Fengqing Dianhong Black Tea is a classic, mouthwateringly good dian hong. What makes this tea so delicious are the small contributions made by many factors, but what is most important is that its flavor and style is unique and distinctive.

One of the first unique aspects that we liked is this teas enticing aroma, reminiscent of darkly-roasted coffee or bitter chocolate. While we have tasted Yunnan black teas that have had a preponderance of a biscuit or ‘burnt-toast’ aroma, this coffee-ish/cocoa aroma is much more unusual.

 This is an elegant tea, both in appearance and taste. The slender leaves are actually slender buds - sweet and delicious - that are covered in a downy felt which signifies an early spring pluck.

This tea will age extremely well and we expect to store some personally that we won't even start to drink until sometime in mid-2016 or later.

 Southwest China is one of the original locations for the tea plant– and dian hong from Yunnan is one of our favorite types of tea from China. Feng Qing County in Lincang Prefecture is famous for producing delicious dian hong tea. Here, in remote areas, tea bushes thrive in the perfect climate, producing robust raw materials from many different sub-varieties of tea trees and tea bushes which yield distinctive teas in the tea factories. 

This leaf is plucked in the early spring from sub-varietal tea bushes that send out new leaf that is smaller in size than that of other tea bushes in this region. The flavor of this tea has a slight leathery, smoky initial taste, followed by the familiar dian hong biscuit, caramel flavor.

Steeping Tip of Black Tea

 This tea’s leaf is an open spiral, so it should be measured generously, and you should expect it to yield delicious liquid tea over several steepings (using the same leaf). We suggest that our tea enthusiast customers steep this leaf in freshly-heated water 3 times and possibly more – it all depends on how long each steeping is and how you like your tea. The shorter the amount of time the tea is steeped each time, the more times the leaf can be re-steeped.

For iced tea lovers who drink their iced tea black and plain ( sweet tea this is not!), Feng Qing Imperial Dian Hong makes a rich and smooth, delicious iced tea. We steep the leaf in freshly-drawn, newly-heated water 3-4 times, pouring each infusion on top of the last in a glass pitcher. After the tea cools down on the counter, we chill it in the refrigerator. This leaf is rich in amino acids, so will cloud heavily when cool.

NOTE:

Is Yunnan black tea Dian Hong or Hong Cha?

In truth it is both. But to us some Yunnan hong cha are more special than others. It is those teas that we refer to as dian hong.

Terminology for Chinese teas can be very confusing. For example, in Chinahong cha is the term for all 'red' tea -  what we in the West call black tea. It can be used to describe any tea from any of the black tea producing regions of China. For example: one might refer to a Fujian Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong as a northern Fujian hong cha or a Keemun black tea from Anhui Province as an Anhui hong cha.

Conversely, the hong cha teas of Yunnan Province are called Dian honginstead. Dian is an old historical name for parts of today's Yunnan Province, so dian hong is still how Yunnan black tea are referred to. Some say that dian hong should just refer to the modern-style plantation style teas and not the forest teas made from indigenous varieties of old tea bush varietals. We, on the other hand, generally use the term dian hong to mean the opposite. Yunnan has such a long history of producing both Pu-erh and dian hong that we think dian hong should be reserved for tea in the historical since -  the traditional, small village teas made from forest gathered leaf materials.

Steeping Instructions:

Use 2.5 teaspoons (2-3 grams) per 6 oz of water

Steep 1 infusion at 4 - 5 minutes.

(See Steeping Tip)

Water temperature should be 190° - 200° F

About Buy  

·         Black tea

·         Dian hong / hong cha

·         Feng Qing County, Lincang Prefecture

·         Yunnan Province, China

·         Fully-oxidized

·         Orthodox manufacture

·         Buds and buds & 1-leaf

·         Soft, smooth and creamy Yunnan flavor

·         Soft burnt sugar aroma

·         Clear, chestnut-amber colored liquor

·         Will age very well