Dark tea
Dark tea has a long history, second only to white tea.
Initially, tea was simply dried and consumed. Over time, a method of processing tea by applying heat to stop enzyme activity, known as pan-frying, was developed. This process led to the creation of green tea, Pu-erh tea, and yellow tea.
Concurrently, by piling the pan-fried tea and allowing it to naturally ferment and age, and then compressing it, dark tea was made.
Dark tea was originally exported to neighboring countries around China, such as Tibet and Mongolia. To facilitate transportation, the tea was compressed.
There are various types of dark tea. They can be broadly divided into those that undergo secondary fermentation by microorganisms after compression and those that do not involve microbial fermentation.
In recent years, dark tea has been reported to have various physiological activities, such as lowering cholesterol, making it an interesting tea from a functional perspective.
Dark tea
