Red (Black) Qimen Zongzi Tea

Qimen Zongzi Red (Black) Tea is born in the heart of Qimen County, Anhui Province, China, an enchanting place where nature plays a key role. Here, high mountains, dense forests, fog and abundant rainfall create ideal conditions for growing high-quality tea and bamboo. The tea leaves are hand-wrapped in fresh bamboo leaves, creating the traditional “zongzi” wrapper, which retains and preserves all the scents and flavors intact. Once infused, Qimen Zongzi tea has an intense ruby color and a complex and refined aromatic bouquet. The malty sweetness typical of Qimen red tea blends harmoniously with balsamic nuances of lychee, plum and green notes of bamboo leaves. This tea delivers a unique experience, revealing its treasure trove of flavors with each successive infusion, for a pleasure that evolves with each sip.

Place of origin

Anhui, China

How to prepare

We highly recommend infusing this tea in the traditional Chinese method (gong fu cha) to best enjoy these leaves. Following this preparation, 5 grams of leaves (about 3 teaspoons) can be used in a gaiwan of about 150 ml to make several infusions with different tastes. After a quick rinse of the leaves in water at 95°C, an initial infusion of 25 seconds can be made, and after that, keeping the water at the same temperature, the time can be increased each time by 5 seconds from the previous infusion (25 – 30 – 35…)

This tea has a longevity of about 7 brewings.

For a classic preparation in the Western style, we recommend 3 grams of leaves (about 1 teaspoon) in a 200-mL cup with 95°C water for an infusion time of one and a half minutes.

The tea can be filtered for greater ease at the moment of tasting, and also the infusion times indicated above are intended to be purely indicative, so you can also adjust according to your personal taste.

Store in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.