Today we have 滇红金螺茶 (Diānhóng jīn luó chá, "Dianhong Gold Snail Tea"). This is a tea from 云南省临沧市凤庆县 (Yúnnán Shěng Líncāng Shì Fèngqìng Xiàn, "Yunnan Province, Lincang City, Fengqing County) and it is a justly world famous red (in English black) tea. It is very floral for an oxidized tea, yet it is clearly a red tea. It has all the dark undertones that you'd find in an Assam or the various favourite blends like "English Breakfast" and so on.

But here is where it gets a little weird. Did you see how I called it "Golden Snail" above? That's a bit weird. Mostly when you buy a Dianhong you get "Golden Needle". So what's the snail about?

Well, see, golden needle tea is processed into straight, long, rolled leaves. Needle-shaped, as the name would suggest. Golden snail tea is instead rolled into the little curls you see above. Which is surely just cosmetic, right?

Wrong.

This is the weird thing about tea. Varietal, terroir, oxidation, processing, *and even shaping*, all have a part to play in the flavour. And more. The golden needle tea is sweet, floral, bright and cheery. The golden snail tea, despite being picked from the same trees (by the same people), and processed in the same factories (by the same people), has that same floral bouquet, but also has a far darker undertone, almost chocolate-like in its deep, round, nutty bitters, making it an entirely different experience.

This is what I'm sharing today. Details, as usual, in the alt text. As usual Mastodon users will have to click through to see all the pictures.

#茶 #中国茶 #滇红 #金螺 #红茶

#Tea #ChineseTea #DianHong #GoldenSnail #BlackTea