A bamboo mat is heaped with slender twisted black tea flecked with golden tips, a blue-and-white dish holds a pinch more, a white porcelain bowl beside it holds bright red tea, and tea leaves and bamboo frame the scene.
Fully oxidised
Introduction
Tea oxidised in full, with a bright red liquor, made in gongfu, souchong and broken styles.
Black tea is tea that is fully oxidised: fresh leaf is withered and rolled, then fermented and dried, and the liquor is bright red. Here fermentation means the oxidation of tea polyphenols and not microbial fermentation. By process black tea is divided into gongfu, souchong and broken black tea; souchong is one of the earlier black teas, gongfu tea is named for its fine workmanship, and broken black tea is made by cutting and rolling. Black tea pressed into bricks also takes compressed tea as its main class, with black tea secondary; the detail is under Reprocessed Tea.