Is black tea hong cha or hei cha?
Hi there!
What we normally call “black tea” in English is hóngchá 红茶 in Chinese. Chinese people looked at the color of the drink, and called it “red,” whereas the European traders looked at the color of the leaves themselves, and called it “black.”
There is another kind of Chinese tea - hēichá 黑茶, which refers to teas that have been fermented. The most common variety we see in the west is Pu’er (普洱), which typically comes in the form of a brick. You break off a piece and then soak it in hot water.