History of red tea

My understanding of red tea was that it was created in Africa, I think southern Africa, and it was called Rooibos meaning red bush. But I could be wrong. Maybe that's why they don't drink red tea. Plus it's not really a tea since it doesnt come from the tea plant.

I was actually talking about the tea which the Chinese call red tea, and which is called black tea in the West.

Black/Red tea is roughly 100 years old and was a sort of happy accident, it was not invented with anyone in mind. The story of modern day Keemun is that of an accidental change in the processing of green Keemun. Green tea has a much longer history in China than Black/Red and must be more wrapped up in their traditions and culture. The Book of Tea talks about which types of tea are favored in asia and why, it's a very interesting book, highly reccomeded!

Was it red tea at all that

I think the first tea Europeans drank was green but when given the choice the European culture with it's different taste preferences must have been really taken with Red/Black tea. Then in the ninteenth century when India really took off as a tea growing region the Europeans were able to process tea however they wanted, (the processing of tea had been unknown to the Europeans for a long time) black tea was their main choice.

Thank you for the answer. Now I have checked the matter in John C. Evan's excellent book, "Tea in China: The History of China's National Drink", and it looks like black/red tea has been around at least in the past five hundred years. According this source, black/red tea was developed sometime during the Ming Dinasty (1368-1644), explicitly for export purposes. It was the same time when the use of tea bricks was replaced by loose tea as we know it today. Loose tea compared to brick tea traveled badly and was easily spoiled. Ming teamen developed the process of fermenting the leaves, thus producing a more robust and rot-proof tea that they called red tea. This tea was only ment to be exported to the "barbarian lands", like Manchuria, the Chinese themself disdained black tea.

In 1644 the Manchus came to power in China. They preferred to drink black tea with milk, and this habit spred quickly to Europe, together with the first shipments of tea. From the above follows that the Europeans most probably received black/red tea from China.

Gyorgy

Tea fermentation methods were established in China by 1600. The Portuguese in the late 1500's in China describe it as a 'chaw' ingested orally and not infused. Black tea was used in 1600's to survive 18 month sea trips. A 1660 newspaper advertisement describes it a leaf with humidity removed by drying in the shade and stored in iron skillets. The English terms Bohea for black tea and Hyson meaning green tea was used by 1700. When black tea drinking became popular in Europe it became popular in China. By the 1860's and Clipper ships voyage of 100 days oolong is brought to England.

Jim

Gyorgy Sajo rose quietly and spake the following:

Except, the Dutch started importing tea almost 50 years earlier.

It's more likely that this habit spread quickly to England, which started importing the beverage around 1650.

Wow, great info! Thanks for correcting me. I always thought red tea was a much more recent invention and I never knew it was only invented for foriegners. What dates does that book attribute to the other styles of tea?

You are right about the Dutch being the first to import tea to Europe, and that in pre-Manchu China they possibly did not experience the habit of drinking black tea with milk. However, according to my source (Evans' book), some fifty years later they were the first to introduce it to Europe:

"Manchu-style milk-tea had astounding repercussions; in fact, it became the most popular tea outside of China. (...) Following the publication of a descripition of the Dutch Embassy of Captain Moor Mautzuiker, Peter de Goyer, and Jacob de Keyser to China on August 8,

1656, which spoke of adding milk to tea, the novel Melkthee [English: milk tea] appeared at fairs in Holland and Friesland. From there it gained the rest of Europe."

Great info, thank you. Do you mind if I ask you about your sources? I am not mistrustful, but I have not yet found a good and detailed book about the history of the tea in Europe. I could not find any detailed information about which kind of teas were imported to Europe since

1610 and in the following two centuries.

Does it apply to semifermented teas like oolong, too? I would love to know, where and when those teas first appeared in China.

BTW it is interesting, that while you can read a lot about the history of green tea in China, there are scarce informations - if any - about the origins and the history of oolong, black/red and puerh teas.

Thank you, Gyorgy

Have drinking of black tea ever been popular in China?? My sources say just the opposite. (Save the drinking habit of the Manchu ruling class, who was not Han Chinese, but of Mongolian origin.)

There are no other dates. Curiously, despite of a very thorougly researched book, with a welth of information about the history of green tea, a deep knowledge of Chinese history and society, tea trade and cultivation from the earliest days until today, the author does not seem to have any knowledge of other teas than black and green! In the chapter where he discusses the processing of tea in more recent time, he mentions only black and green tea manufacture. In the whole book there is virtually no mention of oolong, white, yellow teas or puerh. Very puzzling.

Gyorgy Sajo rose quietly and spake the following:

Works for me.

I have the same kind of ambivalence about the Evans book. He's obviously a smart guy with a good sense of how the world works. He's done a lot of research, and I, for one, learned quite a bit by reading his book. But tea in China is a vast topic, and it's a small book. I suspect he wrote about what he was interested in, and non-green, non-red was outside his experience.

Also (I could be wrong here, for I don't have the book handy - it's lent to a friend) I suspect he doesn't speak or read Chinese, and I don't remember reading anything in the book indicating he'd actually

*been* to China.

/Lew

Here is an ebook that is usefull "Tea Leaves" Leggett, 1900

Jim

What made black tea popular in China was the European addition of a handle to the teapot. Initially the Chinese imported the adaptation then copied and exported. Essentially the Chinese realized if black tea was good enough for the Europeans it was good for them. I don't know of any breakdown statistics for current green-oolong-black consumption in China. I'd say the Chinese supermarket brand selection is less for oolong than green-black. Brand name oolong for the English markets has essentially dried up. Even when it was available it was more expensive than the other two. The Chinese oolongs are cheaper than the Taiwan oolongs at my local tea shoppe. It could be the relatively high European price is due to domestic consumption which is certainly true for Taiwan. I've been drinking a wonderful Taiwan Orange Blossom (flowers) oolong from my local tea shoppe.

Jim

Space Cowboy rose quietly and spake the following:

Now that sounds absolutely tasty.

I agree. After reading the book, I have got an impression af a smart all-round guy, who can write about just anything under the sun, provided that he is allowed to do a substantial research on the topic. The book mentions that he has also written on ancient and medieval European topics, which are quite far off from the history of tea in China. On the other hand I do not think that he is a tea aficionado, maybe not even a tea drinker, which could explain his ignorance or ignoring of discussing topics, that are very essential parts of the tea drinking tradition in China, and which are also well-known facts to many Western tea aficionados.

True for both. However, he admittedly used a number of Chinese sources, as in the Acknowledgments he thanks his Chinese "principal translator", who has "spent hours pouring over Chinese texts", and "used an extensive invisible network of family ties and relations to procure texts he thougth would interest" him.

If you've got an extra $700 buy The Tea Industry by Nick Hall

It's in our metro library system as a reference but across town but one of these days .... If you want to write a book use Lexus\Nexus and conduct a few phone interviews.

Jim

Just some Google factoids. I did verify the etymology of British tea terms once. The history of tea in Europe is nothing more than the history to the Dutch and British East Indies trading companies. Shipping records are still available from the first voyages in the

17th century and insurance records from Lloyds of London in 18th century. Early imports of mainland oolongs in 1860's were replaced by Formosa oolong by end of the century.

Jim