,
Fujian, China During the
Song dynasty, the Northern Park () tea estate in Fujian's
Jian'ou was the most important supplier of tea to the Song emperors. Established as a private estate under the
Min Kingdom, it was nationalized under the
Southern Tang and remained so under the Song. It continued to supply compressed cakes of "wax tea" (
lacha) to the emperors of the subsequent
Yuan dynasty. When the
Hongwu Emperor, founder of the
Ming dynasty, proclaimed in 1391 that the elaborate and labor-intensive process of producing wax tea "overtaxed the people's strength" and decreed that all imperial tribute tea was to be in the form of loose leaves rather than cakes, tea production collapsed at the Northern Park. The center of the tea industry in Fujian subsequently shifted west to the Wuyi region. In the 16th century, farmers in Wuyi began growing tea and
indigo on the mountains themselves, often on estates owned by Buddhist or Taoist monasteries. The farmers cut terraces into the slopes, and built a system of
dikes and drains. During the Ming dynasty, monks at Songluo Mountain () in
Anhui developed a new technique for stopping the oxidation process of tea, pan-firing the leaves in a dry
wok rather than steaming them as had been done previously. Songluo-style
green tea became popular, and the new production method spread to other regions. In the 16th century, Wuyi tea makers invited monks from Songluo to teach their techniques to them. Eventually they discovered that by allowing the tea to partially oxidize before firing, they could produce a darker, fragrant type of tea which came to be known as
oolong (
wūlóng, "black dragon") tea.
Export to the West European merchants began purchasing tea in Canton (
Guangzhou) during the 17th century. Because green tea formed the bulk of their imports, and because the Wuyi region was initially the main source of the more oxidated teas available to them, the term "Bohea" (based on the local Hokkien pronunciation of "Wuyi") became a blanket name in English for all more
heavily oxidated teas; the modern designations "black" and "oolong" were not yet in use. Over time, distinctions began to be made between different dark teas. Lapsang souchong, a Wuyi tea and possibly the first black tea to be produced, was separately traded as "Souchong" for a higher price, while the highest quality black tea was given the name "Pekoe" (), referring to the downy white hair on the young leaves). The term "Bohea" came to mean black tea of the lowest quality. During the 18th century, Western consumer preferences shifted from green tea toward black tea. The price of black tea dropped significantly during this period, making it more affordable to a larger number of consumers. Bohea tea was consumed in larger quantities than any other type of tea in Europe. When the
Ostend Company began competing against the
Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the
British East India Company (EIC) by importing cheap Bohea tea, the VOC responded by shifting its trade away from green tea toward larger quantities of black tea, mostly Bohea. Because Bohea from the VOC was cheaper than the EIC's tea offerings, consumers in Britain's
American colonies illegally smuggled Dutch Bohea in large quantities. The
Tea Act of 1773, intended to help the ailing EIC sell its tea in America, instead led to resistance culminating in the
Boston Tea Party. In 1848, the
Scottish botanist Robert Fortune went to China on behalf of the British East India Company to obtain tea plants as part of their ongoing effort to establish a tea industry in colonial
India. At the time, it was illegal for foreigners to travel inland in China, away from the five
treaty ports designated by the
Treaty of Nanjing. Fortune therefore went in disguise as a Chinese official, visiting tea producing regions across China. He stole and smuggled out a number of tea plants and seeds from the Wuyi Mountains, and learned from the monks there the full process of planting, picking, and processing the leaves to make tea. He was also able to hire a number of Chinese workers to assist with tea production in
Darjeeling. ==Characteristics==