Qimen Black Tea, abbreviated as “Qihong,” is one of China's top ten traditional teas and one of the world's three most fragrant black teas. It is named after Qimen County in Anhui Province. Qimen black tea was successfully created in the first year of the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty (1875). Upon its introduction, it gained a reputation both domestically and internationally for its unique quality.
Traditionally, Qimen black tea was made by hand, with quality largely depending on manual skill, hence why it is also known as “Qimen Gongfu.”
The tea-making skills for Qimen black tea are divided into preliminary processing and finishing. Preliminary processing includes withering, rolling, Fermentation, and drying; while finishing includes sieving, cutting, winnowing, sorting, blending, re-drying, and leveling.
Withering
Rolling
Fermentation
Drying
The characteristics of Qimen black tea include a fine and slender appearance, good tip formation, and a lustrous dark color; a bright red liquor; a rich fragrance with floral and fruity notes; a smooth and sweet taste; and a uniform, tender, and soft leaf base. Qimen black tea particularly emphasizes tenderness and the tightness of the tea leaves. Defective qualities include hollow and loose texture, dull gray color, pale liquor, rough aroma, thin and astringent taste, and dark green leaf base. Products from different tea seasons have varying qualities: Spring Tea has good tenderness, a lustrous dark color, and fresh and sweet aroma, making it of higher quality; summer and autumn teas have more red liquor and leaf bases but lack the freshness and sweetness of spring tea, resulting in overall lower quality.
Dry tea: Fine and slender appearance, good tip formation, lustrous dark color
Liquor: Bright red
Leaf base: Uniform, tender, and soft
Superb natural environment combined with exquisite and unique tea-making skills result in the exceptional quality of Qimen black tea. The Qimen black tea produced through this method has a lustrous dark color, finely twisted leaves, and a unique Rose-like fragrance that is long-lasting, earning it the accolade of “Qimen Aroma.”