What is Hei Cha
By Valley Green Tea
Posted On September 10, 2018
Hei (黑) translates into black and Cha (茶) translates into tea in English. Hei (黑) Cha (茶) is however not the traditional black tea in the English term. The western classification of black tea is equivalent to the ‘red tea (红茶)’ in Chinese. The Hei Cha is a class of Chinese teas which are largely compressed with a unique characteristic of post-fermentation. They are classically aged, and the quality improves with the increase their age.
The most well known Hei Cha from China include: Fu Bricks, Liu Bao Tea, Tian Jian, and Qian Liang Cha. The Pu-erh teas also post-ferment as well as often compressed. There is a tendency however to categorise them as an independent class as the result of their unique tea plants and rather different processing techniques.
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