Revered as a work of art, the Congou tea has been compressed into brick form with an embossed garden scene design. China Black Brick Tea, selected from the high quality of black tea dust as its raw material, is manufactured by pressing the tea in a fired die machine. China is a multi-national country. In drinking tea, each nationality has its own taste and convention. Brick tea is a sort of daily beverage preferred by the folks in the remote areas. In preparing the tea, first break the "Brick" and then steam it. A special flavor will be presented if some yak butter and salt are added. Tea Bricks, or compressed tea, is a Chinese invention antedating the T'ang Dynasty: Tea had been compressed into cakes long before Lu Yu published the Ch'a Ching circa 780. Under the Ming, loose-leaf tea became popular throughout the Celestial Empire, but the inland tribes of Mongolia and Tibet clung to the tastes of former days. The Chinese, who had also evolved the earliest central banking system and were circulating various coins and paper bank notes, found that in commercial transactions with the border peoples their currency had no value. Their ingenious solution to this problem was to make their most valued consumer product, tea, into bricks. This made the tea easy to transport inland where it was used as a form of currency for barter, the reverse side of each brick being scored so that it was easily broken for purposes of making change. The inscription on the front translates CHINA BRICK BLACK TEA, NET 2.5 lb., ZHAO LI QIAO BRICK TEA FACTORY, SHANGHAI CHINA. A descriptive sheet is shipped with each teabrick. The brick measures 7.5" x 9.5" x 15/16"
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