No matter how fat or thin you are, you will never escape the fate of being soaked.
Loose tea, pressed tea, and ground tea are the three forms of tea. Loose tea has the widest circulation, while pressed tea is commonly found in black and white tea. Ground tea is usually used in Japanese tea ceremonies, tea performances, or food additives.
Compressed tea has the functions of saving space, facilitating transportation, storage, and preservation, and has a very high market visibility.
However, the compressed tea of rock tea is relatively niche and not very popular. The birth of rock tea compressed tea was first suppressed by Mr. Chen in 1996 and officially launched in 1997, with a history of nearly 30 years to this day.
Due to the skyrocketing value of rock tea in recent years, most rock tea is circulated in the market in the form of soaked bags, making the exposure of compressed tea even more scarce.
When the teacher asked us to write this manuscript, it also made our tea making novices feel uneasy. After all, we have only shared rock tea compressed tea a few times, and our experience in brewing compressed tea is quite limited
In order to not disappoint our teacher’s high expectations, we specially visited Professor Chen, who has extensive research on brick tea pressing, collection, and brewing After practicing brewing with Teacher Chen multiple times, we found that the inclusiveness of brick tea is actually very high. As long as we overcome the difficulties, we can connect the Ren and Du meridians.
01 There are many ways to wake up you who have been sleeping for many years.
Brick tea is usually more suitable for drinking after a period of time, so most of the brick tea used for brewing is of some age. If you want to regain its luster, you must “wake up”.
The original meaning of “waking up” refers to returning to normal after getting drunk, so waking up not only takes time, but it is also best to make an appointment in advance, peel off the clothes that bind it, arrange a breathable purple clay jar room, and let it lie naked comfortably for ten days and a half months.
If you want to wake up at its best, you need to spend more time and energy taking care of it. For the first five days, you can leave it naked outside, and for the middle five days, you can put it in a purple clay jar. After the last five days, you can take it out and hang it naked for five days, and then you can drink it!
If you want to enjoy it in advance, you can wake up naked for three to five days. Once it comes to waking up naked, please be sure to choose a sunny and dry weather.
If you are too greedy on a whim and shout for food and drink as soon as you take it out of the warehouse, can you also force it to wake up and perform its talents? After all, my mouth can’t wait any longer!
First, quickly soak the tea bricks in the first pot, discard the tea soup, open the lid (porcelain is best), let it sit for two or three minutes, let the aroma dissipate, and then officially start brewing.
02 It’s better to find a suitable nest than a golden or silver house.
Why is it both porcelain and purple clay? There are so many things to do! But who made it an old man? Every place of refuge after coming out of the warehouse is important.
As mentioned earlier, if you haven’t had time to wake up for tea, it is suitable to use a lid bowl. This is because high-temperature sintered porcelain has a high density and is impermeable, which will not leave the fragrance of the tea in the container. It has the elegance of ten thousand flowers passing through the leaves without occupying the body.
Usually, purple clay teapots are used for brewing old tea bricks. However, if the aroma of the tea is still clear and even has obvious aroma types when smelling the dry tea, using a covered bowl to brew it has an advantage over using a purple clay teapot. Not only can you feel the aroma of the tea that has been refined again, but you can also appreciate the details and layers of the soup.
If the aroma of old tea is strong and old-fashioned, believe me, the purple clay teapot is its best companion. After the sedimentation of time, the inner essence also flows into the tea soup, warm and thick, and the continuous Chen Yunrun silently sweeps over the whole body. Ancient flavors such as ginseng fragrance, medicinal fragrance, woody flavor, jujube fragrance, and zongzi leaf fragrance flood the tongue and heart, familiar and long-lasting. It can be said that it is the happiest way to drink.
Due to the special form of compressed tea, which is different from loose tea, it is necessary to be more careful when choosing a pot, which is different from brewing new tea.
The pot for brewing old brick tea should be made of mud with good breathability, and the pot mouth must be wide to allow it to have a good breathing SPA while sleeping for a long time. The pot body should be deep and wide, and there should be enough space to use its fists and feet after the tea bricks dissolve.
The choice of utensil is for watching tea and brewing tea, which is also a personal pursuit. As Teacher Chen said, “There are strong emotions and weak flavors in a strong tea.” If you want to have both, then it is not impossible.
The color change of the soup brewed in a purple clay teapot after breaking the pieces
You can try the mixed brewing method with tea utensils. First, use a lid bowl to open your heart, then use a purple clay teapot to add color and flavor in the middle, and finally use a ceramic teapot to cook and make the most of everything to experience the rotation of flavors. Therefore, brick tea is really tolerant and easy for you to tinker with.
03 To make good pressure tea, time is the antidote
Waking up tea requires choosing a time, but there are actually many places where pressing tea requires choosing a time! For example, the particularly important soaking time.
Rock tea contains abundant substances, and during compression, it is steamed and softened, causing the tea juice to flow out again. So, how much material does it have in its belly? We often struggle to figure out the details.
Due to the relatively slow dissolution rate of compressed tea compared to loose tea, when breaking off a small piece and steeping it directly, first quickly wet yourself and wash the tea. In the first few steps, take it slow and soak the tea for about 1 minute. After soaking for about 3 to 4 times, the tea pieces begin to stretch and the soup color gradually thickens. When the soup is ready, you can press the accelerator button. Seeing that the tea soup has lost its color, you can still drink it by steeping it for a while.
This drinking method is suitable for idle people who have plenty of time to pass.
If you don’t like to wait by nature and want to have a good taste early, you might as well try to break the tea into pieces. After several twists and turns of cutting and breaking the pieces, the inner quality of the tea can be released more quickly, and you also need to be quick and quick. You should be active before making tea. You can feel the “concentrated” essence will be poured out in the first few bubbles, and the thick and smooth tea will be poured out in one cup after another.
Mastering the soaking time is not enough, you also need to learn to seize the opportunity. For example, when the golden wind blows, drinking a well preserved old brick can bring a hint of warmth on a slightly cool day, which is truly a satisfying “pleasure” in life.
In the past two years, bottled water has become popular, and Teacher Chen also bottled a pot for us on site. She said that bottled water is most suitable for drinking in the winter, as it can satisfy our thirst without burdening our bodies. Although we drank it in the summer at 38 degrees Celsius, the experience was quite nice. I believe drinking bottled water in winter is also quite enjoyable! In other rainy seasons like Mount Wuyi in spring and summer, we’d better do a good job in logistics!
It’s already autumn after finishing this article. If your city is starting to cool down, then prepare two old tea bricks in your house and enjoy the warmth of autumn by soaking, boiling, or stuffing them