Black tea is fully oxidised. Fresh leaf is withered, rolled to break the cells, left to oxidise until the leaf turns copper-brown, then dried. It was invented at Tongmu inside Wuyishan, Fujian — Lapsang Souchong is the first black tea on record — and the Fujian congou method that followed, seen in Tanyang Gongfu from Fu'an, is the ancestor of orthodox black tea worldwide.
步骤
Withering
Withering at dusk01
子
叶子失去了湿度，变得足够柔性，无法破碎。
Rolling
Rolling02
滚动
滚动会破裂叶子细胞，聚合酶和汁，开始氧化。
03
03
氧化
Rolled leaf rests in a humid room until it turns copper-brown. This is where black tea's colour and character form.
烤肉
Drying over charcoal04
干燥
Heat stops oxidation and brings moisture down to at or below 7.0%. Traditional Tongmu Lapsang Souchong is dried over pine smoke; the unsmoked version is dried without.
Sorting
Sorted lots05
类型和等级
福建红茶按品名与采摘标准分级（金骏眉为纯芽采摘），而不是按印度与锡兰茶所用的字母等级体系。
福建红茶
茶叶
产地
备注
Lapsang Souchong
桐木，武夷山
First black tea on record; smoked or unsmoked — specify
Jin Jun Mei
桐木，武夷山
只有子；金尖
Tanyang Gongfu
福安 宁德市
孔哥风格；历史性福建出口黑色
01
Guide
Where is Chinese black tea growing?
Central Asia. Black tea into Uzbekistan more than doubled year-to-date in 2025 by an industry count, and total Chinese tea into Uzbekistan reached 29,217.4 tonnes for the year, up 17.3%. Fujian congou styles answer that demand. Black tea was USD 28.05 million, or 9.18%, of Fujian's export value in 2023.
02
Why did black tea appear, and why is it linked with Britain?
Black tea emerged in the Wuyi mountains of Fujian, where fully oxidised tea such as Lapsang Souchong was being made by the seventeenth century. It kept its flavour on long sea voyages better than green tea, and as British demand grew it became the tea of the British market.
In the nineteenth century Britain established tea plantations in India and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, which is why Assam and Ceylon are so closely associated with black tea today. Chinese black teas such as Lapsang Souchong, Jin Jun Mei and Tanyang Gongfu remain the style’s original source.
Black tea is not an herb: it comes from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, the same plant as green and white tea. Yerba mate is a different plant, Ilex paraguariensis, so mate is not black tea, though both contain caffeine.
What does black tea look like?
Dry black tea is dark brown to black, as twisted whole leaves, fine tippy leaves with golden buds, or small granules in CTC tea. Brewed, it is red-brown to deep amber.
What is black tea in Morocco and Egypt?
In Egypt, black tea is the everyday tea, usually brewed strong and sweet, sometimes with mint. In Morocco the national drink is mint tea made with Chinese green tea, and black tea is a much smaller part of the market.
Why is black tea called red tea in Japanese as well as Chinese?
Japanese names it kocha, “red tea”, for the same reason Chinese calls it hongcha: both name the tea after the red-brown colour of the brewed liquor, while English names it after the dark dry leaf.
