It's All About Tea — black tea

Lapsang Souchong – the world's first black tea – is pine-smoked, wild-grown, and is like nothing else. Many love its campfire depth immediately. Others need the non-smoky version as an entry point. This guide covers what Lapsang Souchong actually is, how it's produced in Tongmu Village's Qing Lou smoking houses, and what sets the smoky and non-smoky versions apart. (Read more)

Chinese black tea – Hong Cha (红茶) – is one of the world's most widely produced teas, but it has a different name, a different history, and a fundamentally different character from the black teas most Westerners know. For centuries, Chinese farmers produced hong cha almost exclusively for export. It wasn't until 2005, when Jin Jun Mei sparked a domestic tea renaissance, that Chinese black tea became a tea for Chinese people, too. This is a guide to its history, its types, and what makes it worth drinking.  (Read more)

Does black tea have high caffeine? Not necessarily – and the common belief that green tea is always lower in caffeine isn't true either. Here's what actually determines caffeine levels in your cup. (Read more)

“Black Tea” as it's called in the West, or "Hong Cha" ("Red Tea") as it is called in Asia is well-known as an afternoon tea for it’s mellow and sweet flavor. According to legend, the Wuyi Mountains in northern Fujian, China, is where black tea was first developed. One legend tells of passing soldiers using covered piles of tea leaves as mattresses, thus bruising the leaves and creating oxidation, which gives black tea its dark color. (Read more)

There are six main types of tea: White, Green, Yellow, Oolong, Black (Red) and Pu-erh.

All six derive from the same plant. What accounts for their many differences are the length of time it takes for the tea leaves to become oxidized and the processing style, which can include such methods as roasting, steaming, pan-firing and aging. (Read more)