Tea Extraction (component)
This Monitor Dynasty painting reveals intimately the big distinction in how the tea is consumed throughout the earlier days when the tea discus was in vogue. The particular person servant sitting on the bench is grinding the compressed tea into powder for his colleague on the desk to whisk into tea drinks throughout the large bowl. This fundamental “dian cha fa” was later developed into the chanoyu in Japan.
The material nature of the compressed tea in these day could be a lot nearer to the matcha nowadays, sooner than it is grounded.
A Historic Type
Compressing lessens the bulkiness of the tealeaves for transportation. That’s significantly dramatic when the tealeaves shouldn’t tightly curled. Inside the historic earlier, this was very important when transportation have been dear throughout the mountainous areas throughout the west and southwestern elements of China. additional> A compressed quantity of tea would possibly moreover retailer larger at a time when ample packaging provides and know-how have been unavailable; the hardened ground of tea turned a layer of insulation. That will have been one in every of many the reason why even after unfastened tea was launched as a result of the nationwide regular in China throughout the 14th century, compressed teas of low prime quality (1) have been nonetheless the basic traded type with the ethnic groups and worldwide retailers in these then distant areas. Compressed gadgets of tea have been like a foreign exchange there. Bartering with tea for horses and totally different commodities was practiced successfully into the 18th century.
You will want to state that although the tea discus was a nationwide regular tea product type in earlier centuries, individuals who have been produced for such shopping for and promoting have been made with a lots cruder variation than the same old. The current compressing course of, which I consider is a propagation of this deterioration, is approach a lot much less refined when as compared with historic documentation of the making for civilian and imperial use.
A tighten wrap of tea leaves is to be compressed throughout the hydraulic press
The Course of
The compression course of that is practiced nowadays is simple and is perhaps seen in a few tea areas in China. There may be slight variations ensuing from regionally accessible (or unavailable) machines and the conditions of the tea involved. Principally the tea or crude tea (mao cha) is steamed briefly to soften after which pressed into stone or metal moulds. The place simple mould pressing machine is simply not accessible, a hammer or a pestle is used. The worker’s private physique weight can be a normal software program for compacting the bulk. The compressed type is then taken out for air drying or bake drying sooner than it is wrapped and packed for distribution.
Compressed tea has been a provision for ethnic groups dwelling throughout the mountains for a whole bunch of years.
Curios or Epicure?
With the consolation of latest packing provides and processes and their potential to relatively extra efficiently protect tea prime quality, the one two causes for taking trouble to compress tea are:
- As a sort of dosage bundle for consolation. Such as a result of the mini Toucha, the tablet Zhangcha, and the Wuyi oolong bar.
- As a promoting and advertising and marketing presentation in extra distinctive wanting standard varieties, such as a result of the Pu’er chabing, the Hunan Fu-bricks,orGuangxiLuan baskets. These are used principally as a sort of assortment for quite a few memento capabilities fairly than for exact consumption. There are literally small pockets of hobbyists fancying the myths of the compressed type and actually take the problem of chipping up the compressed chunk to make tea with. They’re solely a tiny market share that helps the worth of the product. The others are far more important — vacationers, current patrons, curios collectors, speculators, and alas, new tea retailer owners whom I would like have not paid over worth for this merchandise. On account of their standard life-style, ethnic nomadic Chinese language language throughout the border areas have grown up using large blocks of compressed tea, which their ancestors had appreciated because of the consolation in carrying on the horse once more, nevertheless have come to like the one dosage per tablet thought very successfully, which is mirrored throughout the rising product sales of the form.
Trendy brick tea for Tibetan. Uncover the bilingual Tibetan-Chinese language language product leaflet. The two stylised Chinese language language characters impressed onto the tea reads “Zhang Cha ( i.e. Tibetan Tea )”
