Yingde Black Tea

Yingde Black Tea is easily represented by Yinghong No. 9, but the two are not identical. GH/T 1243—2019 divides strip-style Yingde Black Tea into Yinghong No. 9, traditional large-leaf and medium- to small-leaf categories, while the geographical-indication local standard also distinguishes Yingde strip tea, Yinghong No. 9 strip tea and broken black tea. Yingde Black Tea is therefore a regional product system shaped by both origin and processing.

This page uses Yinghong No. 9 for its representative images and sensory profile because it now carries the strongest market identity. Higher-grade Yinghong No. 9 has plump shoots, visible golden tips, vivid red liquor with a golden ring, lifted fragrance and a rich, brisk taste. The industry standard even uses the dedicated phrase “sugarcane sweetness and orchid resonance” for the composite clean-sweet and orchid-like character found in the liquor.

This is also what separates Yingde from many small-leaf gongfu black teas. The cup can be more powerful and substantial without aiming for darkness or heaviness. Good Yingde Black Tea keeps richness with brightness, body with freshness, and sweetness with fragrance in balance.

Yingde has a much older history of tea cultivation, but modern Yingde Black Tea is closely tied to the industrialization of Chinese tea after 1949. Yingde municipal records state that seeds of Yunnan large-leaf tea were introduced in 1956 and successfully trial-planted at the state-run Yingde Xinsheng United Enterprise. Hongqi Tea Factory was built around 1958, and the first modern Yingde Black Tea was produced in 1959 and exported in the same year.

Export was part of its identity from the beginning. Large-leaf black tea from Yingde developed through mechanized processing, large-scale gardens and a research system. Around 1964, the “No. 2 set” standard samples and production model for broken black tea were formed and later promoted to other large-leaf black-tea regions, making Yingde not only a production area but also an important testing ground for modern Chinese black-tea industrial technology.

Later, Yingde moved from the era of broken black tea toward premium strip-style teas and a more diverse product system. Yinghong No. 9 became a new brand core, while old factories, tea research institutes, overseas-Chinese farms and modern intelligent production lines created a technological lineage spanning decades. Yingde Black Tea therefore has an unusually modern historical character: it connects the older Lingnan tea region with the development story of industrial tea in the People's Republic of China.

Yingde lies in north-central Guangdong along the middle reaches of the Beijiang River, in a mountainous county-level landscape transitioning from southern to central subtropical conditions. The Beijiang, Wengjiang and other waterways flow through a terrain of low mountains, hills, river valleys and karst peak forests. Large modern tea gardens often spread across gentler rolling slopes, while northern mountain areas retain more forest and stronger vertical ecological variation.

Government industry materials repeatedly emphasize Yingde's warm and rainy natural conditions. Most local tea soils are acidic, with a representative pH of about 4.5–5.5, and fertility and organic-matter conditions broadly favorable for tea. The warm humid climate and long growing season especially suit vigorous large-leaf tea plants and support the accumulation of tea polyphenols and other compounds in cultivars such as Yinghong No. 9.

The geographical-indication range, however, covers nearly all of Yingde—23 towns plus Yingcheng Subdistrict. A single garden in Yinghong Township therefore cannot supply the altitude, temperature or soil values for the whole production area. The more accurate large-scale terroir is abundant heat and water, acidic soils, hilly mountains and the Beijiang river system.

The core of strip-style Yingde Black Tea remains the four classic black-tea stages: withering, rolling, oxidation and drying. Fresh leaves gradually lose water and soften during withering as green odors weaken. Rolling shapes the strands and, at the same time, ruptures cells so the abundant polyphenols of large-leaf tea can interact with oxygen and enzymes.

Oxidation determines the red liquor and high aroma. As the leaves turn red, green odor fades and sweet floral fragrance emerges, the tea approaches an appropriate degree. Yinghong No. 9 contains abundant internal compounds: under-oxidation can leave greenness and harshness, while over-oxidation can sacrifice freshness and lifted aroma. The qualities described as rich, mellow, sweet and fragrant therefore come from precise control rather than simply “more fermentation.”

After drying, the tea is screened, organized and, where needed, aroma-finished. Guangdong implemented DB44/T 2844—2026 for strip black tea processing in 2026, while Yingde itself has long developed automated and digital strip-tea lines. From the large machines of Hongqi Tea Factory to today's 5G and sensor-controlled systems, the processing history of Yingde Black Tea is itself a story of turning craft experience into standards.

If one standard phrase is used to remember Yingde Black Tea, it can be “sugarcane sweetness and orchid resonance.” GH/T 1243—2019 uses the term for the composite clean-sweet and orchid-like quality in the liquor. In higher-grade Yinghong No. 9, this is often accompanied by tender sweetness, fine-hair aroma, vivid red liquor and a thick yet brisk cup.

Higher-grade Yinghong No. 9 is plump and tightly twisted, with golden tips becoming more visible as tenderness and grade rise. The liquor must keep brightness: it can be deeply red, but it should not be dull. Vivid red clarity and a distinct golden ring are classic visual signs of quality. The concentration and astringency of large-leaf material should be wrapped in sweetness and freshness rather than becoming coarse bitterness.

The infused leaf also carries a sense of strength. High-grade buds and leaves are plump, soft and bright red to copper-red, while lower grades gradually show more mature leaves. Yingde's “body” is therefore not merely an illusion created by brewing strong; it reflects raw material, oxidation and the tea's soluble solids.

The cultural identity of Yingde Black Tea is strikingly modern. Hongqi Tea Factory, overseas-Chinese farms, educated-youth memories, export earnings, cultivar breeding and national broken-black-tea standards form a historical narrative very different from that of classical literati teas. Hongqi Tea Factory has now become a national industrial-heritage site and industrial-tourism destination, where old rolling machines, slogans and production lines have been reinterpreted as tea-cultural space.

The making of Yingde Black Tea has also entered the intangible-cultural-heritage system. In May 2018 it was included in Guangdong's seventh group of provincial representative intangible cultural heritage projects and remains a provincial-level project. In 2026, Yingde invited provincial heritage specialists for a dedicated study aimed at advancing a future national-level application, so the site must not prematurely call it a national project.

At the same time, Yingde Black Tea remains strongly future-facing. In 2026, new physical standard samples and a flavor wheel were released, while new provincial strip-black-tea processing standards also took effect. Geographical-indication management, digital tea gardens, smart factories and heritage workshops are developing together. The tea's cultural value lies precisely in the fact that industry, agriculture, science and craft are still growing along the same timeline.