Dark tea gets its name due to dark brown color. It is deep-fermented. The longer it stores, the mellower it tastes. Raw materials of Dark tea are rather coarse and old to make condensed tea.
The black condensed tea are mainly sold to Tibet, Mongolia and other border areas, thus it is named "frontier-selling tea". It is the essential drinks for minorities. Yunnan Pu'er tea is rather precious.
Place of Origin
It is mainly produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, Hubei and Hunan Province.
Tea processing
Fixation:
The leaf of Dark tea is crude and old with low water content. So it needs high temperature to fry it rapidly. Turn it over quickly and regularly until the grass is eliminated and the aroma sends out. Then the color will turn dark green.
Rolling
The original material of dark tea is crude and old, so it's better to roll when it is hot. The tea is modeled in the principles of light, gentle, short-time and slow rolling. It is generally ok when the tender leaves turn to strips and the rough old leaves turn into winkle piles.
Fermentation
Put the rolled tea into piles and keep certain temperature and humidity. Cover it with a piece of humid cloth or gunny bag. After a certain time of fermentation, and turn it over for once or 2 times, the leaf color will turn from dark green into yellow brown.
Drying
Dry it in the baking method or sun-cured method. Fix the tea shape and quality to prevent the tea from going bad by final drying the tea to from the unique oily black color and pine-smoky aroma.
Dark tea boutique
Pu'er tea, Liupu tea, Auhua Dark Tea, unfermented Tuo Tea, etc.
Recognizing
Shape
Good quality of dark tea is clear, stout and has regular tea bars but free of impurities.
Color
The dark tea and condensed tea of over 10 years look red brown or brown with shiny luster. The condense tea is uniform and regular, featured with neat edges and corners, clear veins, uniform faces, and proper tightness. The inferior smell other odor and looks rather obscure, dark with red even with mildews from the surface.
Aroma
Dark tea and condensed tea of over 10 years are in an old taste, but not in the musty or tidal taste. There is a saying about Dark tea that is "old instead of mold", that is to say the old taste will gradually disappear while the musty taste stand for the deterioration of tea because of improper storage.
Liquid
The liquid is bright red and thick. Dark tea turns from light yellow to purple red if stored and fermented. The longer it stores, the thicker the tea aroma is. It won't turn to black. Dark tea with insufficient storage is green and yellow while the deteriorated dark tea is brown, black and turbid with suspensoid.
Taste
Sweet and thick taste, and old fragrance.
Effects of dark tea
First, Dark tea is rich in vitamins and minerals. For people who are addicated to meat and lack of fruits and vegetables, it can replenish essential minerals and various kinds of vitamins for human body.
Second, caffeine and amino acids in dark tea can help the body digest and regulate fat metabolism. Caffeine's sitmulating effect can enhence the secretion of gastric juice, increasing the appetite and promoting the body to digest.
Third, Dark tea has great fat-degradation and anti-clotting effects. It also has the function of decompression, softening blood vessels and preventing cardiovascular diseases.
Fourth, rich in polysaccharides, dark tea has the function of reducing the lipids and the peroxidase activity in the blood.
Fifth, dark tea also has antioxidant and anti-aging effects.
What is condensed tea?
Condensed tea mainly takes dark tea and black tea as materials. It is a kind of brick-shaped or lump-shaped tea after typical condensing and drying. Most of the condensed teaa is coarse and old. Its dry tea is black and brown. You need to boil the tea. It is convenient for long transportation, resistance to moisture, and easy to preserve. It tastes mellow. This kind of the is very popular in the minority areas, for the shephers often eat meat and need to drink tea to help digestion and fat decomposing. The condensed tea releases lots of tannin to greatly facilitate digesting.