Dark Tea

This is a less well known category of tea and, no this is not some sort of evil tea. The term black tea is literally translated as black tea, but we already used that term for what would have literally translated as red tea. Translation trauma aside, this category of tea includes a small number of pressed or fermented teas that include: cooked puer, liu an, and liu bao teas. Liu An and Liu Bao teas are sometimes referred to as basket teas because they are often pressed into a small woven basket. We have a number of cooked puers in our collection, one liu an, and one liu bao. The tea is fermented using methods such as pile cooking. Pickling is another technique where lactic acid bacteria is added to very wet tea. There is also a hybrid of these two methods. Other dark teas from different areas in China include: Fu Zhuan, Lao Qing Ye, Nan Lu Bian, and Xi Lu Bian.