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Dianhong tea

1.History of Dianhong

Dianhong tea was developed and produced around 1938 by Feng Shaoqiu and Zheng Hechun in Yunnan province, China. Before that time, Yunnan is a famous place of production for only Qingmao tea which is a green tea. Feng realized that in western Yunnan, the weather is mild across the year, it never snows and there is ample rainfall. Due to these characteristics, the collecting season of tea leaves is particularly long: it lasts from early March till the end of October, which gives them 9 months of collection and a good amount of production.

The first batch of Dianhong tea comes in a scale of 500 "dan"(a Chinese measurement unit. 1 dan equals to roughtly 50 kilograms). However, only 32 workers are involved in the production and processing. During the production process, the workers used tea processing machines that are made from baboons and roasted the tea leaves manually. That batch was transferred to Hong Kong, and later exported to the rest of the world. This process of production is supported by The Old Chinese Tea Corporation and Yunnan government since Feng and Zheng are employees of The Old Chinese Tea Corporation.

2. Natural geographics

production area

The main production area of Dianhong tea situates at the south-west of Yunnan, west of Cang river, east of Nu river. This area is mainly composed of alpine and gorge with an average altitude of above 1000 meters, and is divided into Fengqing county, Menghai county, Lincang county, Shuangjiang county.

production environment

The area has a subtropical climate, which gives it an annual average temperature of 18 to 22 celsius. The annual precipitation is between 1200mm to 1700mm. Due to the mild weather, ample rainfall and the forestry that produces dead leaves that fall to the ground, the soil is particularly nutritious. This then helps tea leaves to grow robustly.

3. Drinking Dianhong

Due to the natural environment, the Dianhong tea leaves have a fine quality. And drinking Dianhong has a set of benefits including helping with people with a "cold stomach", a Chinese pathological concept that indicates a type of people who get stomachache when eating something "cold."

To drink Dianhong, there are several steps:

1. Wash the tea leaves: put 5-8 grams of tea leaves in a cup, pour hot water, 80-90 celsius degree, into the cup. Rinse the tea leaves for up to 5 seconds and pour the water out.
2. Brew: pour hot water into the cup, and brew the tea for up to 15 seconds, then drink the tea. To avoid stirring the tea, it is suggested that one should pour water steadily by the cup wall. With every extra brew, keep the hot water for 5 more seconds.
3. Drink: filter the tea and pour them into small teacups. Quickly drink the tea to keep the scent.

You can drink the tea solely or with milk and sugar. This is a defining quality of Dianhong because unlike some other black tea in China that does not blend well with sugar, Dianhong does and it fits western taste better, which makes it an international tea.

4. Economical significance

According to Feng, the creator of Dianhong says, the English Queen once put the Dianhong tea leaves in a glass cup to appreciate its form. This happens becasue when Dianhong was born, the Chinese economy has a booming exportation. At that time, most of the Dianhong production was transported to Hong Kong and then to the western countries such as U.K. and the U.S. This trend to exporting Dianhong continues today, since it is considered a gourmet tea and fits the western appetite. Though it is not always mentioned, Dianhong makes it to the top 3 exported tea in China in 1994 and it creates huge economical value.

Today, Dianhong turns from several process factories to a multinational corporation. The Dianhong Corporation is among Chinese best 500 beverage producers with an annual production of more than 5000 tons of tea. The tea trees have created an enormous amount of jobs and trade values throughout these years.

5. Cultural value

While the economical value of Dianhong is widely acknowledged, there is not much investigation for cultural meaning beneath the name of Dianhong tea. It is often referred as "Chinese black tea" instead of "Dianhong" internationally, thus not much credits are given to Dianhong tea. In China, Dianhong has a rather short history as a type of tea in comparison to Qimen, Dahongpao, so it is difficult to develop a historical or cultural idea for it.

Nonetheless, Dianhong represents a key characteristic of the Yunnan people. The Pu people, which are the men living in Yunnan in ancient China are recorded to be one of the first men to know how to harvest and drink tea.