【本期话题】Black Tea? Red Tea?

红茶？黑茶？

In Chinese and Chinese influenced languages, black tea is known as crimson tea" (紅茶, Mandarin Chinese hóngchá; Japanese kōcha; Korean hongcha), perhaps a more accurate(精确) description of the colour of the liquid(液体).
The name black tea, however, could alternatively(也许)refer to the colour of the oxidized leaves. In Chinese, "black tea" is a commonly used classification(分类,归类)for post-fermented (fermented发酵) teas, such as Pu-erh tea.
However, in the Western world, "red tea" more commonly refers to rooibos, a South African tisane.【更多故事尽在TalkOnline】

通常我们说的红茶，英语是Red Tea? Red Tea其实另有所指当中还有一则有趣的轶闻
While green tea usually loses its flavor within a year, black tea retains its flavour for several years. For this reason, it has long been an article of trade, and compressed bricks of black tea even served as a form of de facto currency in Mongolia, Tibet, and Siberia into the 19th century.It was known since the Tang Dynasty that black tea steeped in hot water could also serve as a passable cloth dye for the lower classes that could not afford the better quality clothing colours of the time. However, far from being a mark of shame, the "brown star" mark of the dyeing process was seen as much better than plain cloth and held some importance as a mark of the lower merchant classes through the Ming Dynasty.The tea originally imported to Europe was either green or semi-oxidized. Only in the 19th century did black tea surpass green in popularity. Although green tea has recently seen a revival due to its purported health benefits, black tea still accounts for over ninety percent of all tea sold in the West.
The expression "black tea" is also used to describe a cup of tea without milk ("served black"), similar to coffee served without milk or cream.

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