Dry tea leaves

Qimen Aged An Tea is an aged tea from the same town where the world-renowned Qimen(Keemun) black tea is made. It is a tea that has existed for hundreds of years. But its production was halted for almost half a century until 1983, when a Hong Kong businessman shared his An Tea collection with the Anhui province government tea agency in China. Then this famous An Tea was reborn. There is another version of the aged An Tea from the town which is famous for the Liuan Melon Slice green tea in the same province. The latter version is called Liuan Basket Tea.

An Tea from a Hong Kong tea shop

Qimen Aged An Tea not only tastes good, but also has unique health benefits for people living in hot and humid climate conditions. That explains why this tea is very popular in Hong Kong and in some of the Southeast Asia countries. Another thing to point out is that the An Tea is packaged in natural bamboo material for the continues aging process. According to one tea expert, 10-year-aged An Tea is not worth drinking, 20-year-aged An Tea begins to have some flavor, and 30-year-aged An Tea is the best. 😊 

For tea tasting, I used 8g of 21-year-aged An Tea with 100ml hot water. The first three brews tea-liquor are in the left container and the fourth brew is in the right container. Dry tea leaves do not have any aroma of aged Puer teas, but wet tea leaves do have the lovely aroma of aged Puer teas. The tea liquor tastes like a good Puer tea but is missing the body of a good Puer tea. The aftertaste sweetness lingers in the mouth for a long time.

Tea liquor

Tea liquor in a small cup

Wet tea leaves