leg­end

Ac­cord­ing to leg­end, in the Lingyan Dawu Basin, there was an el­der­ly cou­ple who were near­ly 60 years old when they fi­nal­ly had a son. They named their son “Along.” One day, Along saw two cray­fish fight­ing over a small pearl and, cu­ri­ous, picked up the pearl and put it in his mouth. Care­less­ly, he swal­lowed the pearl. When he got home, he sud­den­ly felt an un­bear­able itch­ing all over his body and de­mand­ed to take a bath. As soon as he got into the bath­tub, he turned into a black drag­on, flew out of the house, and jumped into the stream, swim­ming away into the dis­tance. The old cou­ple cried out and des­per­ate­ly chased af­ter him. The black drag­on was re­luc­tant to leave his par­ents and turned its head to look back nine times as it swam away. Thus, a wind­ing stream with nine bends and eigh­teen turns was formed, lead­ing all the way to the Qiantang Riv­er. The leg­end of the “Ji­uqu Wu­long” (Nine-Bend Black Drag­on) was thus passed down.

The Scenery of West Lake in Hangzhou

Name

Ji­uqu Hong­mei was first de­vel­oped by tea farm­ers from Chong’an Coun­ty (now Wuy­is­han City), Nan­ping City, Fu­jian Province. Wuyi Moun­tain has the fa­mous Ji­uqu Creek, and the dry tea leaves of this tea are also curved, while the tea soup is as bright as red plums, hence the name “Ji­uqu Hong­mei.”

History

In the mid-Qing Dy­nasty, due to war and chaos, many tea farm­ers from Wuyi Moun­tain mi­grat­ed north to the area around Shuang­pu Town, Xihu Dis­trict, Hangzhou, where they re­claimed land on the moun­tain to grow crops and tea, and used the process of mak­ing oo­long tea to pro­duce tea prod­ucts, both for their own con­sump­tion and to earn a liv­ing. Be­cause the shape of the tea leaves re­sem­bled hooks, the tea soup was bright and beau­ti­ful, and the tea tast­ed sweet and full-bod­ied, this red tea, named “Ji­uqu Hong­mei” (also known as “Ji­uqu Wu­long”), be­came very pop­u­lar as soon as it ap­peared on the mar­ket and quick­ly be­came fa­mous. Ji­uqu Hong­mei won the gold medal at the Pana­ma World Ex­po­si­tion in 1886.

Ori­gin of Ji­uqu Hong­mei

Ji­uqu Hong­mei orig­i­nat­ed from the Ji­uqu of Wuyi Moun­tain. It is said that dur­ing the Taip­ing Heav­en­ly King­dom pe­ri­od, tea farm­ers from Wuyi, Fu­jian Province, mi­grat­ed to north­ern Zhe­jiang and set­tled in the Lingyan area, where they re­claimed land farm­ing and plant­ed tea to make a liv­ing. Some of the farm­ers from the south were skilled in mak­ing black tea, and the black tea they made was pur­chased by tea shops and tea com­pa­nies in Hangzhou, and this tra­di­tion has con­tin­ued to this day. Ji­uqu Hong­mei tea is one of the 28 fa­mous teas of Zhe­jiang Province.

De­vel­op­ment of Ji­uqu Hong­mei

Af­ter the out­break of the Anti-Japan­ese War, Hangzhou fell, and the de­vel­op­ment of Ji­uqu Hong­mei en­tered a low ebb, and it was dif­fi­cult to re­cov­er due to the war. Af­ter the found­ing of the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na in 1949, Ji­uqu Hong­mei some­what re­cov­ered, but Xihu Longjing Tea, which is also pro­duced in the Xihu Dis­trict of Hangzhou, was too fa­mous, and Ji­uqu Hong­mei in­evitably had a “moon­light over­shad­owed by starlight” sit­u­a­tion. In re­cent years, with the con­tin­u­ous ex­pan­sion and growth of de­mand for black tea, the pro­duc­tion and qual­i­ty of Ji­uqu Hong­mei have both im­proved sig­nif­i­cant­ly, and it has en­tered a new stage of de­vel­op­ment.

Map of Zhejiang, China

Producing Area

Ji­uqu Hong­mei tea is pro­duced in the area around Lake Bu, Shuan­gling, Zhangyu, Fengjia, She­jing, Shangyang, and Ren­qiao in the south­west sub­urbs of Hangzhou, by the Qiantang Riv­er. The tea pro­duced in Dabu Moun­tain, Lake Bu is par­tic­u­lar­ly high-qual­i­ty. Dabu Moun­tain, Lake Bu is more than 500 me­ters above sea lev­el, and the top of the moun­tain is a basin with fer­tile soil. The sur­round­ing moun­tains are ver­dant and lush, pro­vid­ing shel­ter from the wind and snow and shade from the sun. The moun­tain is close to the Qiantang Riv­er, and the evap­o­ra­tion of the riv­er wa­ter cre­ates a misty en­vi­ron­ment on the moun­tain, which is ide­al for the growth of tea trees and the for­ma­tion of high-qual­i­ty tea.

Processing

Ji­uqu Hong­mei tea is gen­er­al­ly picked around the 清明节(Qing­ming Fes­ti­val) every year, when the qual­i­ty of the tea leaves is at its best. The pick­ing stan­dard is ten­der buds, one bud and one leaf, one bud and two leaves, etc., with the fo­cus on ten­der buds and one bud and one leaf. The tea leaves used are main­ly the new shoots of tea trees be­fore the Qing­ming Fes­ti­val, and the qual­i­ty of the tea leaves will grad­u­al­ly de­cline af­ter the Qing­ming Fes­ti­val.

The pro­cess­ing of Ji­uqu Hong­mei tea main­ly in­cludes the steps of with­er­ing, rolling, fer­ment­ing, and dry­ing. With­er­ing is the process of spread­ing the picked tea leaves on a sieve  and plac­ing them in­doors or out­doors to with­er nat­u­ral­ly. When the tea leaves reach a cer­tain de­gree of soft­ness, they are rolled and twist­ed, so that the tea leaves curl into strip-shaped. Then, they are fer­ment­ed to ac­cel­er­ate the col­or change of the tea leaves. Fi­nal­ly, they are dried to make dry tea.

How to make Osmanthus Jiu Qu Hong Mei "Red Plum" Black Tea

Fresh Flower Picking:  

Pick fresh osmanthus flowers on a mild and sunny day in early September. Remove impurities and dry in the shade.

The Workers Are Making Jiu Qu Hong Mei

Tea Base and Flower Blending:  

Mix the dried osmanthus flowers with Sweet Osmanthus Green Plum dry tea in a ratio of 1:8.

Scenting  

Place the blended tea and flowers in layers in a cellar. Alternate layers of tea leaves and flowers, with a final layer of tea leaves on top.

Cellar Management:  

During the scent­ing process, the tea master regularly checks on the tea leaves and turns the pile to help dissipate heat. Adjustments are made based on the temperature and humidity within the tea and flower layers.

Drying and Absorption:  

After two rounds of scent­ing, lasting a total of 72 hours, the tea leaves have absorbed the floral fragrance and moisture, becoming soft and pliable. Finally, quicklime is used to absorb any remaining moisture from the tea and flowers, leaving them dry once more. This process also helps the floral and tea aromas to blend and harmonize.

Characteristics

Os­man­thus Sweet Os­man­thus Green Plum Tea pre­sents with slen­der and grace­ful dry leaves, tight­ly rolled and as fine as hair, re­sem­bling fish hooks in their cur­va­ture, and ex­ud­ing a del­i­cate os­man­thus fra­grance. Upon brew­ing, the tea liquor re­veals a clear and translu­cent light or­ange hue, with vis­i­ble sil­very tips danc­ing with­in.

Osmanthus Fragrans

With each sub­se­quent in­fu­sion, the tea liquor deep­ens in col­or, while the in­fused flo­ral notes grad­u­al­ly un­furl, cre­at­ing a sense of in­vig­o­ra­tion and re­lax­ation. The aro­mas of os­man­thus, hon­ey, and the sub­tle fra­grance of Sweet Os­man­thus Green Plum in­ter­twine har­mo­nious­ly, lin­ger­ing on the palate and slow­ly trans­form­ing. They seem to float upon the tongue and linger in the throat, leav­ing a last­ing im­pres­sion.

This tea of­fers a clear and vi­brant liquor, a cap­ti­vat­ing and en­dur­ing aro­ma, a re­fresh­ing and rich fla­vor, and a lin­ger­ing af­ter­taste. The flo­ral notes of os­man­thus and the sub­tle fra­grance of Sweet Os­man­thus Green Plum blend seam­less­ly, cre­at­ing a sym­pho­ny of fla­vors that de­light the sens­es and up­lift the spir­it.

Whether en­joyed as a dai­ly bev­er­age or shared as a thought­ful gift, Os­man­thus Sweet Os­man­thus Green Plum Tea is an ex­cep­tion­al choice, wor­thy of sa­vor­ing and cher­ish­ing.