What is Heicha Or Dark Tea?

In most tea related classes or study materials, the most common starting point is the classification of tea into the 6 major categories, namely green, white, yellow, oolong, black and dark tea. Along with yellow tea, dark tea is the most oft neglected category, sometimes being categorized as Pu-er or sometimes being neglected altogether.

To set the record straight, Pu-er is a type of dark tea although it can be debated whether sheng Pu-er is dark tea.

Confused? That’s why you need to read this.

What is dark tea?

Dark tea is also known as post-fermented tea although both terms needs a bit of further explanation which we will get to shortly.

Dark tea is the category of tea that undergoes these steps in processing:

i)   Shaqing- The halting of oxidation by destroying the enzymes in the plant

ii)   Rolling or Shaping- Forming the shape of the dry leaves

iii)   ‘Wodui’ (渥堆)- Using heat and humidity to cause the fermentation of the tea leaves

iv)   Drying- Heating to reduce moisture

Some teas are compressed into different shapes and the sequence could vary depending on which area of production but the fundamentals are as outlined above.

What’s in a name?

Dark tea in Chinese is hei cha (黑茶) which is rightfully translated as ‘black tea’ but since that has already been used to describe the category of tea which is known in Chinese as ‘red tea’ (红茶), the next best translation is ‘dark tea’.

Dark tea is also known as post-fermented tea (后发酵茶). This is based on the ‘old convention’ that teas are ‘fermented’, ‘semi-fermented’, ‘lightly fermented’ or ‘un-fermented’, a topic that you can read more about in this post about oxidation versus fermentation.

In short, ‘post-fermented’ tea is actually ‘merely’ fermented.

How it all began

One common theory is that dark tea first begun in Sichuan, during the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Sichuan was one of the most important depots in the ‘tea horse trade’.

The minority tribes in Tibet, Xinjiang, Gansu, Mongolia and northern China did not have access to sufficient fruits and vegetables as their arid desert conditions were ill-suited for plant growth. As such their meat-based diets were supplemented by teas that were imported from Sichuan and later Yunnan.

These teas were green teas that were compressed into cakes- not unlike the Pu-er cakes of today- and transported on horse-back. Of course being in the Tang Dynasty- circa 8^th or 9^th century- these teas were not vacuum-packed or sealed in opaque airtight packages with oxygen absorbers.

This is further accentuated by the fact that a horseback journey can easily take 2 to 3 months. During the course of this journey, the cakes were subjected to rainfall then sunlight and heating and the process would repeat itself many times over.

By the time the tea reached its destination, fermentation of the tea leaves would have taken place and the tea would taste markedly different from when it first did at point of production.

After sometimes, producers begun to replicate this process through heat and humidity, sometimes splashing water on the leaves outright when the moisture content is insufficient. Through the years, this process was refined into the step we know as ‘wodui’ today.

Common Types of Dark Tea

While the world outside of China is only acquainted with Pu-er, dark tea is actually the 3^rd most produced tea in China after green and oolong tea. Today, it continues to be a favorite among minority tribes although the Han people especially in Southern China has embraced it as well.

Some of the best known dark teas other than Pu-er include Hunan Heicha, Hubei Laoqingcha, Sichuan’s Nanlu and Xilu Biancha as well as Guangxi Liubao tea.

Apart from perhaps Liubao tea and Hunan Heicha, Pu-er is virtually synonymous with dark tea although as I mentioned in the first part of this article, it is debatable whether sheng Pu-er is a type of dark tea.

Shu Pu-er is basically tea made from Yunnan Dayezhong (aka assamica variety) and processed according to the hei cha way- i.e. with ‘wodui’.

This is because in the 60s and 70s, there was escalating demand for Pu-er from Hong Kong. At that time the only known method of producing Pu-er is what is known as sheng Pu-er and that required teas to be aged a minimum of 3-5 years before it tasted palatable.

In order to meet the demands, producers experimented and eventually incorporated ‘wodui’ to mimic the aging process. Instead of 3-5 years, teas could be drinkable within the same year.

More details on the differences of shu and sheng Pu-er can be found in this overview of Pu-er.

So is Sheng Pu-er a dark tea?

Some experts debate whether sheng Pu-er should be considered a dark tea. In the production of sheng Pu-er, there is no ‘wodui’ but a natural fermentation process brought about through age and the right conditions.

Personally I tend to lean towards this argument, especially since sheng Pu-er is a massive beast and warrants a category of its own. The taste profile of well-aged sheng is also quite something altogether even though a well-made Shu somewhat replicates the taste (but not the cha qi).

Nevertheless, dark tea should not be passed over or merely treated as ‘Pu-er’, not least since it’s the 3^rd oldest type of tea in the world- after green and yellow.

See more articles on overviews of various categories of tea