Chinese tea Longevity Sprout, Eternal Spring Jade Leaf, Dragon in the Clouds, Longevity Dragon Sprout, Dragon Phoenix and Flower, and Eternal Spring Silver Sprout. The Ming Dynasty scholar Wen Zhenheng's encyclopedic book "Zhang Wu Zhi" (; Treatise on Superfluous Things), volume 12, contains the following descriptions of several famous Ming Dynasty teas: During this time, Huqiu tea (; lit. "Tiger Hill tea"), not to be confused with the black tea of the same name from the Nilgiris District in what is now Tamil Nadu, India) was purportedly developed as the finest tea in the world; however, the production quantity was rather small,
Wuyi tea technique for stopping the oxidation process of tea, pan-firing the leaves in a dry wok rather than steaming them as had been done previously. Songluo-style green tea became popular, and the new production method spread to other regions. In the 16th century, Wuyi tea makers invited monks from Songluo to teach their techniques to them. Eventually they discovered that by allowing the tea to partially oxidize before firing, they could produce a darker, fragrant type of tea which came to be known as oolong ("wulong", "black dragon") tea. European merchants began purchasing tea in Canton (Guangzhou) during the 17th century.