All About Gunpowder Tea

Gunpowder tea is a Chinese green tea that dates back to the Tang dynasty (about the 8th century, possibly earlier). It is traditionally a whole-leaf tea, rolled up into tiny pellets that look, apparently, like gunpowder. Modern gunpowder tea is rolled by machine, but in the past (and still in particularly high quality, exclusive brands) it was rolled by hand, into pellets potentially as small at the head of a pin.

There are three varieties of gunpowder tea:

Pingshui Gunpowder is the most common and original variety, and the most widely available. It is strongly coloured and flavoured, and has a distinctive though not unpleasant aroma. It is generally quite fresh.

Formosa Gunpowder (depicted above) is a more modern variety of gunpowder tea grown in Taiwan. It is less strongly coloured than the Pingshui variety, and also has a subtly different scent and flavour.

Ceylon Gunpowder is grown not in China, but in Sri Lanka, and at a higher altitude. I can't prove it, but if you ask me, the altitude makes it somewhat sweeter than the Chinese variety, though it could be that the flavour is simply lighter overall. Technically, it is a Ceylon tea, but it shares the characteristic rolled shape of traditional gunpowder tea, and so is often included amongst them.