Wuyi tea

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Wuyi tea

Wuyi tea ( Chinese  武夷茶 , Pinyin wǔ yí chá ), formerly known under the English trade name "Bohea", is grown in the Wuyi Mountains in northern Fujian , China. The famous teas in the region include the teas known under the name " Four Big Bushes ", which are considered to be the first varieties of the tea bush from which Oolong tea was made. Also Lapsang Souchong , a black tea comes from this region. Historically and to this day, the Wuyi region is a tea-making center in Fujian Province. Here the techniques of partial (oolong tea) and complete oxidation (black tea) of the tea leaves were developed, which made the tea durable for transport and trade.

Oolong teas from Wuyi are also called "rock or stone teas" ( 岩茶 , yán chá ), as the tea bushes are grown on the rocky, mineral-rich soil of the mountain slopes. Because of the lower yield from the tea plants planted in such a site, the resulting tea can be very expensive. Tea made from the leaves of older shrubs is especially rare and expensive. Since Hong Pao, which is said to have been collected from the most pristine bushes of its kind, is one of the most expensive teas in the world. Trade -quality tea that is grown in lower elevations makes up the majority of the Wuyi teas available on the market. Since the 1980s, the original plants have been propagated by cuttings and grown in plantations so that larger quantities could be sold.

history

At the time of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the North Park Beiyuan tea plantation in the Jian'an District in Fujian was the main tea supplier for the imperial court. Founded in the 10th century as a private estate in the then part of the Min Empire , it was nationalized at the time of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) and so remained under the Song. Tea was delivered in the form of pressed cakes as so-called “wax tea” (Lacha) to the emperors of the following Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). However, when Emperor Hongwu , founder of the Ming Dynasty , announced in 1391 that the time-consuming and labor-intensive process of making wax tea “overwhelmed the people's strength” and ordered that the imperial tribute tea be made in the form of loose leaves supposed to be made of cake, tea-making in the northern park collapsed. The center of the tea industry in Fujian then shifted west to the Wuyi region. In the 16th century, farmers in Wuyi began growing tea and indigo on the mountains ; often on lands that belonged to Buddhist or Daoist monasteries. The farmers dug terraces into the slopes and built a system of dams and drains.

During the Ming Dynasty, monks of Songluo Mountain in Anhui developed a new technique to stop the tea from oxidizing by roasting the leaves in a dry wok instead of steaming them as before. Songluo style green tea became popular, and the new production method spread to other regions. In the 16th century, tea makers from Wuyi learned this technique. Eventually, they discovered that if they allowed the tea to partially oxidize before roasting, they could make a darker, more fragrant type of tea. Tea made in this way became known as oolong.

Export to the west

European traders began buying tea in Guangzhou Canton during the 17th century . Because green tea made up the majority of their imports and since the Wuyi region was initially the main source for darker teas, the term “Bohea” (which is based on the local Fujianese pronunciation of “Wuyi”) became an English code name for all dark teas . The modern terms "black" and "oolong" were not yet in use. Over time, a distinction was made between the various dark teas. Lapsang Souchong, a Wuyi tea and possibly the first black tea, was sold separately as "Souchong" for a higher price. The black tea, which was of the highest quality, was named “Pekoe” (from the Chinese term Bai Hao, referring to the fluffy white hairs on the young leaves). The term “bohea” became the term for low quality black tea.

In the 18th century, western consumption preferences shifted from green to black tea. The price of black tea fell significantly during this period, making it cheaper for a larger number of consumers. Bohea tea was consumed in Europe in greater quantities than any other tea. When the Ostend Company began to compete against the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company by importing cheap Bohea tea, the Dutch East India Company responded by expanding its trade from green tea to larger quantities of black tea Teas surrounded, mostly bohea. Since the bohea from the Dutch East India Company was cheaper than the tea offerings from the British East India Company, consumers in the American colonies of Great Britain illegally smuggled Dutch bohea into the country in large quantities. The British Tea Act of May 1773 was enacted with the intention of helping the ailing British East India Company to increase sales of its tea in the North American colonies. The protest against the British trade monopoly and the tea tax led to the Boston Tea Party in November 1773 ; the conflict over the tea trade was one of the triggers of the American War of Independence .

In 1848, the Scottish botanist Robert Fortune went to China on behalf of the British East India Company to buy tea plants. This was part of their ongoing effort to establish a tea industry in colonial India. At the time, it was illegal for foreigners to travel inland China away from the five treaty ports identified by the Treaty of Nanking . Fortune therefore went there in the disguise of a Chinese official and visited tea regions all over China. He smuggled some tea plants out of the Wuyi Mountains and learned from the monks there the entire process of planting, harvesting and processing the leaves in order to make tea himself. Fortune also hired some Chinese workers to help him make Darjeeling tea in Darjeeling .

properties

Wuyi teas are usually dark, spanning the range between black and darker oolong teas, and are typically twisted into thin strips rather than rolled into a ball shape, like oolong teas from Anxi or Taiwan . They are heavily roasted, just like most oolong teas in history, and have a distinctive smoky taste, with a touch of stone fruit.

Notable varieties

Works cited

  • Benn, James A., Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History, Hongkong University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-988-8208-73-9 .
  • Berg, Maxine, ed., Goods from the East, 1600-1800: Trading Eurasia, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. ISBN 978-1-137-40394-0 .
  • Bunker, Nick, An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2014. ISBN 978-0-385-35164-5 .
  • Carp, Benjamin L., Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America, Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-16845-7 .
  • Dolin, Eric Jay, When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail, WW Norton & Company, 2013. ISBN 9780871406897 .
  • Ellis, Markman; Coulton, Richard; Mauger, Matthew, Empire of Tea: The Asian Leaf that Conquered the World, Reaction Books, 2015. ISBN 978-1-78023-464-9 .
  • Harney, Michael, The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea, Penguin, 2008. ISBN 1440642036 .
  • Heiss, Mary Lou; Heiss, Robert J., The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas, Potter / TenSpeed ​​/ Harmony, 2012. ISBN 1607743787 .
  • Hohenegger, Beatrice, Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, St. Martin's Press, 2014. ISBN 978-1-4668-6854-0 .
  • Mair, Victor H .; Hoh, Erling, The True History of Tea, Thames & Hudson, 2009. ISBN 978-0-500-25146-1 .
  • Rose, Sarah, For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History, Penguin, 2010. ISBN 978-1-101-19001-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Harney, The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea , Penguin, p. 20, October 2, 2008, ISBN 1440642036 .2008, accessed November 11, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c d Victor H.Mair, Erling Hoh, The True History of Tea , Thames & Hudson, p. 115, 2009, ISBN 978-0-500-25146-1 , accessed on November 11, 2016
  3. ↑ Michael Harney, The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea , Penguin, p. 77, October 2, 2008, ISBN 1440642036 , accessed November 11, 2016
  4. ↑ a b c Victor H.Mair, Erling Hoh, https://books.google.de/books?id=_TR_PQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y , pp. 116–117, 2009, ISBN 978-0-500-25146-1 , accessed on November 11, 2016
  5. ^ A b c d Sarah Rose, For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History , Penguin, March 18, 2010, ISBN 978-1-101-19001-2 , accessed November 11, 2016
  6. ↑ Mary Lou Heiss, Robert J. Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas , Potter / TenSpeed ​​/ Harmony, pp. 106-107, January 18, 2012, accessed November 11, 2016
  7. ↑ James A. Benn, Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History , Hong Kong University Press, pp. 119–120, April 23, 2015, ISBN 978-988-8208-73-9 , accessed November 11, 2016
  8. ↑ Nick Bunker, An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America , Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, September 16, 2014, ISBN 978-0-385-35164-5 , accessed November 11, 2016
  9. ↑ Victor H.Mair, Erling Hoh, The True History of Tea, Thames & Hudson , p 110, 2009, ISBN 978-0-500-25146-1 , accessed on November 11, 2016
  10. ↑ James A. Benn, Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History , Hong Kong University Press, p. 175, April 23, 2015, ISBN 978-988-8208-73-9 , accessed November 11, 2016
  11. ↑ Victor H.Mair, Erling Hoh, The True History of Tea, Thames & Hudson , p 113, 2009, ISBN 978-0-500-25146-1 , accessed on November 11, 2016
  12. ↑ Michael Harney, The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea , Penguin, p. 118, October 2, 2008, ISBN 1440642036 .2008, accessed November 11, 2016
  13. ^ Markman Ellis, Richard Coulton, Matthew Mauger, Empire of Tea: The Asian Leaf that Conquered the World , Reaction Books, June 15, 2015, ISBN 978-1-78023-464-9 , accessed November 11, 2016
  14. ↑ Maxine Berg, Felicia Gottmann, Hanna Hodacs, Chris Nierstrasz, Goods from the East, 1600-1800: Trading Eurasia , Springer, pp. 266–268, July 13, 2015, accessed on November 11, 2016
  15. ↑ Maxine Berg, Felicia Gottmann, Hanna Hodacs, Chris Nierstrasz, Goods from the East, 1600-1800: Trading Eurasia , Springer, pp. 269–270, July 13, 2015, accessed on November 11, 2016
  16. ↑ Eric Jay Dolin, When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail , Liveright, WW Norton & Company, pp. 68-69, September 10, 2012, ISBN 9780871406897 , accessed on November 11, 2016
  17. ^ Benjamin L. Carp, Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America , Yale University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-300-16845-7 . The majority of the tea dumped in Boston Harbor was Bohea (Wuyi) tea, along with some Souchong and Congou teas. Retrieved November 11, 2016
  18. ↑ Beatrice Hohenegger, Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West , St. Martin's Press, April 22, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4668-6854-0 , accessed on November 11, 2016
  19. ↑ Michael Harney, The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea , Penguin, pp. 93–94, October 2, 2008, ISBN 1440642036 , accessed November 11, 2016