Qing Zhuan
A Hubei dark tea pressed into hard rectangular bricks and made for the northern border and Mongolian trade, where it is boiled with milk and salt rather than steeped. Despite the name it is a dark tea, not a green one — 'qing' here describes the brick’s colour.
Character
Coarse, woody and robust — a tea built to survive a long journey and a hard boil, not to be appreciated in a gaiwan. Its interest is largely historical and cultural.
- Flavour
- Woody, Smoky, Earthy
- Aroma
- Toasted
- Mouthfeel
- Full bodied, Medium
- Complexity
- Straightforward
- Notes
- wood, smoke, dried hay, earth
- Aftertaste
- Woody and mildly sweet.
Moderate intensity: noticeable weight or grip, but neither dominates the cup.
Provenance and production
- Origin
- China
- Oxidation
- Not applicable
- Post-fermentation
- Both
- Harvest
- Summer
- Processing
- Kill-green (fixation) → Rolling and shaping → Wet piling (wo dui) → Compression → Ageing and storage
History
Pressed in Hubei for the Mongolian and Russian border trade from the nineteenth century, and traded overland in enormous volume. The coarse leaf and hard pressing are transport engineering rather than a quality choice.
Brewing
Boiling and decoction
0.5–1 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion
Western brewing (teapot or mug)
1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion
No caffeine estimate is authored for this tea. TeaHQ does not infer one from its category, because category predicts caffeine poorly — matcha and gyokuro carry more than many black teas.
Common mistakes
- Assuming from the name that it is a green tea
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.
Editorially linked
Someone wrote down why these two belong together. The note below is theirs.
- Gunpowder green tea
'Qing Zhuan' translates as green brick and is a dark tea. The name misleads readers into expecting a compressed green tea, which is what gunpowder’s pellets actually are.
- Tibetan brick tea
Two coarse border-trade bricks made for boiling rather than steeping, from different provinces and similar leaf.
Similar sensory profile
Shares controlled flavour, aroma and mouthfeel descriptors. A looser match — two teas can share descriptors and still taste nothing alike.
- Anhua dark tea
Shares 5 descriptors with Qing Zhuan: smoky, woody, earthy, full bodied and toasted.
- Kang Zhuan
Shares 5 descriptors with Qing Zhuan: smoky, woody, earthy, full bodied and toasted.
- Fu Zhuan
Shares 4 descriptors with Qing Zhuan: earthy, woody, full bodied and toasted.
- Hei Zhuan
Shares 4 descriptors with Qing Zhuan: woody, earthy, full bodied and toasted.
- Qing Zhuan aged
Shares 4 descriptors with Qing Zhuan: woody, earthy, full bodied and toasted.
- Samovar blend
Shares 4 descriptors with Qing Zhuan: smoky, woody, full bodied and toasted.