Dark Tea or Hei Cha

Dark Tea or Hei Cha is one of the six categories of Chinese tea, which has undergone microbial fermentation from several days to many years. The tea-making process of Hei Cha generally includes four main steps: kill green (or application of heat), rolling, fermentation and drying. According to geographical distribution, Hei Cha is mainly classified into Yunnan Puer Tea, Hunan Anhua Hei Cha (including Fu Cha, Black Brick Tea, Qian Liang Cha, Sanjian), Hubei Green Brick Tea, Sichuan Tibetan Tea, Anhui Guiyi Dark Tea (An tea), Guangxi Liu Bao Tea. Each location has its own unique tea bush varietals with different treatment of fermentation and storage conditions to create different types of Dark Tea. 

Hunan Anhua Dark Tea was started around 1524, when merchants spotted the big profit margin in trading Sichuan Tibetan Dark Tea to Tibet.  In order to cop the shortage of Sichuan Tibetan Dark Tea production, in 1959, the Ming emperor granted the right to produce Dark teas in Anhua county and sell directly to north-west of China, Mongolia and other parts of Central Asia. There are few main types of Hunan Anhua Dark Tea, such as Fu Cha, Black Brick, Qian Liang Cha, San Jian Cha, etc.