RateTea Adds Category For Dark Tea, Hei Cha, Post-Fermented Teas Beyond Pu-erh

Press Release (ePRNews.com) - NEWARK, Del. - Jul 13, 2017 - RateTea has added a new top-level category of tea styles to their site, alongside black, green, oolong, and white teas.  Previously, Pu-erh tea was treated as a top-level category, but this classification was incorrect beacues Pu-erh is a regional designation, not strictly a tea style or type.  Pu-erh belongs to a category of teas called “dark teas”, or “hei cha” in Chinese, which are post-fermented teas meaning that they are microbially fermented during aging after production.

Although Pu-erh dominates the category of dark teas in terms of both reputation and volume of production and consumption, there are also dark teas produced elsewhere.  In China, major areas of production include Hunan province and Guangxi province.  There are also newer productions in the style of Pu-erh tea, but not technically “Pu-erh” because of being produced outside of Yunnan province, that are produced in other countries, including Vietnam, Japan, Nepal, and Malawi; these teas are now classified as dark tea on the site.

What is in the category?

The category currently lists 159 teas, 150 of which are Pu-erh.  There are 81 reviews, only one of which is of a dark tea produced outside China’s Yunnan province.

RateTea is actively soliciting new listings of teas, as well as reviews, of dark teas other than Pu-erh, especially those of older, established Chinese traditions.

View the new dark tea category:

https://ratetea.com/style/dark-tea/179/

View the older, more specific Pu-erh category:

https://ratetea.com/style/pu-erh-tea/7/