Did China ever have its own black tea culture?

[mbanu]

Has China ever had its own black tea culture? Every time I look into the history of various black teas from there, I seem to discover some sort of foreign impulse.

Fujian, once famous for compressed tea, fell on hard times as tastes moved to loose-leaf. Attempting to imitate the pan-fired green teas of Anhui, monks in Wuyi supposedly created some of the first Wuyi oolong-style teas by accident.

As an outgrowth of the oolong-style, more heavily oxidized "xiaozhong" (souchong) process tea (withered and dried using pinewood charcoal instead of bamboo charcoal) from Tong Mu in Wuyi seem to have been some of the very first black teas. This was happening in the late 1500s/early 1600s, I think.

Was Wuyi black tea consumed locally? It seems like this was right around the same time that the East India Company discovered tea, isn't it? ("Bohea" is a bastardization of Wuyi, while "Lapsang Souchong" is Lei Xun Xiao Zhong - i.e. smoke-tainted xiaozhong process tea, most likely from damaged ovens.) The Western thirst for souchong also lead (I think?) to the more sophisticated "gongfu" (congou) process of manufacturing black tea.

Keemun was created in 1875 in Qimen, Anhui to cater to the unquenchable thirst of the British for Fujian black teas.

Yunnan black tea was started in 1939 after Qimen was occupied by the Japanese during World War II.

Somewhere along the line, the British started their own traditions in India and Sri Lanka, while the Dutch did the same in Indonesia.

But what about China?

Any info or helpful sources of info would be greatly appreciated!

Edited November 22, 2010 by mbanu (log)

[Will]

I believe red (in Chinese terms) tea has certainly been consumed locally, but I don't have any historical specifics for you proving this conclusively. I do tend to think the idea that Chinese don't consume hong cha locally is false, though.

Certainly, Yixing red tea, which is barely available even as close to Yixing as Shanghai, is consumed by many of the Yixing potters. I believe it's made from the same plants as the locally produced green tea.

And of course, Chinese have their own idea of dark / "black" tea -- not only ripe puer, but lesser known teas from Anhua (in Hunan), Guangxi, etc. But this is totally different from the fully oxidized (but not post-fermented) tea that we call "black tea".

Edited December 6, 2010 by Will (log)