To Westerners these teas have the peculiarity to be "the Chinese tea" whilst to the Chinese this is a foreigner's tea. Its presence in the West was rekindled at the end of the Qing dynasty, an era where the Chinese ports opened themselves to export. Originating from the Fujian province, these teas are cultivated on the flanks of the Wuyi mountains ; their intense smoked flavour stems from the drying process used, where (after fermentation) the tea is placed in a smoker filled with branches of acacia, spruce or cyprus. |