China hong cha
Chinese black tea (hong cha) is the classical tradition from which the rest of the world's black-tea culture derives, and it reads very differently from its descendants. Keemun carries a distinctive wine-and-floral note that no other black tea produces; Dianhong from Yunnan is golden-tipped and malty in a way that resembles but outclasses cheap Assam; Jin Jun Mei is bud-only and expensive enough to separate it from most comparisons. If you are tracking hong cha to contrast it with India & Himalayan or Africa, expect less astringency and more aromatic complexity across the range.
Styles in this family
Dianhong (Yunnan)
Dianhong's character follows directly from its raw material: the large-leaf assamica cultivars grown in Yunnan province, the same botanical source as Yunnan…
Keemun
Keemun (Qimen) from Anhui is the benchmark fine Chinese hongcha: a small-leaf black with a distinctive fragrance the trade calls Keemun aroma, a wine-like,…
Lapsang Souchong
Lapsang Souchong has two distinct identities sharing a name but not a product: the traditional unsmoked Zhengshan Xiaozhong from Tongmu village in the Wuyi…
Jin Jun Mei
Jin Jun Mei is a modern luxury black, created in 2005 in Tongmu inside the Wuyi protected zone, the same village as Lapsang Souchong but unsmoked and made…
Golden Monkey (Jin Hou)
Golden Monkey (Jin Hou) is a tippy Chinese black, traditionally from Fujian and also produced in Yunnan, named for the curled golden buds said to resemble a…
Yunnan Golden Tips
Yunnan Golden Tips is the all-bud, or bud-heavy, premium expression of dianhong, made from the golden downy buds of Yunnan's large-leaf assamica. It is the…
Bai Lin Gong Fu
Bai Lin Gong Fu is one of Fujian's three classic gongfu (carefully made) black teas, and the cultivar is the thing to know: it is built from the Fuding Da Bai…
Yingde Hong Cha
Yingde Hong Cha (Yingdehong) is the black tea of Yingde in northern Guangdong, a relatively modern style built on large-leaf assamica and best known through its…
Tanyang Gong Fu
Tanyang Gongfu is one of the three classic Fujian gongfu black teas (alongside Zhenghe and Bailin), made in and around Tanyang village in Fu'an county in…
Laoshan Black
Laoshan Black comes from one of China's northernmost tea regions, Laoshan on the Shandong coast near Qingdao, and that cold-climate origin is the whole story:…
Zhenghe Gong Fu
Zhenghe Gongfu is one of the three classic Fujian gongfu black teas, from Zhenghe county in northern Fujian, a region far better known for its white tea. It is…
Yunnan Purple Black (Zi Ya Hong Cha)
Yunnan purple black tea (Zi Ya Hong Cha) is dianhong's unusual cousin, made from purple-budded assamica leaf whose high anthocyanin content gives a distinctive…