What Is Dark Tea?

Takeaways:

• There are many tea categories that refer to the origin, harvesting method, and processing of tea leaves, including dark or black tea.
• What is called “dark tea” in English is actually “black tea” in East Asia because of the fermentation process. 
• Dark tea is a type of tea that uses mold or yeast to produce an aged, complex flavor.
• The addition of fermentation increases the potential benefit to aid digestion, and it’s one of the many reasons these teas have remained prominent in the culinary traditions of China, Japan, and beyond. 
• There are a few types of dark tea, including Pu’er from China, and Awabancha, Batabatacha and Go Ishi Cha from Japan. 

Dark tea, known by the name heicha (黑茶), or literally “black tea” in Chinese, refers to the fermentation process it undergoes to become part of this category. If you’re interested in learning about dark tea, as well as some of the most famous varieties, follow along as the experts at Rishi Tea & Botanicals guide you through the intricacies of a delicious, complex brew.

Different Category Names: East & West

What exactly is dark tea? In the Western world, tea is categorized into 6 main types, including:

• Green Tea
• Yellow Tea
• White Tea
• Oolong
• Black (Red)
• Dark (Black)

In Eastern traditions, the names for red and black teas are categorized differently. Black tea is actually referred to as hongcha or koucha (紅茶), or “red tea”, in Chinese and Japanese. This is because of the tea’s brilliant red color after brewing, whereas in Western traditions, the name denotes the color of the dried leaf.

What the West calls “black tea,” is heicha or kurocha (黑茶), or "black tea," in Chinese and Japanese. For these traditions, “black tea” is its entirely own entity with unique properties, as Eastern black teas use a fermentation process with yeast and/or grains.

The Most Common Dark Tea | Pu’er

A common type of dark tea is Pu’er tea. What distinguishes this dark tea is its longstanding tradition. Pu’er is one of the oldest types of tea, with a history dating back more than 2,000 years. This ancient tea originates in Yunnan province on China’s Southwestern frontier, where a temperate climate and lush landscapes, teeming with biodiversity, provide ideal growing conditions for tea. China also has quite a few heicha selections from other regions outside of Pu’er, such as Hunan Heicha, Sichuan Heicha and Liu Ancha.

Like champagne or other regionally specific foods and beverages, Pu’er tea is a geographically indicated product that can only be grown and processed in Yunnan province from sun-dried green tea grown from broad leaf tea tree varieties planted in Yunnan, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Garden Direct Pu’er Tea

Our Garden Direct collection of teacakes and Pu’er is worthy of thoughtful study. Pu’er tea is prized for its distinctive earthy range of flavor and aroma, from forest floor, mushroom and petrichor to olive leaf, tobacco humidor and camphor. We suggest trying sheng and shu and both young and old vintages to discover your Pu’er preferences.

Any type of Pu’er, sheng or shu, is a wonderful tea for a mid-day pick-me-up, or as a post-dinner reset if you plan to stay up for a while. Because these teas are higher in caffeine yet surprisingly subtle in flavor, they are also wonderful companions to yoga, studying and quiet contemplative times.

Other Types of Dark Tea | Japanese Origins 

There are many types of dark teas prepared through fermentation, also known as post-fermentation. Go Hakkoucha, or “Post-Fermented Tea”, is the application of fermentation to Japanese green tea. One variety, batabatacha (バタバタ茶) is onomatopoeia and reflects its unique brewing process. Likely, this name is to represent the sound the whisk makes when preparing this tea.

Awabancha

Though very difficult to obtain, there are quite a few unique fermented types of bancha in Japan. One of the most common and celebrated is Awabancha 阿波晩茶, which is pickled using lactic fermentation. What makes this black tea stand out is its unique fermentation method that results in an incredibly well-balanced, deeply satisfying umami feel and taste.

It’s worth noting that the “bancha” part of the name, written in kanji as “晩茶,” means “evening tea.” However, it was previously written with homonym kanji, “番茶,” which suggests the kind of field it was grown in. The 阿波, or “Awa,” part of the name is an old reference to Tokushima prefecture.

More about Japanese Dark Teas

Many farmers today have forgotten the techniques required to manufacture fermented teas, so we find very few producers from whom to source these rare dark teas. Most Japanese dark tea requires the harvest of whole branches from the tea bushes during the autumn, followed by boiling or steaming and finalized with fermentation before sun-drying. 

Koji, or Aspergillus oryzae, is an important mold spore in the culinary community, and has recently become more well-known in Western food culture due to its use by chefs of notable restaurants. 

Koji is responsible for creating delicious ferments such as shochu, soy sauce, miso and even sake. Because of its mild yet complex flavor profile, it is a naturally sweet ingredient that’s perfect for many non-alcoholic beverages, including teas.

More about Go Ishi Cha

Go Ishi Cha (碁石茶) is a type of old-style Japanese bancha that is fermented by way of ancient techniques developed when tea was consumed by the people as a food and as a medicine. While similar to Miang, the pickled tea common in northern Thailand and Burma, it is a special tea that is exclusive to the Kochi prefecture in the Shikoku Islands.

Only 3,400 pounds of this tea are made each year. The limited quantity is a result of the artistic know-how that is becoming extinct. Very few families continue to make this tea, and the price has become quite expensive. Today, the tea is limited but has a cult following for those interested in ancient forms of bancha, Pu’er tea and other fermented teas.

How To Make Go Ishi Cha

Goishi-cha goes through a two-stage fermentation process. The tea leaves are harvested directly by hand and sickle once per year when the leaves are hardy and mature. Then the leaves are stripped from the branch, steamed and pressed to extract the juice. The fresh-pressed juice of the leaves is reserved for aiding the fermentation at a later stage of the Go Ishi Cha process.

After pressing the juice, the leaves are piled and covered with thatch in a wooden hut to warm up and oxidize. Once fermented, the leaves are packed into cedar barrels, reminiscent of the vats used in wine production. The reserved juice from the first pressing is added, and the leaves are stored in their juices for about two weeks with a stone of equal weight placed upon the vat to seal the cover. 

After this second stage of fermentation, the packed tea is reduced into a large, round disc covering the bottom of the barrel like a huge cake of miso hard paste. The pressed leaves in the cake become soft and malleable. 

Knives are used to remove the pressed leaves from the barrel, and cut them into 1-2 inch square, wafer-like pieces. The tea wafers are laid out in the sun on thatch drying platforms. They are flipped from time to time for about a week, depending on the weather, until the wafers are totally dry. Go Ishi Cha is finished and packaged for sale after the sun-drying process. 

How to Enjoy Go Ishi Cha

It is recommended to age Go Ishi Cha 6-12 months to better harmonize the flavors and mellow the acidic profile before consumption. It can be aged, stored and brewed much like Pu’er tea.

Historically, this tea is not consumed in the growing region. Since the Edo Period (1603-1868 A.D.) Go Ishi cha has been traded for salt from the Inland Sea people, who used it to make Cha-gayu (rice porridge made with tea). 

In modern times, people brew and drink Go Ishi like other bancha. In addition to traditional rice porridge “Cha – Gayu,” Go Ishi Cha can be brewed or boiled, and the strained infusion or brew can be used in a variety of culinary dishes, including: tea mushroom consommé, porcini risotto, tea-based dashi and broths for noodles and soup, Ochazuke, and in marinades and dinner or dessert sauces.

Finding Premium Dark Tea

At Rishi Tea & Botanicals, we’re passionate about curating our tea selections and encouraging others to try unique varieties they haven’t experienced before. If you’re searching for something new to add to your daily tea ritual, consider fermented Pu’er or Go Ishi Cha dark teas for depth, complexity and layered flavors.