How much is the Dianhong gold needle per jin? Is Dianhong Golden Needle good tea? Where is the best black tea in Yunnan?

I don't know what kind of Yunnan red souvenirs Queen Elizabeth II received when she visited Yunnan in 1986. It is said that the tea is full of gold tips. However, contrary to the myth you may have read, Dianhong was not the main export of black tea, not even at the end of the last century. At that time, people in Yunnan seldom drank black tea. By 1998, Yunnan's tea exports, including Pu'er tea and green tea, were only 10,000 tons, accounting for 5% of China's tea exports in that year. When I wrote my first article about Dianhong on this website, I got the impression that it was a kind of sweet and pleasant but simple tea.

When was Dianhong resurrected?

The experimental tea factory set up by Mr. Feng Shaoqiu in Lincang is the cradle of the tea factory. It is still the main blade supplier in Yunnan. According to local government statistics, 10% of the province's total tea production comes from this small county. This includes the leaves of all Pu'er varieties, many of which come from tall old trees. In fact, this number should be higher. Leaf sellers and collectors are more likely to declare lower tariffs and taxes.

Great changes took place in 1996. Some powerful people came here to transform the moribund black tea factory founded by Feng Xiaogang into a big company in the style of communism. Dianhong bought not only the halo of the place, but also a new memoir of an old tea forerunner. New cave buildings, huge machines, new roads, management and bosses. New stories about the history of tea also began to spread.

This situation occurs not only in Lincang, but also in the major subregions of Yunnan. In fact, the whole of China. A big brother company occupies the center stage of all the major commodities.

Three years after the company acquired the former Shunning tea factory, China's black tea exports fell by 50%. By 2000, new tea factories in Yunnan have sprung up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. One way for China to solve the problem of layoffs is to encourage banks to lend to small start-up businesses. Craftsmen, technicians and other employees from the old company structure feel that they can do better. Or they have to do it in order to survive. The soaring Pu'er market has added fuel to the fire.

It is never easy to build a new production facility. Team building, supply, hardware, workflow, cash flow, marketing and sales. All the muscles and wisdom can compete with Big Brother in the survival game. However, small means flexibility.

Unable to access the large commercial tea gardens controlled by the company, small companies in Lincang need to buy vegetables from independent small tea gardens and tea collectors in the tea forest. The leaves of old trees and other trees, if not absorbed by the frenzied production of Pu'er tea, will be put into withered baskets to make black tea. Under the same conditions as Feng Xiaogang tried to produce black tea in 1939, these enterprising independent small producers used all the resources they could get to create products and compete with Big Brother for market share. Some are of higher value and some are of better quality.

Lincang Golden Needle, Black Tea King, Dianhong Classics

Only recently did I know why only a few works left a deep impression on me. Maybe it takes time to improve the quality. Or better leaves entered the stream of Pu'er tea until the two big prices collapsed in the past decade. Maybe they just got out of my sight.

Lincang Golden Needle (middle) is a variety made from the leaves of mature trees on Lincang Mountain. Slow growth, coupled with the rich biodiversity of the environment, have created the biochemical characteristics of local Fengqing sophomore varieties, resulting in this deep, clear, golden red wine in the processing of kungfu black tea, which is silky, rich and complex.

Like other teas, not all teas look the same and taste the same. "Dayezhong" varieties planted in large quantities in various parts of Yunnan can produce needles like this. Tree age, horticultural environment, harvest time, processing technology and other factors have an impact on the quality of the final product.

Big Brother also makes this kind of gold needle red dots. It's just that the price is higher and the taste is not necessarily the same.

At the end of the last century, when I first studied the sub-categories of Yunnan black tea, I had a poor impression of Dianhong, that is, the King of Dianhong (left), or the King of Black Tea. At first glance, it is much better than the Lincang gold needle. The colors are brighter and the leaves are brighter. Sometimes known as the golden needle, the Dianhong golden needle is almost entirely composed of the typical large and fat twigs of the "big leaf" variety.

Not only is the taste uneven and uncomfortable, but many of the teas I have tasted have a taste of off-flavor white radish, which is a clear sign of the poor timing of black tea processing.

Look, not everything. Dianhong Classic (right), a relatively more modest appearance, though not outstanding, mellow, chocolate-colored, strong black tea, managed to convince me that Dianhong is a black tea worth drinking, let many hours to study and explore to give you this report.

When pure drinking, red dots perform well in kung fu style or when the ratio of leaf to water is less than 1-100. In order to make milk, sugar or other seasoning taste stronger, you can use a lower grade. Considering the amount of work consumed in manufacturing quality, it is immoral to waste quality.