Not at all. "Red" tea is just the same "black" tea all Westerners know
(Keemun, Ceylon, Darjeeling, Lipton...)

Definition: http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcar...hrase=hong+cha
(Incedentally, Babelcarp is a fun site just for browsing tea terms).

"Black" tea is some truly weird stuff, which gets better while it
ages. Look around on rec.food.drink.tea or do a Google Groups search
for "pu-erh" (Pu-Erh is by far the best-known member of the Black tea
class). It's come up a lot recently. I'd recommend a look at Mike
Petro's really great (and inexplicably contreversial) website
www.pu-erh.net . He's really assembled a lot of good links and
resources about pu-erh, which is kind of a mysterious tea.

Definition of "Hei Cha" (black tea):
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcar...phrase=hei+cha

ZBL

(myclee) wrote in message . com>...
> So, you say that both red tea and black tea are not the same in China
> because of the way to processes the tea are different. But, I just
> wondering are they both taste the same?
>
> myclee
>
> "cc" > wrote in message >...
> > "Dan Stromberg" > wrote in message
> >
> > > http://chineseteas101.com/teaclass.htm
> > >
> > > Is it true that black tea and red tea are two different things in China?
> > > I had thought Red tea in china was what we called black tea in the West.
> >
> > That's not contradictory. As the site says, the process is different.
> >
> > Black tea :
> > -leaves are heated
> > -leaves are massaged by hand*
> > -time of maturation in high temperature
> > -leaves are massaged by hand*
> > -leaves are dried
> >
> > Red tea :
> > -leaves are displayed on baskets
> > -leaves are massaged by hand*
> > -fermentation
> > -leaves are dried
> >
> > *I translate without knowing the technical term in English, but that's
> > litterally what they do.
> >
> > Kuri