black tea

The originator of black tea is in China. The earliest black tea in the world was invented by the tea farmers in the Wuyishan tea area of ​​Fujian during the Ming Dynasty in China, and it was named “Zhengshan Small Species”. The Jiang family of Tongmu Village in Wuyishan City is a tea family that produces Zhengshan small black tea. It has a history of more than 400 years.

Zhengshan small black tea entered Europe in 1610. In 1662, when Princess Catherine of Portugal married Emperor Charles II, there were several boxes of Chinese Zhengshan small black tea in her dowry. Since then, black tea has been brought into the British court, drinking black tea quickly became an indispensable part of the British royal family life. In the early London tea market, only the Zhengshan small black tea was sold, and the price was extremely expensive. Only the rich and powerful rooms could drink. Zhengshan small black tea became an indispensable beverage for the British upper class. The British loved black tea and gradually evolved drinking black tea into a noble and gorgeous black tea culture and promoted it to the whole world.

In 1689, the United Kingdom set up a base in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, and acquired a large amount of Chinese tea. Drinking black tea in the UK is more than drinking green tea, and it has developed its unique black tea culture, which is related to the above historical events. Because the teas purchased in Xiamen are semi-fermented teas belonging to black tea - "Wuyi tea", a large number of Wuyi teas have flowed into the UK, replacing the original green tea market, and soon became the mainstream of Western European tea. Wuyi tea is black, so it is called ''Black tea'' (literally translated as black tea). Later, tea scientists classified the tea according to the method of making tea and the characteristics of tea. After the brewing of Wuyi tea, the red soup leaves were red, and according to their nature, they belonged to ''black tea''. But the Englishman's customary name ''Black tea'' has been followed to refer to ''black tea''.