Tea brick: Encyclopedia II - Tea brick - Consuming Tea Bricks

Tea brick - Consuming Tea Bricks

Due to their density and toughness tea bricks were traditionally consumed after they have been ground to a fine powder. The legacy of using of tea bricks in powdered form can be seen through modern Japanese tea powders as well as the pulverized tea leaves used in the Lei Cha(擂茶) eaten by the Hakka people.

Tea brick - Beverage

In ancient China the use of tea bricks involved 3 separate steps:

• Toasting: Tea bricks were usually first toasted over a fire. This was likely done to sanitize the tea brick and destroy any molds or insects. Such infestations likely occurred when the bricks were stored openly in warehouses and storerooms or in covered jars underground. Toasting also imparted a pleasant flavor to the resulting tea.
• Grinding: The tea brick was broken up and ground to a fine powder.
• Whisking: The powdered tea was mixed into hot water and frothed with a whisk before serving. The color and patterns formed by the powdered tea were enjoyed while the mixture was being imbibed.

In modern times, bricks of Pu-erh type teas are broken and directly steeped after thorough rinsing. The process of toasting, grinding or whisking to make tea from tea bricks is now uncommon and not generally practiced.

Tea brick - Food

Tea bricks are used as a form of food in parts of Central Asia and Tibet in the past as much as in modern times. In Tibet pieces of tea are shaved from tea bricks, and boiled overnight in water, sometimes with salt. The resulting concentrated tea infusion is then mixed with butter and roasted barley flour. When churned together and served as thin gruel through the addition of more tea, the mixture is called butter tea or po cha.

The same mixture with the addition of much less tea is called Tsampa. Individual portions of the mixture are kneaded in a small bowls, formed into balls and eaten. Some cities of the Fukui prefecture in Japan have food similar to tsampa, where concentrated tea is mixed with grain flour. However, the tea may or may not be made of tea bricks.

In parts of Mongolia and central Asia, a mixture of ground tea bricks, grain flours and boiling water is eaten directly. It has been suggested that tea eaten whole provide for needed roughage normally lacking in the diet.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Consuming Tea Bricks", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki