Pu’er tea is a unique local famous tea in Yunnan formed in history. In ancient times, Pu-erh tea was often made into various shapes for the convenience of transportation, and the block-shaped ones were called Pu-erh brick tea.
1. The birth of brick tea
Tea bricks appeared in the Guangxu period, and many tea producing areas began to make brick tea. Because the tea farmers handed over to Shanxi merchants in bulk in the past, they were bulky, light in weight, and inconvenient to transport. Moreover, it is necessary to put the tea leaves into bamboo baskets, and then carry them after being stepped on and pressed firmly, which is quite worn out. In order to meet the requirements of tea merchants, brick tea production appeared. The earliest tea bricks appeared in the early years of Guangxu.
Its suppression method is extremely naive and simple, and it is generally artificial suppression. After the fourth year of Guangxu (1878), Shanxi merchants gradually used hydraulic presses and steam machines to process brick tea in the production of brick tea. This method of making brick tea is simple, effective and easy to operate. It can be said that the advanced industrial technology of the West first appeared in my country because of the tea trade. As a historical record, tea bricks truly show the historical appearance of my country’s foreign trade in the Qing Dynasty. And the development and evolution process of modern science and technology in our country.
2. Manufacturing process
All brick teas are autoclaved, but the molding methods are different. Such as black bricks, patterned bricks, Fu bricks, green bricks, and rice brick tea are formed by machine pressing. Kangzhuan tea is shaped with sticks and hammers. In the pressing technology of brick tea, steam retting is a unique process in Fu brick pressing. At the same time it has a special process. That is to let yellow mold grow on it, commonly known as “fajinhua”. Fuzhuan brick tea is the top grade with more golden moldy flowers, the more moldy flowers, the better the quality.
3. The method of brewing Pu-erh tea bricks
1. Tea prying: Use a tea knife to pry an appropriate amount (5-10 grams) of Pu’er tea from various pressed Pu’er teas (cake, brick, Tuo, etc.).
2. Throwing tea: Put the pried Pu’er tea into a tureen.
3. Tea washing: Pour boiling water into a tureen to make tea, which is called the first brew. Under normal circumstances, the first brew is not to drink. It is used to wash away the dust in the tea and to dissolve the tea in water. In order to have a full and authentic tea flavor after a few brews.
4. Pour out the first brew: The first brew should be poured out of the cup quickly to avoid excessive washing away of the tea flavor.
5. Cup washing: The first brewed tea can be poured into a teacup, washed and then poured out again. It is also called a warm cup. It can make the quilt taste more mellow when it is filled with tea soup later.
6. The second brewing: Pour boiling water again to make tea. This brewing was originally used for drinking.
7. Soup: According to your own preference for tea flavor, pour out the tea soup after soaking for a certain period of time for tasting (the longer the soaking time, the thicker the tea soup, and the second brewing usually takes 30 seconds to produce the soup). The tea soup is poured from the tureen into the fair cup, and a filter screen can be added on the fair cup to filter out the end of the tea leaves.
8. Divide soup and drink tea: Divide the tea soup in the justice cup into everyone’s small teacups, and then you can share authentic Pu’er tea together.
4. Identification
(1) First of all, from the appearance, the cord is slender and relatively complete, which should be the base material of grade 4-5 raw tea. The dry tea is tan in color with a little oily sheen. The dry tea smells like camphor, so the smell is slightly pungent. There are signs of weathering on the edge of the tea brick, the amount is 250 grams.
(2) The most important basis for identifying the quality of Pu-erh tea is brewing in soup. The main thing is to observe the color and taste of the soup and the bottom of the leaves. Remove about 10 grams of sample from the tea brick and brew.
1. The color of the soup is millet-colored and relatively clear. The tea soup is breathable and has very little suspended matter.
2. The taste of tea soup has obvious camphor fragrance. , slightly astringent, smooth tea soup. The aftertaste of sweetness is obvious, the body fluid is strong, and the water is slightly thin.
3. The color of the leaf base is dark brown, relatively bright. There are fewer bouquets, and the leaves are softer and elastic when pinched.
Pu-erh tea bricks can only be made through several special processes such as greening, rolling, drying, and stacking. Among them, the fresh leaves become Pu’er Maoqing after being greened, kneaded and dried. After the raw tea is made, it comes to the follow-up process of distinguishing between raw tea and cooked tea. After being fermented and turned into ripe tea, it becomes cooked tea. After two to three years of long-term storage, wait for the taste to calm down before selling.
Under such a process, ripe Pu-erh tea bricks aged 5 to 8 years under dry warehouse storage conditions are regarded as top grade. However, raw tea is not ripened by fermenting, but by natural transformation of mature tea. This process is quite slow, and it takes at least 5 to 8 years to become tea. However, the riper raw tea becomes more fragrant as it ages, and its lively charm is revealed more and more. This also makes collecting Puer tea a trend.
