It's All About Tea — black tea

Smoky Lapsang Souchong (Zhengshan Xiaozhong) is an acquired taste, much like a ripe pu-erh is. Some people love its deep campfire notes and the warm, comforting feeling the tea provides. Others find these roasted notes too strong and may have unwanted associations with food when drinking the tea. Luckily, for the latter, there is Non-smoky Lapsang Souchong. (Read more)

Japanese black tea is referred to as koucha in Japan. Like hong cha, koucha translates as red tea and is red tea and not black tea. Wakoucha refers specifically to black tea produced in Japan. "Wa" referring to Japan in this context. The properties of Japanese black tea are the same as those of hong cha — it is a fully oxidized tea made from the leaves of camellia sinensis.

In a country that predominantly drinks green tea, black tea production has always taken up a tiny part of the Japanese tea production industry. (Read more) 

Up until the mid 17th century (Late Ming, Early Qing Dynasty), the only teas widely consumed in China were green (unoxidized) and oolong (semi-oxidized) teas.

Nowadays, red tea is one of the most popular and widely produced teas in the world. However, it wasn't always this way.  (Read more)

A common claim is that black tea caffeine content is much higher than that of green or white tea. Many people will always make a choice to drink green tea believing that the caffeine content is much lower. There are also people who say that green tea has zero caffeine. (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)