Dark tea, due to its special processing method, particularly the involvement of microorganisms, endows it with unique medicinal properties in Traditional Chinese Medicine. From the perspective of TCM theory, dark tea mainly possesses the following effects.

1. Dark tea has the effect of promoting digestion. Promoting digestion is interconnected with medicinal effects such as reducing greasiness and guiding qi downward. In TCM literature, its indication for "indigestion of food stagnation" is seen in "Ben Cao Qiu Zhen." Descriptions of its efficacy include "dispelling retained food," "aiding food digestion," "resolving food accumulation," "dispersing the effects of rich meat and relieving heat from highland barley," "detoxifying effects of alcohol and food," and "nourishing the spleen, most suitable after overeating." The efficacy of dark tea in reducing greasiness has been utilized for thousands of years. The dietary structure of nomadic peoples in Northwest China consists of "beef, mutton, and cheese, which cannot be resolved without tea," hence the saying, "Rather go without food for three days than without tea for one day," leading to the centuries-old Tea-Horse Trade. Descriptions of tea's "reducing greasiness" effect include "drinking after meals can resolve rich and greasy food," "resolving greasiness and detoxifying beef and mutton," "reducing human fat," "resolving the effects of meat and fish," and so on, too numerous to list. This effect of dark tea is extremely meaningful in contemporary society, where obesity has become a major health challenge and a prevalent epidemic; the "reducing greasiness" effect of dark tea is an opportune time for it to play its role.

2. Dark tea has the effect of treating dysentery. "Dysentery" refers to "enteritis," anciently called "red dysentery," "white dysentery," "red-white dysentery," "fasting dysentery," etc. "Ben Jing Feng Yuan" states: "Ginger tea treats dysentery... regardless of red or white, cold or heat, it is suitable for use." "Combined with vinegar, it is very effective for treating diarrhea and dysentery." Among the local people in Anhua, instances of using aged dark tea to treat "dysentery" are numerous and too many to enumerate. Boiling aged tea (dark tea stored for decades) into a thick decoction, supplemented with ginger slices and brown sugar to drink, generally brings relief within two hours. In 1989, an elderly leader from Hunan Tea Import and Export Corporation, who had long suffered from chronic enteritis, had an acute attack during an inspection at Baishaxi, suffering greatly and nearly collapsing. Hearing locals say that aged tea was effective, he had someone prepare a dose boiled from 1950s-era Qianliang tea. Within less than an hour of taking it, his stomach felt warm, with no urgent need for bowel movement. The next day, he regained his energy and directed work, marveling at the tea's miraculous effect. Compared to Western medicine, Chinese medicine indeed has its miraculous aspects in certain areas, as the saying goes, "Western medicine treats the symptoms, Chinese medicine treats the root cause."

3. Dark tea has detoxifying effects. In TCM texts, tea's detoxifying function is often called "clearing heat and detoxifying." For throat swelling and pain, yellow sores, ulcers, etc., caused by heat toxins, using tea to resolve them is always effective. The folk songs sung during the pressing process of Qianliang tea are ancient legacies left to us. At that time, with a lack of doctors and medicine, many ailments were tried with tea, the "miracle drug for all diseases." Gradually, tea's medicinal functions were continuously discovered, becoming precious research material for modern medicine. The "yellow sores" referred to in Qianliang tea are called bacterial infections in modern Western medicine. Tea itself has bactericidal functions. Applied externally, it can directly kill bacteria; taken internally, it regulates the body's internal functions, improving the immune system to combat bacterial growth and reproduction, treating both symptoms and root causes. The body also improves its disease resistance, and the recurrence rate is greatly reduced.

4. Dark tea has the effect of treating diabetes. Diabetes is a major疑难杂症 (difficult and complicated disease) currently facing humanity. Western medicine treats the symptoms, not the root cause, only alleviating the condition through insulin injections. However, folk use of aged tea to treat diabetes has a history of thousands of years. According to recent clinical trials on using dark tea to treat diabetes, research results show that dark tea's effect on diabetes is quite significant. The view that "drinking dark tea can control the condition" is also accepted by most diabetic patients. In South Korea, Japan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other major cities, wealthy people specifically seek aged tea and are willing to pay high prices, not for collection and appreciation, but for personal consumption. Diabetes is a disease of affluence, caused by disorders in the body's sugar metabolism, also greatly related to modern people's living and working environments and dietary structure. Current survey results show that the incidence of diabetes in large cities has exceeded 20%, and it is trending younger, becoming a major social problem affecting people's quality of life. Western medicine is still helpless against this, only able to control the worsening of the condition through insulin injections, with many dietary taboos. In contrast, Chinese medicine can fundamentally regulate the body's metabolic functions to achieve "self-hematopoiesis," which is essentially different from Western medicine.

Related link: Effects and Functions of Dark Tea