2021 Bai Sha Xi "9101" Qing Zhuan Hunan Brick Tea

Qing Zhuan (青砖) aka "Green Brick" is a unique tea with a long history.  It is typically known as a Hubei specialty, but in fact it has also been produced Hunan province as well.  

A History of Green Brick "Qing Zhuan" Tea:

Speaking of brick tea, Hubei has Yangloudong blue brick, Sichuan has Ya'an Kang brick, Shaanxi has Jingyang Fu brick, Hunan has Fu brick, flower brick (hua zhuan), black brick (hei zhuan), green brick  (qing zhuan) and so on.

Wait a minute, there are green bricks in Hunan? The most prestigious green brick tea is not Hubei's green brick tea? Moreover, Yangloudong brick tea also successfully declared a national geographical indication protection product in 2009.
Now, the most famous black teas in Anhua, Hunan, are the "three bricks" of Fu brick (fu zhuan), black brick (hei zhuan 黑砖) and flower brick (hua zhuan 花砖). In fact, Hunan has also made an indelible contribution to the production of green brick (qing zhuan 青砖) tea.

The predecessor of green brick tea is a "hat box tea" (帽盒茶) that looks like a cylinder. During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, in order to reduce freight, reduce losses and facilitate long-distance transportation of tea leaves produced in Yangloudong Tea Area, Hubei Province, the method of bonding tea leaves with rice milk into cakes since the Song Dynasty was changed. The tea leaves are first sorted and sieved, then heated with steam, and then stepped on to make a cylindrical "hat box tea". Later, due to the needs of long-distance transportation and storage, "hat box tea" was further transformed into green brick tea.

Green brick tea is made from old green tea, which is sieved, pressed and dried. Rectangular brick shape, blue-brown color, pure aroma, taste is still strong and no green gas, the soup color is red and yellow, the bottom of the leaves is dark, and the taste of old tea is sweet.

At the end of the 17th century (During the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty), there were many old green teas produced in Yanglousi Town, Linxiang, Hunan (be careful not to confuse it with the Yanglou Cave in Hubei mentioned above), which was mainly produced by Shanxi merchants in Yanglou. Sishezhuang presses green brick tea.

In the late period of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the production of blue bricks in Linxiang ushered in a heyday. The production sites spread from Yanglousi to Niejia City, Lukoupu, Taolin Wulipai and other places. The highest annual production and sales reached 8,064 tons. At the same time, it also created Hunan The No. 1 machine used in the tea industry—a tea house in Niejia City purchased a set of steam brick presses, trying to improve and develop the production and sales of green brick tea.

Why did the once-popular Hunan Green Brick Tea become obscure?
In 1938, Linxiang fell, and the machinery for suppressing green brick tea was confiscated by the Japanese. During the whole war of resistance against Japan, the production of green brick tea in Linxiang was at a standstill. After the war, some sporadic merchants resumed production on a small scale. It will be decades before the re-emergence of Hunan green brick tea in the true large-scale sense.

In 1987, Mr. Lin Muhua, a tea expert from Hunan Tea Import and Export Company, was appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade of the People's Republic of China. At that time, Linxiang Tea Factory, together with the technicians of the tea factory, made use of Hunan black hair tea (hei cha 黑茶) under the condition that the machinery, equipment and processing technology were poor. The raw material, which lasted for nearly three years, successfully created "9101" in 1989, which filled the export gap of Hunan green brick tea after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

"9101" was exported to Mongolia and the Soviet Union. From 1989 to 1993, the export sales volume totaled more than 6,700 tons, which was the highest output and sales volume of dark tea exported from Hunan at that time. Because of the great success of "9101", Mr. Lin Muhua also won the national "Second Prize of Science and Technology Progress of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation" and the "First Prize of Hunan Province Science and Technology Progress". "9101" has left a strong mark in the export history of Hunan dark tea. The main creator of the year, Mr. Lin Muhua, is now an old man in his old age, and is honored as "Old Master Lin".

This 2021 "9101" production aims to continue the long and illustrious history of the Hunan Qing Zhuan.

Bai Sha Xi Tea Factory in An Hua County of Hunan is the earliest producer of "Dark Tea" (hei cha) in Hunan and the first to produce the Golden Flower bricks in China. Bai Sha Xi was established in 1940 to product Hei Cha bricks, then in 1953 they produced the first Fu Brick with Golden Flowers.  

Weight of entire brick is 1.7 kilograms

Pictures of small cut brick pieces are shown for the purpose of revealing the inner material.

***Box or gift bag may be damaged in transit. No refunds or credits will be issued and no returns will be accepted for a damaged box or gifting bag.