Tea fermentation methods were established in China by 1600. The
Portuguese in the late 1500's in China describe it as a 'chaw'
ingested orally and not infused. Black tea was used in 1600's to
survive 18 month sea trips. A 1660 newspaper advertisement describes
it a leaf with humidity removed by drying in the shade and stored in
iron skillets. The English terms Bohea for black tea and Hyson
meaning green tea was used by 1700. When black tea drinking became
popular in Europe it became popular in China. By the 1860's and
Clipper ships voyage of 100 days oolong is brought to England.

Jim

(Gyorgy Sajo) wrote in message . com>...
> (bruce) wrote in message . com>...
> >
> > Black/Red tea is roughly 100 years old and was a sort of happy
> > accident, it was not invented with anyone in mind. The story of
> > modern day Keemun is that of an accidental change in the processing of
> > green Keemun. Green tea has a much longer history in China than
> > Black/Red and must be more wrapped up in their traditions and culture.
> > The Book of Tea talks about which types of tea are favored in asia
> > and why, it's a very interesting book, highly reccomeded!
> >
> >
> > I think the first tea Europeans drank was green but when given the
> > choice the European culture with it's different taste preferences must
> > have been really taken with Red/Black tea. Then in the ninteenth
> > century when India really took off as a tea growing region the
> > Europeans were able to process tea however they wanted, (the
> > processing of tea had been unknown to the Europeans for a long time)
> > black tea was their main choice.
>
> Thank you for the answer. Now I have checked the matter in John C.
> Evan's excellent book, "Tea in China: The History of China's National
> Drink", and it looks like black/red tea has been around at least in
> the past five hundred years. According this source, black/red tea was
> developed sometime during the Ming Dinasty (1368-1644), explicitly for
> export purposes. It was the same time when the use of tea bricks was
> replaced by loose tea as we know it today. Loose tea compared to brick
> tea traveled badly and was easily spoiled. Ming teamen developed the
> process of fermenting the leaves, thus producing a more robust and
> rot-proof tea that they called red tea. This tea was only ment to be
> exported to the "barbarian lands", like Manchuria, the Chinese
> themself disdained black tea.
>
> In 1644 the Manchus came to power in China. They preferred to drink
> black tea with milk, and this habit spred quickly to Europe, together
> with the first shipments of tea. From the above follows that the
> Europeans most probably received black/red tea from China.
>
> Gyorgy