5 ms·

That's a very good description of the enzymatic process in tea. Regarding "oldest process" though, I'm not sure which is the earliest processing method for tea

by almog 5y ago

That's a very good description of the enzymatic process in tea. Regarding "oldest process" though, I'm not sure which is the earliest processing method for tea but compressed tea / tea bricks as Pu-erh (although compressed tea ≠ Pu-erh) is attributed to Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) and it precedes Matcha which is attributed to the Song dynasty period (960–1279).

hinkley 5y ago
The problem with summarizing complex things for people is that you leave out the bits that you don't think will stick, and even what is left over becomes a game of telephone. At the time, puehr was about to have a little resurgence but was pretty obscure in the west. I'm not sure which of us redacted that from the brief timeline. I like a little puehr once in a while. It tastes like leaf mould smells, which is probably not far off from reality. Edit: some imported tea is still delivered in compressed bricks, green, black and oolong. Among those are teas that are treated like scotch. and I have seen but not tasted a 25 year old tea brick (which I think she kept in part for bragging rights. IIRC it was not for sale.) I already have a Scotch habit, I don't need to be buying 18 year old tea on top of it, so as curious as I was I made no attempts to get involved in any private tea tastings.
- almog 5y ago
  Agreed. AFAIK it was created as a method to transport tea efficiently all across the Tang empire (and as a mean to keep the peace within it) while not crushing the leaves. I have no idea about what kind of tea made it to the west back then. Even today most western people aren't aware of the variety of teas there are out there or how wildly different the final product is depending on the processing methods, let alone bush cultivar, age, flush stage, altitude etc. Pu-erh really can be weird, Hei-Cha even weirder I think. It took my quite a while to like pu-erh and if it wasn't for its aesthetics I'm not sure I'd have bothered to try that much. For my palate, Shou pu-erh teas were an easier taste to acquire. It took me a lot of trial and error to get my palate around Shengs but now I like it well enough to get the same kind of craving I get for a good coffee.
  - SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
    I actually find Sheng more palatable than shou. Shou is too smooth for me. I need a tea with fragrance and brightness.
    - almog 5y ago
      I'm on the same boat now, it was a hard start because I tried young shengs first and didn't know what notes to look in them. After trying some affordable aged CNNPs (from YS), I found my liking to younger shengs too. Nice to see there's a sub-community of tea lovers here on HN.
      - SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
        :) if you like YS I also recommend trying white2tea (a wetter storage, so even his relatively young teas will taste older) or bitterleafteas.
        almog 5y ago
        Interesting, I wasn't aware of white2tea, could you share a recommendations for something you've liked from white2tea?
WillPostForFood 5y ago
The way they drank tea in the Han dynasty is interesting; centuries before before a real processing method came about. Guo Pu noted in the book Er Ya (Chinese: 尔雅), the earliest Chinese dictionary, tea can be boiled to consume like thick soup. More precisely, to make a cup of tea at that time you need to mix millet and other condiments with tea leaves first them boil them together till mushy state https://www.teavivre.com/info/ways-of-drinking-tea-in-ancient-china.html https://www.teavivre.com/info/ways-of-drinking-tea-in-ancien...
- almog 5y ago
  I've heard that in Tang dynasty Pu-Erh was important in order to keep the peace in remote areas partially because it was consumed as a substitute for fresh vegetables in areas where one could not grow them. Consuming tea as thick soup to me suggests the idea that maybe tea was used in that way even back in Han dynasty (I'm sure that whether this is correct or not would be obvious to a historian, which I'm not). Do you have any recommendations for a curriculum of sort for tea history?
leemailll 5y ago
Matcha also introduced into Japan during Tang dynasty

by almog 5y ago

hinkley 5y ago

The problem with summarizing complex things for people is that you leave out the bits that you don't think will stick, and even what is left over becomes a game of telephone. At the time, puehr was about to have a little resurgence but was pretty obscure in the west. I'm not sure which of us redacted that from the brief timeline. I like a little puehr once in a while. It tastes like leaf mould smells, which is probably not far off from reality. Edit: some imported tea is still delivered in compressed bricks, green, black and oolong. Among those are teas that are treated like scotch. and I have seen but not tasted a 25 year old tea brick (which I think she kept in part for bragging rights. IIRC it was not for sale.) I already have a Scotch habit, I don't need to be buying 18 year old tea on top of it, so as curious as I was I made no attempts to get involved in any private tea tastings.

almog 5y ago
Agreed. AFAIK it was created as a method to transport tea efficiently all across the Tang empire (and as a mean to keep the peace within it) while not crushing the leaves. I have no idea about what kind of tea made it to the west back then. Even today most western people aren't aware of the variety of teas there are out there or how wildly different the final product is depending on the processing methods, let alone bush cultivar, age, flush stage, altitude etc. Pu-erh really can be weird, Hei-Cha even weirder I think. It took my quite a while to like pu-erh and if it wasn't for its aesthetics I'm not sure I'd have bothered to try that much. For my palate, Shou pu-erh teas were an easier taste to acquire. It took me a lot of trial and error to get my palate around Shengs but now I like it well enough to get the same kind of craving I get for a good coffee.
- SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
  I actually find Sheng more palatable than shou. Shou is too smooth for me. I need a tea with fragrance and brightness.
  - almog 5y ago
    I'm on the same boat now, it was a hard start because I tried young shengs first and didn't know what notes to look in them. After trying some affordable aged CNNPs (from YS), I found my liking to younger shengs too. Nice to see there's a sub-community of tea lovers here on HN.
    - SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
      :) if you like YS I also recommend trying white2tea (a wetter storage, so even his relatively young teas will taste older) or bitterleafteas.
      - almog 5y ago
        Interesting, I wasn't aware of white2tea, could you share a recommendations for something you've liked from white2tea?

WillPostForFood 5y ago

The way they drank tea in the Han dynasty is interesting; centuries before before a real processing method came about. Guo Pu noted in the book Er Ya (Chinese: 尔雅), the earliest Chinese dictionary, tea can be boiled to consume like thick soup. More precisely, to make a cup of tea at that time you need to mix millet and other condiments with tea leaves first them boil them together till mushy state https://www.teavivre.com/info/ways-of-drinking-tea-in-ancient-china.html https://www.teavivre.com/info/ways-of-drinking-tea-in-ancien...

almog 5y ago
I've heard that in Tang dynasty Pu-Erh was important in order to keep the peace in remote areas partially because it was consumed as a substitute for fresh vegetables in areas where one could not grow them. Consuming tea as thick soup to me suggests the idea that maybe tea was used in that way even back in Han dynasty (I'm sure that whether this is correct or not would be obvious to a historian, which I'm not). Do you have any recommendations for a curriculum of sort for tea history?

leemailll 5y ago

Matcha also introduced into Japan during Tang dynasty