The glacial rocks of Anhua, in China’s central Hunan Province, are remnants of a global ice age some 650 million years ago. Among the rarest geological formations on Earth, they were shaped during a period of extraordinary climatic change, as an age of extreme cold gave way to dramatic global warming. Their remarkable age has earned them the local names ‘longevity stones’ and ‘stones of good fortune’, and they have long been treasured as part of Anhua’s natural heritage. Today, the region is home to the world’s largest concentration of these ancient rocks, accounting for around 85% of known global deposits. Over hundreds of millions of years, the rock has weathered to form a porous soil rich in organic matter and a diverse range of minerals. It is an exceptional environment for tea, giving Anhua a terroir unlike almost anywhere else – ancient in origin and imbued with a certain sense of mystery.
That ancient landscape finds its natural expression in Anhua Hei Cha. Deeply rooted in its place of origin, the tea is known for its ability to mature beautifully over time, developing greater depth and complexity with age – a quality often compared to that of Pu Erh. The making of Anhua Hei Cha begins with carefully selected leaves, typically harvested in spring or early summer from large-leaf varieties of Camellia sinensis. For our Hei Cha, the leaves come from exceptionally old tea trees, some more than a century in age. Their roots reach deep into the earth, penetrating the mineral-rich layers of ancient rock below. After harvesting, the leaves are left to wither and begin their natural oxidation before being rolled. They then undergo the traditional ‘kill-green’ process, in which heat is used to halt further enzymatic oxidation. Anhua Hei Cha has its own distinctive approach: before the leaves are roasted in the manner characteristic of many Chinese teas, they are first exposed to hot steam.
The leaves are then rolled and carefully piled under controlled conditions, allowing microbial fermentation to take place over several days. Known as ‘piling’, this is one of the defining stages in the creation of Hei Cha and a technique also found in the production of Shou Pu Erh in Yunnan. The connection between the two traditions runs deeper still. When the modern method of producing Shou Pu Erh was developed in the 1970s, its makers drew on fermentation techniques long established in Anhua Hei Cha. In this sense, Hei Cha can be considered an important precursor to Shou Pu Erh. Following fermentation, the leaves undergo a second phase of rolling and roasting. Finally, they are carefully dried with heat in an oven, completing the transformation from freshly harvested leaf into Anhua Hei Cha.
