Black

Taiwan

Taiwan's black teas are defined by cultivar character more than any other black-tea family. Ruby 18 (Hong Yu) carries a signature cinnamon-menthol note that makes it immediately identifiable and unlike any Indian or Chinese black; it was bred from a wild Taiwanese assamica crossed with a Burmese assamica. The broader Hong Cha category covers other local-cultivar blacks that are typically lighter and more aromatic than Himalayan-tradition blacks. For a drinker familiar with Darjeeling or Assam, Taiwanese blacks are a genuinely different experience.

teabert, the tealytics teapot, keeper of the kettle

Taiwan's blacks are defined largely by cultivar, and Ruby 18, with its mint-and-cinnamon signature, is the one to start with. Taiwan is better known for oolong, and its black tea has the slightly overqualified air of something made by oolong people on their afternoon off.

Styles in this family

Taiwan Ruby #18 (Hong Yu)

Taiwan Ruby #18 (Hong Yu, red jade) is a named-cultivar black from around Sun Moon Lake in Nantou, a 1999 release crossing Burmese large-leaf assamica with a…

Taiwan Black Tea (Hong Cha)

Taiwan black tea (hongcha) is an umbrella over several quite different teas: the assamica-based blacks of the Sun Moon Lake area, the famous bred cultivar Ruby…

How it's made

The steps overlap in practice; this is a reading order, not a set of separate stages.