The most significant feature of Keemun black tea is its full aroma; people called it “Keemun aroma.” Chinese describe this smell as fruit and orchid fragrance. Japanese research found that this aroma mainly comes from the geraniol that Keemun tea contains; the content is much higher than other black teas. And the smell of geraniol is more close to the rose aroma.

Taste. Keemun tea tastes a little astringency just like other black teas, but it will not with bitter. And it will give a fresh and mellow feeling because of the full aroma.

How Keemun Black Tea Been Processing

Keemun black tea mainly processing through three parts, picking, primary processing, and further processing.

There are 4 steps in the primary and more than 10 in further processing. Every step is very complicated and elegant; people describe it as “Gongfu.” So Keemun black tea is also called Keemun Gongfu, one representative of Chinese Gongfu black tea.

Picking

The picking of Keemun tea only doing in spring and summer, and the best time is from April 5th to 15th. This time is the period of Chinese Qingming, and Guyu solar terms, which is best for tea leaves picking. The famous Yuqian Longjing tea was also picked during this period.

In the past, the standard of Keemun tea picking is one bud and first leaf, or one bud and the second, third leaf. In recent years, due to the good sales of Keemun fragrant spiral and Maofeng, the picking standard changed into the tender the better. Especially in the spring season, tea masters typically pick the one bud and first leaf, even only the buds.

Primary Processing

Primary processing is including withering, rolling, fermentation, and drying. Fermentation is the most essential step, which decides the quality of the final products. After roasting drying, the fresh leaves sent out a charming aroma, bodies were rolling into strip shape, and turn into dark-red color from green.

On a traditional industrial model, the tea’s primary processing is typically done by tea farmers themselves. The leaves after primary processing are called raw tea. And the tea factory will purchase the raw tea back for further processing.

Further Processing

It will be more complicated on the Keemun further processing; there are over 10 steps. Tea masters will do the screening, cutting, sieving, re-roasting, blending, and packing to the raw tea. Some steps may be repeated, especially screening. All these jobs are very complex and need to pay extreme care. People describe these jobs as “Gongfu,” that’s how the Gongfu Black Tea comes.

Keemun Black Tea Varieties

With the development of the times, tea masters also keep exploring and want to find a way to make better Keemun black tea.

According to some different processing methods, Keemun tea is classified into two broad headings; traditional Keemun Gongfu black tea and new process Keemun black tea. And the new process Keemun is also classified into the fragrant spiral, Maofeng, and golden needle.

Traditional Keemun Gongfu

The traditional Keemun Gongfu means the tea has been processing in the ways we’ve mentioned, all by manual work. Although some steps will be done by machines now, to produce Keemun Gongfu still a challenging job. So at present, only a few tea factories insist on producing Keemun Gongfu, and the others prefer the new process ones.

Keemun Fragrant Spiral

Keemun fragrant spiral tea was invented in 1996. It combines the processing methods of Huangshan Songluo tea, been second fermented and special rolling during processing. So Keemun fragrant spiral tea much looks like Huangshan Songluo, with a curvy body and a light potpourri.

Keemun Maofeng

Huangshan Maofeng tea and Keemun Maofeng are not the same even though they come from the same place. Keemun Maofeng also references the processing methods of Huangshan Maofeng; you can comprehend it as the Keemun raw tea. Because it has not been fermented enough, so Keemun Maofeng tastes more fresh, even some herbaceous flavor. Besides, most Keemun Maofeng also made from the tender buds.

Keemun Golden Needle

The Keemun golden needle is close to the Keemun fragrant spiral; they got a different appearance because of the different rolling methods. Compare with fragrant spiral, Keemun golden needle’s leaves got a straighter body.

How To Brew Keemun Black Tea

Except for the full aroma, Keemun black tea also famous for its excellent infusion color; people use the word “treasure glow” to describe it. To appreciate the infusion color better, making the tea with glass teawares seems to be a good choice.

Pre-heat the teaware;
Put the tea leaves into a teapot; the ratio of tea to water is 1:50;
Adding hot water, then pour it out quickly. That is for pre-heat the tea leaves;
Adding 95℃ hot water, steep for about 2-3 mins;
Serving;

TIPs: Keemun black tea also suitable for matching milk. But different from other black tea like Darjeeling, Keemun’s infusion is lighter and more transparent. After adding milk, it won’t turn into coffee color but cute pink(it also depends on your tea infusion concentration and how much milk you add.)

Keemun Tea Storage Way

Keemun belongs to the completed-fermented tea, it got a relatively short expiration date, but much longer than green tea, typically is 3-5 years. Generally speaking, Keemun black tea is not like the Pu’erh or white tea, which will get better flavor by a long time aging; it will make Keemun lost its aroma.

So how to store it properly? That is simple. Ordinary Keemun black tea products, no matter whole-leaf tea or broken tea, they all use a sealing bag packing or small independent vacuum package. So what we need to do is just find a tea storage container, which non-smell and with a good airtightness and put the tea product into it.

The place for storing tea must be dark, dry, and low temperature. What needs to pay attention, it’s not recommended for storing tea in a refrigerator. Because it may be affected by the smell of other food or getting damp. For black tea, it is best to finish consuming as soon as possible.

Yunnan Dianhong Tea, A Unique Black Teas With Golden Tips

When we talk about Yunnan, most people will associate it with Pu’erh tea. The senior tea lovers may also know a unique black tea comes from there – Yunnan Dianhong tea. Compared with other common tea types, Dianhong got a fatter, tighter body and a gorgeous golden color. It is said that the British Queen loves its appearance very much, even store it in a glass container for ornamental purposes.

Dianhong is a kind of unique black tea from Yunnan

What Is Dianhong Tea

History

The history of Yunnan Dianhong tea is short; it was invented in the 1940s. Before that, China was the most exporter country in the world. Well into the 20th century, the other tea producing countries like India and Sri Lanka rose sharply and took China’s market. At that time was the beginning of WWⅡ. Aggression against from Japanese also made China’s production reduced.

At that time, the Chinese government sent the tea researcher to Yunnan, where the city far away from war to build a new black tea plantation. That’s for maintaining the tea export, earn more foreign currency for supporting the war.

At the beginning of 1939, Mr. Feng Shaoqiu(A Tea Master) built a tea factory Feng Qing in Yunnan. He successfully produced the first batch tea(16.7 tons) black tea, and named the tea “Yunhong.”

1940, all the black teas originated in Yunnan are renamed as “Dianhong.” “Dian” is Yunnan’s short name, and “Hong” means black tea in Chinese.

Characteristic

It’s effortless to distinguish from Yunnan Dianhong to other black tea. Dianhong tea is almost sold in the whole-leaf tea style, and it got a bigger body. The dry leaves are pitch-black but full of gold fuzz, so it looks like golden tips. The ocular error made by the fuzz color is just like the moonlight white tea, which also comes from Yunnan.

Dianhong belongs to high-end black tea. Most of the tea infusion shows a golden or amber color and sometimes will form a golden ring inside the cup’s wall. This golden ring is because of the rich tea polyphenols like theaflavin in tea, only the high-quality black tea has.

And due to Dianhong is made from the unique local big leaf tea tree, it got a strong flavor but no stimulate. It tastes a little sweet and sticky. It won’t get a bitter taste or intense astringency, except for the low-end product.

Tea Tree

In other regions of China, most black tea made from the small leaf type tea tree. Dianhong is made from a unique big leaf type tea tree, assamica Camellia Sinensis.

This type of tea tree is propinquity to the one that produces Assam black tea in India and belongs to the Arboreal plants. From the name, we may see, the leaves of it are bigger than the common one. So Dianhong tea contains richer nutrients, stronger flavor, and can be brewed more rounds.

How Dianhong Tea Processing

Just like the famous Keemun black tea, Dianhong tea was also processing in a Gongfu Black Tea way. This “Gongfu” means not the same as the “Gongfu Tea,” even though their pronounce is the same. Gongfu tea means a traditional Chinese tea ceremony; you can know more about it here.

And Gongfu Black Tea means a black tea processing method. The process is similar to the Orthodox processing method but more complicated in the further process. So it needs tea masters to pay more attention and work hard to produce higher quality. People called this attitude as Gongfu.

Related Reading: 4 Common Black Tea Processing Methods.

The processing of Dianhong tea has mainly been two parts, Primary Processing, and Further Processing.

Primary Processing

The picking standard of Dianhong tea is one bud, and the second or third leaf. Fresh leaves after picking should take a little withering, then sent in a particular machine for rolling shape, breaks the leaves’ bodies, and let the juice flow out.

After that, place the leaves on a wooden tray, slow fermentation under an environment with suitable temperature and humidity. At this time, the leaves will turn red and give a delicate apple aroma. Finally, drying them with a machine. Unlike other types of tea, black tea is complete-fermented tea, so it does not need fixation.

Further Processing

We call the tea after being primary processing as primary tea. It can be consumed but is not well enough for sale as a high-end product. So it needs to take further processing.

During Dianhong tea further processing, leaves must take sieving, winnowing, stalk extraction, rebake, and blending. The impurities and decaying leaves will be taken off. The good one will be rebaking to improve the flavor and dry again. Finally, classify all the leaves according to the quality and size. The prices have a significant gap in different quality Dianhong tea.

New Process Dianhong Tea

What is worthing to know, in recent years, there is a kind of Dianhong tea sold on the market, and it is said been processing in a new process method.

The difference is this kind of Dianhong tea is drying by the sunlight, and it is not dry enough. It leads to more active ingredients retained in leaves, and it can get more flavor by a long time aging. But the new process Dianhong tastes bitter when it still fresh, it must take aging before consume. And in traditional, black tea is not suitable for aging; it is best to finish it in the year.

Dianhong Tea Types

Dianhong tea will be classified according to different quality and processing methods, here come 7 common types. But their names are similar and easy to be confused about.

Dianhong Broken Tea

Although most Dianhong tea is sold in a whole-leaf tea style, some are still sold as broken teas. The appearance of them is similar to CTC Assam Black Tea, granulous and tiny. The infusion is bright-red, with a significant golden-ring and a full aroma, taste strong and stimulating.

Broken tea can dissolve more caffeine, so people who have a weak digestive and insomnia should avoid drinking. Besides, Dianhong broken tea is very suitable to be flavored with sugar and milk. It got the name”tea MSG” in local.

Dianhong Golden Needle

Dianhong golden needle tea belongs to a newer type; it is named because of its golden and needle-like body. Dianhong golden needle only made from the tender buds, the brew infusion show amber, sending out maltose fragrance. It’s a kind of high-end Dianhong.

Dianhong Pine Needle

The Dianhong pine needle is close relations to the golden needle. The picking standard is one bud and first leaf, so the quality and price are lower, but it is still good. The leaves are gold-and-black. Like the golden needle, the brand “Feng Qing” products are more famous and higher quality.

Dianhong Golden Bud

Same as the golden needle, Dianhong golden bud tea is only made from the tender bud, and it also belongs to high-end products. The only difference is the golden bud leaves are a little curve, not straight like the golden needle. It’s because the processing methods of them are different, and it leads the taste of them also a little different.

Dianhong Golden Spiral

It is effortless to distinguish Dianhong Golden Spiral by the appearance. Its leaves in a spiral curl, full covered of golden fuzz, looks like a snail shell, so got a named golden-spiral.

The picking standard of Dianhong golden spiral tea is one bud and the first or second leaf. The unique appearance is because it took the Biluochun’s rolling method. The brew infusion is golden and tastes mellow.

Dianhong Golden Silk

Dianhong golden silk tea is also made from the buds, but the leaves are thinner, so people called it silk. Due to the different processing methods, the tea infusion shows orange and with a honey flavor.

Wild Dianhong

Wild Dianhong is also called as Ancient Tree Black Tea. From the name, we know it was made from the leaves picked from the ancient wild tea tree(typically over 300 years old.) The leaves of wild Dinghong is bright-black, strip, with less or no fuzz cover.

The ancient tea tree is old and rooted deep, so the leaves contain richer nutriment than the common Dianhong. Its brew infusion tastes a strong sweet flavor and mellow, and it can be brewed many rounds.

How To Brew Dianhong Tea Better

Dianhong is made from the big leaf type tea trees, and most sold in whole-leaf style. So compared with the other black tea like CTC, it can be brewed more rounds. And it only costs a short time to make an infusion, so it’s best to enjoy it with friends.

Pre-heat the teaware;
Take 5-8g Dianhong black tea into a teapot, add hot water, and pour it out soon. This is for pre-heat the leaves;
Add 80-90℃ hot water in, just steeping for 1-2 seconds, then pour the infusion into the fair cup. Here I highly recommend using a glass fair cup, because the Dianhong tea infusion color is really beautiful;
After the third infusion, every time steeping time can increase 3, 5, or 8 seconds, or according to the actual situations;
Dianhong tea is resistant to brew, typically can be brewed over 10 rounds;
If you are brewing with the Dianhong broken tea, you can add some milk, sugar, honey, or lemon slices for flavoring, to make it taster more charming;

How To Store Dianhong Tea In A Proper Way

The traditional Dianhong tea belongs to completed-fermented tea. It is not very suitable for aging, and the expiration life typically is 18-36 months. It’s better to finish consume in the year because every time you take out the tea, it may let the aroma lose. The longer time it stores, the more fragrance it loses.

To store Dianhong tea well is easy. Most Dianhong tea is sold with an aluminum foil sealing package; what you need to do is just put it in a tin container with an excellent airtightness. Cover it well and store it in a dark, dry, cool, and ventilated place.

Related Reading: How To Pick A Suitable Tea Storage Container.

The new process(sun-drying) Dianhong tea, which is trending in recent years, is suitable for aging. A right way aging will let the tea get a brand new and unique flavor.

The method is just like aging Pu-erh tea. The storage container must get certain breathability, better to pick a purple sand can. Package it with a rice paper after covering it, to prevent the leaves from moldy by damp. The storage place also needs to be dark, ventilated, and dry, but the temperature should not be too low. Typically, sun-drying Dinghong needs to aging for one year to drink.