Dark Tea

Green tea is precious for its freshness and tenderness. People usually pick the shoot tips or one-shoot-one piece leaves as material, because leaves become inferior or bad when they grow up. But this is not always the case. With oolong tea people choose one-shoot three-or-four-piece leaves. Dark tea is even more special because with it, the rough old one-shoot-five-or-six-piece
leaves are selected. But dark tea has its own indispensable characteristics and is also loved by lots of people.
Dark tea is invented by accident. In history, in order to meet northwest ethnic groups' requirements for tea, leaves produced in Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, and other places have to be transported to the north by sea, and then to the northwest through the Silk Road. In ship cabins, on horse backs, the tea leaves go a very long way and are greatly influenced by weather. Since the leaves are damped and then dried, their chemical elements undergo enormous changes and their color turns blackish brown, too. In spite of this, they still give off rare fragrance, and is quickly spread among the minor groups.
Dark tea belongs to the fermented kind. After the leaves are finished, kneaded and twisted, they have to be gathered and sprinkled with water to be fermented, and at last dried. The water of dark tea is like amber, yellow with a should be handed in every year. Contemporary royalties and celebrities all took pride in collecting and tasting Pu'er tea. It is very good for health care, especially in helping digestion. When spread abroad, Pu'er tea enjoyed a warm welcome and was named "Longevity Tea."Even the great Russian writer Tolstoy has mentioned the magical tea leaves in his War and Peace.