Yiwu Sun-Dried
Black Tea 2025
A sweetly fragrant and dynamic sun-dried Yunnan black tea made from forest tea trees of the famous Yiwushan (Yiwu Mountain) puer origin. Its bright yellow-red infusion brings flavors of dried apricot, suede leather, and tamarind and soft aromatics of wood and spice with a light honey finish.
$19.25
- Tea Origin
- Yiwushan, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna area, Yunnan Province, China
- Tea Bush
- Yunnan Dayezhong (Yunnan Large Leaf Heirloom Tea Tree)
- Tea Maker
- He Tianneng
- Harvest Time
- Early April
- Plucking Standard
- One bud, two leaves
Yiwu Sun-Dried Black Tea finds the best of black tea and the best of sheng puer and brings them into beautiful balance. Like other sun-dried black teas from Yunnan, this tea comes from a region that traditionally uses this high-quality leaf to make sheng puer. Yiwushan (Yiwu Mountain) was once one of Yunnan’s historic six famous tea mountains and a major stop on the iconic Tea Horse Road puer trade corridor.
Making Yunnan Sun-Dried Black Teas
As the name suggests, Yunnan sun-dried black teas (sometimes called “sun-red”) mainly differ from traditional black teas in their drying. Instead of using an oven to quickly dry the tea after oxidation, the darkened leaves are spread thin to dry in the sun, often in a covered solarium. In the subtropical heat of Yunnan’s climate, the drying process only takes a day.
Sun-dried black tea processing is actually quite similar to the way sheng puer tea is made in Yunnan. The only difference is the extra oxidation step that all black teas go through. Unlike sheng puer and green teas, black tea is not fried to deactivate the enzymes that cause oxidation. After the fresh leaves are withered and kneaded into long twists, the tea makers gather the tea into breathable bamboo baskets and let the moist leaves darken overnight. By the time they spread the tea out in thin layers to dry in the hot noon sun the next day, the leaves have oxidized and turned “black.”
The resulting black tea has some characteristics in common with the sheng puer tea and Yunnan white tea that also originated in this province. It possesses the depth and complexity of a sheng puer with a hint of its greenness, the rich smoothness of a Yunnan white tea, as well as the rich floral, fruit, and sweet honey notes characteristic of black tea.
To try sun-dried black teas from different Yunnan origins made by the same-method, try our Youle Sun-Dried black tea from Youle Mountain.
No chemical fertilizer, pesticide, or herbicide was used in the production of this tea. Click here to read more about our promise to fair trade and the environment.
