Black Tea Processing Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Tanyang Gongfu black tea ranks first among the three great "Min Hong" (Fujian red tea) Gongfu teas; its production craft was created in 1851 and has been passed down for over 170 years. Fu'an has a long history of tea cultivation. The Southern Song gazetteer Sanshan Zhi, quoting the Tang Shu (Book of Tang), records: "Tea is now also grown and processed in Gutian and Changxi (present-day Fu'an), near the Jianning border."
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Tanyang Gongfu tea craft is one of the representative black-tea production crafts of China, transmitted through generations centered on Tanyang Village, Shekou Town, Fu'an City, Ningde, Fujian Province. Beyond Tanyang Village, the craft also spreads across 18 towns and townships within Fu'an—including Shekou, Xiaoyang, and Shangbaishi—as well as the Saiqi Development Zone and the Fu'an She Ethnic Minority Development Zone, radiating to neighboring counties. Fu'an lies in northeastern Fujian, embraced by mountains on three sides and facing the sea on the one remaining side. It has a subtropical maritime monsoon climate with distinct seasons. Its soils are dominated by acidic-rock red earth and yellow-red earth, deep and fertile—ideal for tea bushes. The raw material for Tanyang Gongfu black tea is called "Tanyang caicha" (Tanyang native bush tea); its buds and shoots are plump yet short and covered with fine down. The making of Tanyang Gongfu black tea is intricate and its process steps rigorous. From initial processing to refined sifting, it has developed a dozen-plus craft operations centered on "shaking, dividing, scooping, selecting, winnowing, and floating," each step with its own knack and brilliance. Turning green leaves into black tea requires many complex steps such as "wet piling (wohong)." It stresses reading the weather to make tea, while varying the handwork. The craft uniquely reformed the single-stage withering and refined sifting into compound forms, producing a scientific "tea-rolling art": light-heavy-light and slow-fast-slow with shaking-out, repeated three times, to achieve the optimal twisted strips. The finished Gongfu black tea has tight, fine, even, straight strips; a black, lustrous, oily sheen; a bright red liquor with a golden ring; a mellow, fresh, brisk taste; a distinctive "longan aroma"; and a red, bright, soft, tender infused leaf—high in flavor and rich in fragrance. Fu'an holds tea-tasting competitions every year, through which the Tanyang Gongfu tea craft has been widely spread and developed. The Tanyang Gongfu black tea craft is an important component and driving force within black-tea production techniques, and holds significant reference value for studying the history of black tea and related cultural matters.
Archive of process records
The making of Tanyang Gongfu black tea is intricate and its process steps rigorous. From initial processing to refined sifting, it has developed a dozen-plus craft operations centered on "shaking, dividing, scooping, selecting, winnowing, and floating," each step with its own knack and brilliance.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Around Tanyang Gongfu tea have grown a wealth of folk tales, ballads, proverbs, and poems and paintings; many relics—ancestral halls and residences, tea houses and pavilions, old paths and bridges—are associated with it, and colorful She-and-Han tea-art songs and dances have emerged, enriching the regional culture.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Black Tea Processing Craftsmanship · Black Tea Processing Craftsmanship · Black Tea Processing Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Since 2001, the Fu'an Tea Industry Association has authorized 117 tea enterprises to produce Tanyang Gongfu black tea; more than 30 of them have established personal intangible-heritage craft studios, actively carrying out transmission activities and training successors.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Chang 05-2849
- Zhang Chengren 05-2850
- Lin Hong
- Yu Danhua
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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