A green, unfermented tea, most of which comes from Oingshui in Zheijian Province. www.tea.co.uk gives a good description of gunpowder tea. After it has been withered it is steamed and rolled into small pellets without breaking the veins in the tea leaves. These are then dried. The pellets look remarkably like gunshot or gunpowder giving the tea its descriptive name. Gunpowder tea has a soft honey or coppery liquor with a herby smooth light taste.

My first encounter with gunpowder tea was in Afghanistan at a "government sponsored" evening of song and dance in Herat. The tea was served in a glass with a lot of sugar - and with a smattering of crumbled marijuana on top. I am sure that the great pleasure with which I recall Afghanistan, in those relatively contented years of the 1970s, is greatly coloured by the fact that I was high for most of the time I was there, without ever once knowingly procuring any drugs. I also remember with great embarrassment that I trod on the last ping pong ball in Herat.