Chinese Gongfu Tea
Source:Internet Author:Anonymous Tags:
Gongfu Tea china guangdong fujian
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| Article Guide:It is a Chinese custom to treat guests with tea. However, people in east Guangdong and south Fujian have a special way of preparing tea, called gongfu tea. |
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Wulong (black dragon) tea is the best variety for making gongfu tea. Half fermented, Wulong tea is as mellow as black tea and as refreshing and sweet as green tea, complete with lingeringaftertaste. According to research, Wulong tea helps prevent and cure illnesses, prolong life and prevent arteriosclerosis and cancer.
Guangdong's Wulong tea comes from Anxi in Fujian Province. Legend has it that the first cultivator of the tea was named Wu Liang. One day, Wu Liang went home after he had picked several pounds of mountain tea and caught a river deer. In the evening, he was busy with killing the river deer, and didn't have enough time to dry the green tea. The next day, he found the tea in the basket had fermented on the way back and after having been stored in the basket the whole night. He fried the tea at once. To his surprise, he found that the tea tasted very mellow, with no bitter and astringent taste. Soon Wu Liang taught his fellow villagers how to make the tea. Almost everyone in his village liked the fermented tea and they named it Wu Liang tea. In the south Fujian dialect, liang and long are two homophonic words. As time went by the tea was called Wulong tea by later generations.
