Fu Zhuan

Where it grows

The districts recorded against this tea, all of them in China. Elevation is given as the band the district is recorded at, not a measurement of the garden this leaf came from.

• Anhua — 200–900 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

• Jingyang — 400–900 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Kill-green (fixation) — Denatures polyphenol oxidase and related enzymes, arresting enzymatic oxidation.
2. 2. Rolling and shaping — Ruptures cell walls to expose leaf juices, and forms the leaf into the shape it will hold through drying and storage.
3. 3. Wet piling (wo dui) — Supports microbial and thermal transformation of the finished leaf, converting harsh young character into a darker, softer profile.
4. 4. Drying — Reduces residual moisture to a level at which enzymatic, microbial and oxidative change effectively stops, stabilising the leaf for storage.
5. 5. Compression — Reduces the leaf’s exposed surface area and fixes it in a stable physical form, slowing and evening out subsequent change.
6. 6. Fungal flowering (jin hua) — Establishes a controlled Eurotium cristatum colonisation throughout a pressed brick under managed heat and humidity.
7. 7. Ageing and storage — Allows slow oxidative, microbial and thermal change to continue in stored leaf, gradually converting sharp young character into darker, rounder and sweeter character.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Fu brick with fungal flowering — The only route in tea where the defining transformation happens after the tea has been pressed, inside the brick, in a room built to encourage one particular fungus.

  Where it is practised: Anhua in Hunan above all, with production also established in Shaanxi, where the historical trade in the format ran. The two make claims about each other's authenticity that TeaHQ does not adjudicate.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

The compounds that substantially decide what this tea is: Aluminium, Fluoride, Theabrownins.

• Kill-green (fixation)
  • locks 2-Phenylethanol
  • locks Anthocyanins
  • locks Catechins
  • locks cis-3-Hexenol
  • locks Green-leaf volatiles
  • locks L-theanine
  • locks Leaf lipids
  • locks Methylated catechins
  • locks Theogallin
• Rolling and shaping
  • converts Leaf lipids
  • creates Theaflavins
  • raises Pectins
• Wet piling (wo dui)
  • converts Catechins
  • creates Gallic acid
  • creates Theabrownins
  • raises Organic acids
  • raises Pectins
  • lowers ECG (epicatechin gallate)
  • lowers Soluble sugars
• Drying
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
  • raises Beta-damascenone
  • raises Thearubigins
• Fungal flowering (jin hua)
  • creates Theabrownins
• Ageing and storage
  • raises Gallic acid
  • raises Pectins
  • raises Pheophytin
  • raises Thearubigins
  • lowers Catechins
  • lowers Chlorophyll
  • lowers Tea cream

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

History

Pressed for the north-western border trade, and historically made only in Jingyang, Shaanxi, on the belief that the golden-flower bloom would not develop elsewhere. Production moved to Anhua in the twentieth century once the conditions could be reproduced in controlled chambers.

TeaHQ synthesis — TeaHQ's own reading of well-attested general knowledge, with no single source behind it.

Brewing

• Boiling and decoction

  0.5–1 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Open in the brew assistant

• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)

  5–7 g/100 ml · 98–100 °C · 5 authored infusions

  Needs: Gaiwan

  Open in the brew assistant

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Boiling aged and dark tea (zhu cha)

  1–2 g/100 ml · 98–100 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Kettle, Brewing saucepan, Tea strainer

  Open in the brew assistant

• Gongfu brewing (Yixing pot)

  5–7 g/100 ml · 98–100 °C · 7 authored infusions

  Needs: Yixing teapot, Fairness pitcher (cha hai), Tea tray (cha pan)

  Open in the brew assistant

Vessels this tea suits

Recorded against the tea rather than against a brewing style, because the vessel does not always follow from the method — a whisk needs lateral room whatever the schedule says, and compressed leaf needs a pick before any method applies at all.

• Brewing saucepan — An ordinary open saucepan, which is the correct and traditional vessel for every preparation where tea is boiled rather than steeped — masala chai, noon chai, butter tea, salted milk tea, boiled dark tea. It is listed because the equipment for the world’s most-made tea preparations is usually a pan, and catalogues of teaware tend to leave that out.
• Boiling teapot — Brick tea broken off and boiled, which is how the border-trade dark teas were drunk where they were sold.

Common mistakes

• Mistaking the golden flowers for spoilage
• Brewing it briefly like a leaf tea, which under-extracts a compressed brick

When the cup goes wrong

Written against dark tea and pu-erh as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order. 15 apply to the category; the first 6 are shown.

• Every infusion in my gongfu session tastes the same — The cups are pleasant and interchangeable, with none of the change from steep to steep the method is supposed to show.
• My clay pot has changed how the tea tastes — A tea that tasted right in porcelain comes out muted, differently scented, or carrying something that was not in the leaf.
• My first infusion is always the worst one — The opening cup is thin, dusty or flat, and the second is markedly better — consistently, across different teas.
• My gaiwan is too hot to hold — The rim and lid become uncomfortable within seconds, the pour is rushed, and tea ends up on the tray.
• My gongfu tea is bitter even at five seconds — The timer says five or ten seconds and the cup is over-extracted anyway, with the later infusions dropping off sharply.
• My pu-erh cake will not break apart cleanly — The cake resists the pick, then gives way suddenly into powder and fragments rather than intact leaf.

Every diagnosed brewing problem

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

Compare this tea with another

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison. Each one is a written page with the points of difference argued out.

• Chinese dark teas compared — Four dark teas from four provinces, each with its own fermentation practice. They are grouped as one category and share less than the grouping suggests. Put the two side by side
• Pu-erh vs dark tea — Pu-erh is a kind of dark tea, not a synonym for it, and treating the two as the same word hides three other traditions. Fu Zhuan, Liu Bao and the Anhua and Hubei traditions all disappear when the words are used as synonyms. Put the two side by side

Where this tea is drunk

Documented practices that name this tea. Each page describes what is done and by whom, and separates what is recorded from what is repeated.

• The Ming loose-leaf reform — An imperial decision at the end of the fourteenth century to stop accepting compressed cake tea as tribute — after which Chinese tea became loose leaf steeped in a vessel, and almost every category and utensil now in use began to take its modern shape.

Guides covering this tea

• What oxidation does chemically, and why “fermentation” is the wrong word for it
• Old leaf, stem and stalk: the parts of the plant that are not the bud
• Earth, mineral and mushroom: the family with the weakest explanations