Tasty tea bricks were good as gold in ancient times

Chinese compressed tea consists of blocks of whole or ground tea leaves that are packed in moulds and pressed into bricks, cakes and bowls.

Black tea is used as a base and the blocks can be stored for years. This was the most commonly produced tea in China before the Ming dynasty. It was popular with minority people in border regions, especially nomadic tribes, because it was easy to transport and store.

Tea bricks are more than just a beverage. They can be used as food and currency.

In Tibet, pieces of tea are shaved from the bricks and boiled overnight in water, sometimes with salt. The resulting concentrated infusion is then mixed with butter and roasted barley flour.

The mixture, called po cha (butter tea), is usually served as gruel. Because of its high value, compressed tea was used as a form of edible currency in ancient China, Tibet and Mongolia.

Originally from Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Yunnan, it is classified into bing cha (cake tea), tuo cha (peg-top tea) and zhuang cha (brick tea).

Brick tea