What is brick tea?

Brick tea, also called autoclaved tea, as its name implies, is a kind of tea that looks like a brick. It is also a representative pressed tea, made of tea leaves, tea stems, and sometimes tea powder is added.

According to the different raw materials and production technology, brick tea can be divided into blue brick tea, rice brick tea, black brick tea, flower brick tea, Fuzhuan brick tea and Kangzhuan tea. All brick teas are autoclaved, but the molding methods are different. For example, green brick tea, rice brick tea, black brick tea, flower brick tea and Fuzhuan brick tea are all pressed by machinery, while Kang brick tea is hammered with a stick.

classify

Blue brick tea, also known as "old green tea", is made from Hubei old green tea. The finished tea has regular and smooth appearance, uniform thickness and blue-brown brick surface. The soup is red, yellow and bright, with the unique fragrance of green brick tea. It doesn't taste green, and the leaves are thick and dark brown. When drinking green brick tea, break the tea bricks and put them in a special kettle to boil with water. Tea juice is fragrant and delicious, and has many functions, such as clearing heart, refreshing, quenching thirst, warming people against cold, relieving depression and benefiting stomach, sterilizing and astringing, tonifying kidney and treating diarrhea. Old brick tea has a better effect.

Green brick tea is made by pressing old green tea. Location: Zhaoliqiao Town, chibi city City, Hubei Province. It was produced in Yanglou Cave in the ancient town of Puyin (now chibi city) in Qing Dynasty, so it is also called "cave brick" and "cave tea". The brick surface of green brick tea is printed with "Dongzhuang", lotus pattern or "Sichuan" trademark, which is mainly sold to Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, the former Soviet Union and other far eastern regions, so it is also called "selling tea by the side". In modern times, green brick tea was moved to Zhaoliqiao Brick Tea Industrial Park (formerly Puyin) in chibi city for centralized processing and suppression.

Old green tea is mainly produced in Chibi, Xianning, Tongshan, Chongyang, Tongcheng and other counties in Xianning, Hubei, with a history of 100 years. /kloc-around 0/890, Yang Lou Cave in Chibi began to make a laundry list of fried tea, that is, after the tea was fried, it was broken into pieces, packed in baskets (2.5 kg per basket) and transported to the north, which was called laundry list of fried tea. About 10, Shanxi tea merchants set up a village in Yanglou Cave to try to grow brick tea, and then Russian businessmen also set up a village in Hankou to suppress it. The pressing tools are first wood clips, then cowhide clips, and then mechanical pressing, and pressed into brick-shaped tea, named after the number of bricks per box, which is divided into four different specifications: Erqi, Sanjiu (2kg per tablet), Si Er (3.25kg per tablet) and Sanliu (0/.5 kg per tablet). "Erqi" and "Sanjiu" blue bricks are sold all over the northwest, with Baotou as the distribution center, collectively known as "Xikou Tea"; "24" and "36" blue brick tea are sold to Inner Mongolia and exported to Mongolia, the Soviet Union and other places, with Zhangjiakou as the distribution center, which is called "Dongkou Tea". In recent 40 years, in order to unify commodity specifications, only "Erqi" green brick tea was produced.

1910 ~15 is the peak period in the history of green brick tea, including brick tea made of some raw materials imported from Hunan and Jiangxi, with the highest annual output reaching 480,000 boxes (54 kg per box). Later, due to the war disaster, sales were blocked and production dropped sharply. Until the 1950s, the state strongly supported the production of edge-selling tea, which revived the production of old green tea. 1977 output reached more than 8000 tons. 1978 ~ 1982, the annual output fell below 5,000 tons due to the changes in the market demand of edge-selling tea, and recovered to 7,000 tons in 1983.

The suppression of green brick tea can be divided into three parts: sprinkling, double-sided and inner tea. The layer on the green brick tea surface is called sprinkling surface, which has the best quality; The bottom is called two sides, followed by quality; The layer sandwiched between the sprinkling surface and the two sides is called Baoxin tea, also called plum tea, which is of poor quality. The quality of green brick tea depends on the quality of fresh leaves and the technology of making tea.

Fresh leaves are picked and cut, and processed into raw tea. The noodle tea is divided into seven processes: enzyme fixation, primary kneading, primary baking, secondary frying, secondary kneading, fermentation and sun drying.

The inner tea is divided into four processes: fixing, rolling, stacking and drying to make coarse tea. After screening, pressing, drying and packaging, the finished green brick tea is made. Blue brick tea is rectangular and brick-shaped, with blue-brown color, pure aroma, rich taste, bright water color and dark and rough leaves. Each blue brick weighs 2 kg (including 0. 125 kg for both sides and 0. 1.75 kg for tea) and has a size of 34× 17×4 cm.

Efficacy: It has the functions of quenching thirst, resisting radiation, preventing cancer, helping sober up, promoting digestion, losing weight, delaying aging and lowering cholesterol. It can enhance the sensitivity of brain central nervous activity, improve thinking ability, lower blood pressure and inhibit arteriosclerosis. Because the older the green brick tea, the more fragrant it is, and the more mellow it tastes, it is suitable for stacking in a ventilated, dark, dry and odorless place.

Mizhuancha

Rice brick tea, produced in Hubei Province, is a kind of red brick tea with black tea slices as raw materials. Because the raw materials used are all tea powder, it is called "rice brick tea". The finished rice brick tea is very beautiful in appearance, angular, clear and beautiful in grain, dark in brick color, thick in soup color, pure and harmonious in aroma and very mellow in taste.

brick tea

Black brick tea, also known as "bazi", is made from Hunan black tea. Rectangular brick with specifications of 35 * 18 * 3.5cm ... The brick surface is flat and straight, angular, uniform in thickness, clear in pattern and dark brown; The aroma of the endoplasm is pure, slightly fragrant with pine smoke, the soup color is red and Huang Lue is black, the leaves are old and tender, and the taste is strong and slightly astringent. The net weight of each brick is 2 kg.

Huazhuancha

Flower brick tea, produced in Hunan, is made of "thousand taels of tea" in history-flower roll tea covered with nothing. Fuzhuan brick tea is rectangular in shape and its specification is 35 * 18.5 * 5cm. Brick surface smooth, angular, clear pattern, black color; Intrinsic aroma is pure, slightly fragrant with pine smoke, the soup is red, the leaves are old and tender, and the taste is strong and slightly astringent. The production process is basically the same as that in black brick. The processing method of flower brick tea takes high-quality black tea from Gaojiaxi and Maanxi in Anhua, Hunan as raw materials.

The origin of the name "flower brick" is that it is changed from a roll shape to a brick shape, and the other is that there are patterns on all sides of the brick to show the difference from other brick teas, so it is named "flower brick". "Flower Brick" is called "Flower Roll" in history, because a roll of tea net coincides with the old scale of 1000, so it is also called "Thousand Liang Tea".

Flower brick tea has patterns on the front, dark brown color on the brick surface, pure internal aroma, pure taste, strong and slightly astringent taste, red and yellow soup, old and tender leaves, and the net weight of each flower brick is 2 kg. It was built with a stick hammer in a long basket, and it was cylindrical, with a height of 147 cm and a diameter of 20 cm. Fine workmanship and high quality. In the heyday of history, the annual output reached more than 30 thousand pieces (volumes).

Fumingcha

Fuzhuan brick tea is also a square brick-shaped tea made of black hairy tea. Because there is a special process in the processing of Fuzhuan tea-flowering, the quality of Fuzhuan tea is lush golden colonies, commonly known as "blooming golden flowers". The more golden flowers, the better the quality of Fuzhuan tea. The brick surface of the special Fuzhuan brick tea is dark brown, with pure and fragrant inherent fragrance with yellow flowers, red, yellow and bright soup color, even dark brown leaves and mellow and peaceful taste. Ordinary Fuzhuan brick tea is yellow and brown in color, pure in aroma, red and yellow in soup, dark and brown in leaf bottom, thick and old, and full of fragrance.

The main difference between them lies in the different combination of raw materials.

The pressing of Fuzhuan brick tea should go through the processes of raw material treatment, steam retting, press forming, hair drying and finished product packaging. Its pressing procedure is basically the same as that of blue bricks and tiles, but the difference lies in the brick thickness.

Because of the unique "blooming" process of rotary brick, in addition to many conditions, an important condition is that the brick body has moderate elasticity, which is convenient for microbial reproduction. The drying speed does not require quick drying, and the whole drying cycle is more than twice as long as that of black and white bricks to slow down "frosting". Machine-made bricks are more convenient for collection and natural fermentation, and generally do not become moldy. Compared with loose tea and handmade brick tea, the aging degree is better.

Tefu brick has a dark brown surface, pure aroma and mellow taste. The soup is red, yellow and bright, and the leaves are dark brown. The brick surface of ordinary Fu brick is yellow-brown, with pure fragrance, mellow taste, rich fragrance, red soup color, Huang Liang color and old leaves.

When making Fuzhuan tea, it is required that the soup color is not turbid, the Qing Xiang is not heavy, the taste is strong and astringent, and the taste is strong and resistant to brewing. In particular, it is required that the golden bacteria (commonly known as "golden flower") particles in the brick should be large and smell like yellow flowers when dried. Uygur people in Xinjiang love Fuzhuan tea best, and they regard "Golden Flower" as a symbol to test the quality of Fuzhuan tea. Tibetan compatriots in Qinghai and Tibet and brothers in Gansu and Ningxia provinces all need it. Lanzhou is a distribution center, supplied from Yiyang, the main producing area.

Tibetan tea

Tibetan tea, produced in Ya 'an, Yibin, Jiangjin, Wanxian and other places in Sichuan Province, is made by pressing the south side tea in Sichuan side tea as raw material. The color of the brick surface is brown and yellow, the aroma of the inner substance is pure, the soup color is yellow and red, the leaves are thick and old, brown and black, and the taste is mellow and rich.

There are old blue bricks in Hubei, fu bricks in Hunan, black brick, Hua bricks and Xiang Jian. Kangzhuan, Golden Arrow and Bao Fang in Sichuan, Compacted Tea in Yunnan and Liubao Tea in Guangxi.

The incidence of osteoporosis in Mongolian people who drink brick tea is higher than that in Han people 17%. It can be seen that drinking strong tea and milk tea for a long time is the main cause of dental fluorosis, osteoporosis and low back pain.

During the period of 1995, experts investigated the fluorosis of Tibetans and Hans in daofu county, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The investigation confirmed that the fluorine content in local water sources was very low. On the other hand, Tibetan herdsmen and monks drink a lot of brick tea for a long time. The daily fluoride intake of adults is 12.46 mg, and that of adolescents is 6.56 mg.

According to experts' calculations, Tibetans drink 10.77 kg of brick tea a year on average, 29.3 grams a day. According to the fluoride content of brick tea is 426 mg/kg, Tibetans can absorb 12.5 mg fluoride every day, which is more than three times the safe dose.

Youpiaocha

Stamp brick tea is a kind of tea brick in the shape of stamps, made in china national philatelic corporation. Approved by China Post Group Corporation, the tea bricks of Chinese zodiac stamps were tested by the Tea Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and recommended by Yunnan Pu 'er Tea Association. For the first time, China Post's first round of Zodiac stamps was taken as the prototype, and Daye Pu 'er, a superior ancient tree in Yunnan, was selected as the raw material, which was made and pressed by the industry's original patented technology.

The original ecological ancient tea of Qiaomu (0/.700-1.800 m) in six ancient tea mountains in Yunnan Province was selected as raw materials. The tea brick is moderately elastic, the strips are fat and vivid, the soup is golden and bright, the entrance is smooth, the aroma is overflowing, the throat rhyme is endless, and it is durable. Tea reflects the activities and nature of traditional classic practices, and Pu 'er tea is "ancient and easy".

The tea bricks of the zodiac stamps are extracted and pressed from Pu 'er tea, which is the concentrated essence of Pu 'er tea and has a more targeted health care function than Pu 'er tea.