Main Contents of A Brief History of Yunnan Red

Shortly after the "July 7th" Anti-Japanese War began, I evacuated from Qimen Tea Improvement Farm. 1In the spring of 938, Mr. Shou Jingwei and Mr. Wu Juenong of the old China China Tea Company invited him to work in Hankou as a technical specialist, engaged in tea production and marketing technology, and moved to Chongqing with the old China Tea Company in August of the same year. In mid-September, he was sent to Yunnan to investigate the production and sales of tea. I went with Mr. Zheng Hechun, the Commissioner of the old China Tea Company. 1In the middle of October, we arrived at Shimonoseki by car for three days from Kunming, and then walked for ten days on the mountain road. 1 1 We arrived at Shunning (now Fengqing County) at the beginning of the month.

It's late autumn and early winter, but it's lovely to see Fengshan tea tree in Shunning County, which is yellow and green. Tea trees are planted in a single plant, with a height of more than ten feet, strong buds, thick leaves, long growth period of bud leaves, terminal buds up to one inch, mature leaves as big as loquat leaves, and young leaves containing a lot of flavins, with high yield and good quality. These characteristics of Yunnan big leaf tea planting are very in line with my ideal.

It is understood that at that time, all tea areas in Yunnan only produced green tea, which belongs to the category of green tea. After high temperature inactivation, knead it in the sun. Then, tea merchants went to Gao Zhan, the place of origin, to buy them, transported them to the tea distribution market, and set up factories to suppress all kinds of "tight teas" for distribution. Among them, cake tea is sold overseas, "compact tea" (heart-shaped) is sold on the side, and Tuo tea is sold at home. Never produced black tea. Can Yunnan, which never produces black tea, produce good black tea? Judging from the survey, it is absolutely possible. If we can create good black tea by using big leaf tea, its development prospect is immeasurable. Therefore, I am full of enthusiasm and determined to give it a try, create famous tea and win glory for the Chinese nation.

On the second day of my arrival in Shunning, I invited Fengshan Tea Garden to try to collect samples of "one bud and two leaves", observe its quality and find out the problem. Everything is going well. Two tea samples, one red and one green, look like gold and one silver, which makes people very happy. Black tea sample: full of golden yellow, the soup is red and bright, the leaves are red (orange red), and the aroma is rich, which is not seen in lobular black tea in other provinces in China. Green tea sample: the dishes are silvery white, the soup is bright yellow-green, the leaves are light green, and the fragrance is refreshing, which is rare in China.

At that time, the trial-produced red green tea was mailed to the Hong Kong tea market, and it was considered that these two teas were the best in China. There is no winter tea in the north and south of the Yangtze River, but it is really valuable to produce such high-grade red green tea in Shunning, Yunnan in early winter. It is understood that the climate in southern Yunnan is warm, it never snows, the seasons are like spring, the soil is fertile, the tea trees grow vigorously and the picking period is long. From the beginning of March to the end of 10, bud leaves can be harvested in 9 months a year, with a large number and high quality. It is really an excellent tea area with large leaves, especially suitable for red. /kloc-returned to Kunming in October/February, and now reports the production and sales of tea in Shunning tea area and the trial-produced red and green tea samples to the Yunnan Economic Commission of China. Before liberation, with the consent of the local government, Mr. Zheng Hechun and I were responsible for the establishment of the old Yunnan Tea Company and the Shunning Experimental Tea Factory, and for the trial production and marketing of "Dianhong". /kloc-at the beginning of 0/939, the old China Yunnan Small Economic Committee decided that Zheng Hechun was in charge of Yunnan Tea Company; I immediately set about planning and building Shunning Experimental Tea Factory. With the support and specific help of Laoxiaocha Company, the factory building is progressing smoothly. On the one hand, set up temporary factory shed, make bamboo and wood utensils and put them into production, and strengthen publicity to tea farmers on how to reform black tea. I always think this is an essential part of making good tea. On the other hand, they are busy requisitioning more than 50 mu of land and actively building tea factories. And through the old China Tea Corporation, we recruited technicians from Anhui, Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi and other provinces, held training courses, and actively trained tea-making technicians and technicians. At that time, the organization and personnel of Shunning Experimental Tea Factory were as follows: the factory director's office, with me as the factory director; Production room, chief technician Tong, technicians Qi Zengpei and Feng; Wu Guoying, Director of Business Office (Acting Director after I left Yunnan); Zhou Dongbai, director of the general office, and Jiang Zhenyong, director of the financial office. There were 32 oil refining technicians at the beginning.

Shunning is located in the mountainous area, and the traffic is difficult, so it can only be transported by mules and horses. The procurement and transportation of tea-making machinery and materials are difficult and slow. In order to strive for an early trial production, we adopted some methods, such as mounting a horse by indigenous method, pushing a wooden tea bucket by hand, pedaling a tea dryer, and baking tea in a bamboo woven cage, to ensure the smooth trial production of "New Dianhong". 1939, the first batch of about 500 tons of "New Dianhong" was finally successfully trial-produced. There were no wooden cases and aluminum cans at that time. That is, it will be shipped to Hong Kong in tea baskets, and then exported in wooden boxes and aluminum cans.

Created "Yunnan Red". At that time, I drew up the name "Yun Hong", which means Qi Hong, Anhui, and Hunan black tea is called "Huhong", so the black tea produced in Yunnan can also be called "Yun Hong", and I wanted to use the red clouds in the sky in the morning and evening as a metaphor, but the old China Yunnan Tea Company proposed to use "Yunnanhong" as the nickname, which is to borrow the abbreviation of Yunnan.

After the development of 1940, "Dianhong" has developed into a brilliant and famous camellia in the history of Chinese tea. After the advent of Dianhong, it was well received in the international market, and was considered to be good in appearance and quality, comparable to Indian and Sri Lankan black tea. It is said that the Queen of England put Dianhong in a transparent vessel as an ornamental and regarded it as a treasure. Especially after liberation, Dianhong has been further developed and now accounts for 85% of Yunnan's tea exports, earning a lot of foreign exchange for China's socialist construction. Tradition certainly needs to be inherited and carried forward, and new undertakings need to make great efforts to speed up the pace of the four modernizations and better famous teas. I am glad to see that through the efforts of my colleagues in the tea industry, our country has recently created some new famous teas with strong vitality. This memory has been more than forty years since the successful creation of Dianhong at that time, and it is inevitable that there are some discrepancies. I hope this memory can provide some reference for colleagues in the tea industry, spare no effort to cultivate one famous camellia after another for the vigorous development of China's tea industry with a long history and world-renowned reputation, and add icing on the cake to the splendor of China's four modernizations.