"China Red" Ji Pin Dian Hong Black Tea

Sifu Lao Cha kept eighteen jars in his tea cabinet – one for each cultivar.

– Which one will we use today, Sifu? – young apprentice asked.

– All of them. A single cultivar speaks; eighteen sing.

Yunnan red tea (滇红 – Dian Hong) was born in November 1938 when a tea master, Feng Shaoqiu (冯绍裘), arrived in Fengqing County in Lincang and made the red tea (what we call “black tea” in the West) out of leaves from the native large-leaf trees. Bright in the cup, deeply honeyed and malty – nothing else in China tasted like it. Within a year, the tea was being exported to Hong Kong. Within a few decades, Fengqing was known across the country. The craft itself is now registered as Chinese national intangible cultural heritage and, since 2022, has been inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

This tea, called "China Red" (极品中国红) to celebrate the color of the Chinese flag, is the flagship of the Yunnan Dianhong Group – the most prestigious Dian Hong producer in China. It was developed in 2007 and, in March 2015, was presented as a state gift to Prince William during his visit to Yunnan. What sets it apart from other Dian Hong teas is that it isn't a single-cultivar tea. 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 smaller-leaf varietals such as Mei Zhan ( 梅占), Huang Dan (黄旦), and Zi Juan (紫娟). The large-leaf material gives the cup its body and depth; the smaller-leaf material brings the high, lifted aromatics. Together, they create a beautiful melody of taste.

The leaves come from a single high-mountain garden, sitting at about 1,640 meters, grown on red-yellow mountain soil under near-constant mist. Only the first-flush buds and youngest leaves are taken, picked by hand at dawn while the dew is still on the leaf, so the sun never has a chance to dry them. The finished leaf is straight, dark, and oily, with the 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.