Red Tea, Expensive as Gold

The History of Red Tea

Red tea became commercially with ethnic groups on the borders of China tea leaves obscuring green. During Qing Dynasty it was as expensive as gold. In the year of 1732, the governor of the province of Yunnan, Eertai, sent Pu-erh as a tribute to the emperor and it began to be very famous, and has been marketed in Europe for two hundred years.

Red tea was known as a beautiful tea in European countries and loved by the royal families of both Eastern and Western kingdom. These raw teas were from diverse backgrounds and were meant to be inexpensive. Dark teas are still the main drink for ethnic groups in southwestern border. Until early the year of 1990, it was the third major category of tea produced by China especially for this market segment.

There had been no standardized process for darkening of Pu-erh to the post-war years in the 1950’s, where there was a sudden increase in demand in Hong Kong, due to the concentration of refugees in the continent. In the 1970s, the process of improvement was brought back to Yunnan for further development, which has led to different production styles today.

In recent decades, it has become more common in tea oil to be sold as a finished before it gets dark product. This is called Sheng Cha, or "crude tea". Tea leaves are supposed to be gradually darkened by exposure to environmental elements during storage. Those who are truly post-fermented type is given a name relative or Cha Shu "matured" tea. Pu-erh appropriate selections can mature to acquire a better flavor and becoming a perfect drink for your tea time.

Not all Red teas are Puerh

It is a fact that the area Pu-erh teas is the largest producer worldwide today, but not the only, so the red Puerh would become only a range within the fermented teas and aged. In China, we found other regions have also developed this technique and even as we see other countries trying to copy the ancient Chinese tea secret.

Red teas from other regions of China and even other countries are still a rarity in the world of tea and while the amount of red tea consumed in the world actually comes from the area in Yunnan. But we must note that, not all red teas are Pu-erh, and not all Pu-erh are red teas.