2010 Cha Yu Lin "Qian Liang Cha" Hunan Hei Cha Tea

This is a "Cha Yu Lin" production made from 2010 Spring tea leaves. Pressed into a huge 36 kilogram column called "Qian Liang Cha" (aka 1000 catty tea) and then aged for 8 years before we purchased a whole column and then cut into slices and split into half-cakes (300-400 grams each)**. Qian Liang tea is compressed in a long column (typically 36kg) through a laborious process that involves steaming the leaves and funneling them into a three layered cylinder of woven bamboo. Then a team of 5 to 8 people will simultaneously compress the tea using leverage and then tighten each section with thick bamboo stripling. Once firmly compressed the Qian Liang "logs" are dried in the sun and then finally cured for months in an indoor warehouse. In this form they can be aged for decades or even centuries without molding, only improving in taste, aroma and complexity with each passing year! You can watch this video here to see just how amazing Qian Liang processing really is! Another video shows how the Qian Liang log is opened and prepped for the cutting stage when it's moved to the consumption stage. The taste is spicy, sweet, thick, with hints of brewer's yeast and mushrooms. Really kind of difficult to describe, so we would encourage you to purchase the lesser amount first to see if you like it. We recommend using a tea pick or pryer to separate the tightly compressed chunks into layers before brewing. Use boiling hot water and feel free to push this tea with longer steeps as it needs the longer time and extra heat to de-compress and deliver it's goodness. Don't worry about over-steeping it won't become bitter or astringent. Very smooth tea. We also recommend using this tea for making butter tea. Use 12 grams in 1 liter of water. Bring water to boil, add the tea, boil for 5 minutes, strain off tea into thermos, add 1/6 stick of unsalted butter, himalayan pink salt (according to your preference). With thermos lid firmly sealed, shake the concoction and then pour the frothy butter tea into a cup and sip! Yum! Cha Yu lin is a small An Hua area tea producer that produces their own Fu Cha, Tian Jian and Qian Liang (and Bai Liang) Cha. They have been producing teas under this brand since 2005. Their attention to care and detail in their productions is admirable and we are proud to be able to offer this incredibly delightful Wu Long Mountain Qian Liang Tea! Spring 2010 harvest tea leaves, stored as a 36.25 kilogram column in An Hua County of Hunan until December 2018 when it was cut up and split into "half -cakes" and moved to Kunming. **Most of the half-cakes are around 300-400 grams each. **If you want to get a full half-cake please select the 500 grams option when adding to your cart, and you'll get a half-cake and some chunks. **If you want to get a two full half-cakes please select the 1 Kilogram option when adding to your cart, and you'll get two half-cakes and some chunks. **For quantities of 250 grams or less you get some chunks. ALLERGY WARNING! - Because there is a possibility this may contain a small amount of golden flowers, AND the golden flowers are often inoculated using wheat flour we cannot guarantee this tea is safe for those with Celiac Disease or those that have severe gluten induced allergies **