Tea roasting technique: Hong Pei

Hong Pei is the last firing stage of tea leaves. After the first round of drying in a special oven that lasts about 10 minutes with a temperature around 100 degrees celsius, tea goes to the second round of firing in special wooden baskets over a charcoal concrete pit. In high quality teas those two processes are performed with a gap of a few months, but usually firing is done right after the drying.

How does the Hong Pei process go? Tea leaves that have passed the previous stages of production are put into a wicker basket with a double bottom, where the lower level is empty with only air inside, that works as a buffer from burning the tea. This wicker basket is placed over a concrete pit with a level layer of ash, the thickness of which affects the strength of the heat. Leaves are fired there for about 12 hours, during the process coals are changed and leaves are turned over.

Hong Pei slowly removes moisture that has been retained in the tea leaf, rebuilds essential oils and slows down a fermentation process that starts in the leaf after the production. Without it, there is a rapid loss of taste and aroma, as a result such tea is stored for a very short time. If you don’t fully dry the tea, the taste will remain “green”. If you overdry it, the taste will be vapid and too roasted. Finding a balance is a real skill.

The taste of the tea can be easily modified by changing the degree of roasting. The main idea of a Hong Pei is to accent the strengths, taste and aroma of the tea.

There are three different types of roasting, as different types of fire.

Xiao Huo - “Weak fire'' - light and delicate type of final tea firing. This type of roasting is only suitable for those varieties that do not give a “green” flavor, these teas deliver the best taste from a low roast, as for example Bai Zi Guan, Qi Lan and Jin Guan Yin. It should also be noted that tea roasted with “Weak fire” should be drunk within several months, otherwise it will lose all its freshness and natural taste.

Zhong Huo - “Medium Fire” - medium and the most optimal type of final roasting, Zhong Ho is exactly the type of roasting that is most often used to roast high quality Wuyishan oolongs. Medium roast does not destroy the natural aroma of the tea, but improves it and makes it more balanced.

Gao Huo - "High Fire" - a strong type of final roasting of tea. For some tea varieties, “High fire” is a traditional roasting type, since it is the roast that delivers the taste the best for those types of tea. High quality oolong gets to the level of a strong roasting in a few stages of firing. The first one - immediately on the day of production, the second - after three months.

Strong roasting is most often used in two cases: when the raw material is poor quality, so that “High fire” will average out the blend of several varieties - in this case, the tea is strongly baked immediately on the same day as other production and obtaines a robust, slightly burned taste. In the second case, it is aged tea, then the process of drying should be repeated at least once a year.

Authors:

Illustrations: Vlada Morgun

Text: Vlada Morgun