"China Red" Ji Pin Zhongguo Hong Black Tea

Sifu Lao Cha kept eighteen jars in his tea cabinet – one for each cultivar.
– Which one will we use today, Sifu? – a young apprentice asked.
– All of them. A single cultivar speaks; eighteen sing.

"China Red" (极品中国红 – Ji Pin Zhongguo Hong) is a premium Yunnan black tea from Fengqing County, blended from eighteen tea cultivars. The tea is the flagship of the Yunnan Dianhong Group – the most prestigious Dian Hong producer in China. In March 2015, during Prince William's visit to Yunnan, it was presented to him as a gift.

China Red comes from Fengqing, the birthplace of Dian Hong, but it isn't a classic Dian Hong. Dian Hong is made from Yunnan's large-leaf tea trees alone. China Red is a blend. The Dianhong Group's tea masters draw on eighteen different cultivars from their Fengqing gardens, anchored in Yunnan Da Ye Zhong (云南大叶种 – Yunnan large-leaf) and layered with aromatic cultivars from Fujian, such as Mei Zhan (梅占) and Huang Dan (黄旦), plus Yunnan's purple-leaf Zi Juan (紫娟). The large-leaf material gives the cup body and depth; the Fujian cultivars bring the high, lifted aromatics a classic Dian Hong lacks. Together, they create a beautiful melody of taste.

The leaves come from a single high-mountain garden, sitting at about 1,650m, grown on red-yellow mountain soil under near-constant mist. At dawn, only the first-flush buds and youngest leaves are picked by hand while the dew is still on the leaves, so the sun never has a chance to dry them. The finished leaf is straight, dark, and oily, with gold-tipped buds.

The liquor is clear, deep amber-orange, with a luminous gold ring (金圈) along the rim. The aroma is layered and unusually high for a black tea – honey comes first, then sweet bread, then orchid, and a thread of osmanthus underneath. The body is silken and full. The taste is fruity-sweet, with just a touch of malt. It never turns astringent.

This is a rare black tea. Not cheap, but totally worth the price. Probably not a daily drinker, but a fitting tea for a special occasion.

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