Black tea brick 2

A while ago, I got a small piece of black tea brick from a customer. It twigged my interest, and I bought a whole brick which looks similar enough for a taste comparison. The flavor turned out night and day in difference, which confirms the little brick from Dakota is indeed much older and now fine tuned by precious time.

This brick is nothing more than a simple black tea, sort of a fresh version of lipton black tea. I am sure this brick will be tucked away for a while, perhaps it will too turn out to be a silky smooth nectar of nature in 20 years.

Hidden Treasure

One thing about having a tea shop is you will attract endless option of tea! Yesterday was one of those days.

A lady came in with a chunk of brick, seeking for identity of this little black rock solid like tea, which her nephew obtained from an Indian man at a Dakota Indian summer fair about 2 years ago. The little paper bag says "China Black Tea Brick". She did not know what to do with it, how to break it off, how to brew.

At my bar counter was a couple that frequent my shop, we were having a Ban Zhang Pu run. Like a good host that I am, I share any strange teas to any one. :P

The 4 of us were anxious to try this mysterious tea. I treat any tea the same at the beginning, with slight variation by type. So as the label says black tea, I took a small chunk out with quite a bit of elbow grease. This brick is rock solid, nothing like a hard compressed Pu-erh. It's at least 10 times more compressed, even more so than iron cakes. It was all dust fanning pieces within the cake. They were so compact that I left the small nuggets as is, placed in a Cha Hai, pour hot boiling water over it. The first steep took about a good 2 to 3 minutes. The color came out beautiful, crystal clear with a sheen of oily shine on the surface. The taste was awww! Very smooth, nourishing, sweet red dates flavor. The sensation while the tea slipping down the throat was like a spa treatment. The second infusion took even longer, about 5 minutes, the red dates flavor was even more pronounced, the sweetness was so obvious that it seems like sugar was added which was not the case at all. We had 4 to 5 infusions of it. Each one of them were delicious. I couldn't get many steeping out of it, but the taste is really special!

First infusion, large nuggets are still stuck together.


6 or 7th infusion.

At first, it seems to be about 7 yrs old, but by the 3rd round, I know this tea is gotta be very old, 30 upwards. Then I looked closely to the design, it tells me this must be an export tea. My first guess is Russia or Europe. Not likely to be Arab or Tibet. Comparing the design of the brick, the type of tea leaves to modern day Black (true China Black, not Red) tea such as Hu Nan Fu Zuan Hei Cha, this tea definitely stamped with a historic chronicle time stamp. Looking back at the export history of China Black tea bricks, Russia and China's relationship came to a haul in the 70's. However, China did not produce anything with this type of design mode in the 70's. I am hoping this is before the 50's. But I can't be sure. The flavor does give me a before 50's feel.

This brick reminds me a lot of historical facts of China tea culture, most of them I have only heard of, but didn't make sense when applied to modern loose leaves. It's now making sense to why certain technique or tools were used then, but no longer part of modern day tea drinking.

One of them is the grinding tool existed in Tang dynasty. Tea were made as bricks then, I guess some what similar to this one here, rock solid hard. Tea was grounded into powders (I guess not fine powder like Matcha), then roasted over fire and then boiled in water. Given that this brick is extremely compact, the grinder might work better than my ice pick (for pu), I skipped the roasting step this time, and steeped instead of boiled which I guess why it took minutes to steep the flavor out even though it's fanning and dust, large clumps took 4 steepings to open, with a spoon to force open.

I am inviting the LATA gang for a tasting. Jason's tongue I will have to borrow for the occasion! :P We should roast it a bit to see the difference as well.

A tea fanatic and good friend of mine came for tea with 2 other lady friends later of the day, I made this brick tea again, and much more. Including the Ban Zhang run earlier in the morning, I must had over 15 teas in one day. Well, drunk as before and up till 4. Ban Zhang pu kicked my behind each and every time.

Update:
After some digging on the internet, I found out this tea is manufactured by Zhao Li Qiao tea factory of Hu Bei province. The factory is located in the town named Zhao Li Qiao (bridge). Zhao and Li are last names. They produce 3 types of tea bricks: Hei (black), Qing (green/blue) and Mi (rice) bricks. The one I have is a Mi (rice) brick, containing black tea fanning, stems and such. Basically the left overs. Before the communist party took over China (1945), Zhao Li Qiao tea factory was a private company producing tea for tea merchants exporting such bricks to the northern, west and northwestern neighboring countries, such as Russia, Mongolia, Tibet, west ward all the way to Europe. These are also called Bian Xiao Cha (Out side the border tea). This type of brick has been a stable diet for the Tibetans and Mongolians, meat eating nomadic tribes, served as digestive aid, vitamin and mineral supplements. Between 1950s and 1970s, the company changed its name to Zhao Li Qiao China Tea Company. Then it's named Zhao Li Qiao Hu Bei Province Tea Company. Today, the company produces Mi (rice) brick with 2 design molds:

Front of a Train by ZLQ Hu Bei Province Tea Company, aim for internal sale, meaning within China.

The Memorial Arch by ZLQ China Tea Company, aim for external sale, to foreign countries.

The brick I have on hand belong to the second type by design. Although the company name exited only between 1950 and 1970s (supposedly), however it's still used today (I don't know since when it was reused). It's hard to say how old my brick is. The taste has a certain old pu (nicely aged decomposed) quality to it, if it was old,I might have a nice little chunk of history here.

There are only 2 known 100+ years old Mi Bricks exist today, except the undiscovered ones. Each are worth $1+ million RMB, weight over 1kg each, one of them is at Hu Bei Museum. both have the memorial arch design, company titles are different than ZLQ __ Tea Company. The arch design has a European flavor to it, and a traditional design for Bian Xiao Cha (out side of the border tea). Back in the days, they were packed for individual trade companies, most of them owned by the Jun Merchants. A group of extremely successful merchants trading in Mongolia, Russia and Tibet.

Birth of Lapsang Souchong - Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong

Myth of Lapsang Souchong 正 山 小 種 (Main mountain small bush)

Wu Yi Shan has long been the major tea producing region through out China history and today. Gong Bing - Tea cakes were produced before the Ming dynasty, loose leaves thereafter. Before tea became a fashion in European, black tea was no where to be found. It was born due to an accident. A military troop past by a village, made themselves comfortable by sleeping on top of a layer of tea leaves which were being sun dried during the day. The village people couldn't collect the leaves over night, then found the fresh leaves completely fermented the next morning. These leaves were to shipped to Europe originally as Wu Yi Yen Cha. But as a result, the village people smoked these over fermented leaves to mask the flavor using fire wood. The name Lapsang Souchong was given to this new product. Interestingly enough, the Dutch loved the smoky flavor and ordered more, hence the spread of Lapsang Souchong in Europe.

Lapsang Souchong is Fukkienese, Fu Jian in modern day. Tea is also Fukkienese, De' is how it's pronounced. It became Tee in Dutch, then Tea in English. Cha is the official name in China, also used in India and the rest of Asian countries. Geographically, Fu Jian port was the first landing of the Dutch to load up ship loads of tea. De' was therefore adopted by the Dutch and carried back to Europe. In fact, most imported tea from China to Europe are of Fukkienese names. I couldn't make sense of Lapsang Souchong before I found it on an English/Chinese tag at WHF years ago.

Jiu Qu Hong Mei

Jiu Qu Hong Mei - Nine meander red prune (tree) 九曲红梅
I got this sample from YHF a couple of months back. Yes they give out samples SOME TIMES.

What a pretty name, poetic indeed! This is a fully fermented red tea (black in English terms). The dry leaves are quite attractive, uniformly long and slender, appear to be young leaves, smell like sweet dried lichi fruit, caramel, and a woody aroma typically associates with red tea.

2 oz, gaiwan, boiling water, 5s, 10s, 10s, 15s, 30s, 45s, 60s. Tea is medium amber in color, clear and smooth texture, sweet fruity taste, light aroma of a prune and dried lichi mixture. It develops a different taste in every brew. I find this to be a gem in YHF for as little as $30 per lb. The taste and leave grade are both more superior than Da Hong Pao at $50 per lb from the same store.

I am not much of a red tea drinker nowadays, however this is one of the red tea I would definitely like to stock up. It'd make a cup of good milk tea with more leaves for stronger taste.

Russian Caravan

Russian Caravan from Coffee beans and tea leaves

After lunch on Monday, I walked across the street to Coffee beans and tea leaves with my friend to check out their loose tea leaves. The thought of buying tea from them have never across my mind. As we sniffed along the little jars, my friend pointed out this Russian Caravan black tea. I was curious enough to ask the server Justin at the counter whether they sell them in small quantity, he gave me a sample about 3 grams. Free tea! Hooray!!!

Russian Caravan has a distinctive smoky aroma, hundreds years ago large caravans carried tea from China traveled a very long way back north, usually upwards of months of traveling on foot. Along the journey, fire smokes from campfires used for cooking and warming left its marks on teas they traveled with. Hence the name and the heavy smoky flavor.

In mid Ching dynasty - 1700's, Russia consumed as much as 40% of its imported goods in tea alone, 80% from China's famous Jun Shang - a group of very successful business men from Shan Xi province - Jun for short. They dominated China's economy and made up most of the military funds by late Ching. But they went bankrupt due to an outdated non collateral banking system invented by themselves, economy slump during war, also exhausted by the never ending drain for military funds. Some of these business men's housing consisted of 1500+ individual units within a compound, resided over 3000 residents, including 800+ family members by the same last name and maids, workers, gardeners, horse keepers etc., there were stores of everything you can imagine within the compound as well, from tea to gold. There are more than 1000 of these large living compounds preserved as museums in the region today. After watching a documentary film on Jun Shang, I had much respect for the integrity of Chinese business men in the old days, unlike the modern days which I find extremely difficult to deal with and in most cases, not trust worthy. Well, this is a whole different topic.

1.5 gram in a gaiwan, boiling water, using Kung Fu Cha method

Dry leaves: dark brown, a few silvery leaves mixed in, sign of machine cut, very strong dry roasted prune aroma, caramelly, smoky

1st brew: pour immediately, red brown color, prune juice without sugar taste, fermented fruity aroma, sour tone, leaves a dry sensation in the back of my throat, unpleasant

2nd brew: 5 sec, deep red brown color, I think this is how dried prune steep in hot water might taste like, fermented fruity aroma, very sour, very dry, using Phyll's words, donut hole feeling in the back of the throat.

3rd and 4th: 5 sec each, similar taste

5th: fermented and smoky aroma and taste is lighter, a hint of sweetness, sour taste is almost gone, still a donut hole sensation

6th and 7th is much better in taste, I am surprised by the long lasting flavor.

After taste: sour, fruity, prunie, dry in the back of mouth and throat

This confirms my tea instinct is correct for not buying tea from such vendors.