the history of keemun black tea

Keemun was made in year 1875 at Keemun County (祁门县 Qi-men Xian), Anhui Province (安徽省 An-hui Sheng).In fact,Qimen county produced only green tea until the mid 1870's. At that time a young man in the civil service lost his job. Being totally heartbroken and completely embarrassed by his shame, he remembered what his father told him - ‘A skill is a better guarantor of a living than precarious officialdom’. Following this advice, the young man packed up his courage and his bags to travel to Fujian province to learn the secrets of black tea manufacturing. Upon his return to Qimen in 1875 he set up three factories to produce black tea. The black tea method was perfectly suited to the tea leaves produced in this warm moist climate with well drained sandy soil. Before long, the superb flavor of Keemun became very popular around the world.It is reported that Queen of England counts upon Imperial Keemun Maofeng as one of her teas of choice.
Despite its relatively short history,(for a Chinese tea!) Keemun became world renowned by 1915 in taste tests conducted by the leading tea companies of the day. It was preferred over Darjeeling! 1915 also marked another milestone in Keemun’s history - it won the Gold Prize at the International Exposition in Panama. Even though more and more tea connoisseurs take to Assams and Ceylon black teas in recent years, Premium quality Keemun still remains "king of the black teas”.
Keemun Black Tea has been awarded for many times in international and domestic tea contests. The main awards are: 1913: Keemun Black Tea was awarded the Gold Prize at the Expo held at Italy 1915: Keemun Black Tea won the Gold Prize in the Expo (万国博览会) held at Panama 1987: In the 26th World Premium Food Product Contest held at Belgium, Keemun won the Gold Prize.