Compare two teas
Side by side across seven dimensions. There is no verdict and no winner — the purpose is to understand the difference, not to be told which to buy.
Why these two get confused
The same tea and process at wildly different scale. The thirty-six kilogram log is impractical for households, which is why the smaller format exists.
TeaHQ has written about this pair
Two names on an Anhua shelf that look like two teas and are one tea at two sizes. This is a page about a naming convention, and the honest answer is that there is much less between them than the separate listings imply.
- What it is
- Qian Liang Cha: Anhua dark tea compressed into a bamboo-wrapped log of roughly thirty-six kilograms.Hua Juan Cha: The same tea in the same bamboo-wrapped log format, pressed at a fraction of the weight.
- What the name means
- Qian Liang Cha: Thousand Tael Tea — the name is a weight.Hua Juan Cha: Flower roll tea — the family name the other one belongs to.
- Processing
- Qian Liang Cha: Kill-green, rolling, wet-piling, drying, compression, then basket ageing.Hua Juan Cha: Identical.
- How it is sold
- Qian Liang Cha: Sawn into discs.Hua Juan Cha: Sawn into discs, or bought whole because a whole one is liftable.
- What it tastes like
- Qian Liang Cha: Bamboo, dried longan, wood and earth; sweet and woody with a bamboo edge.Hua Juan Cha: The same profile, slightly less developed.
- Where a real difference might sit
- Qian Liang Cha: A larger mass has a slower, more insulated interior, and the log is aged whole.Hua Juan Cha: A smaller mass equilibrates with its surroundings faster.
- Which to buy
- Qian Liang Cha: Only worth it as a disc off someone else's log.Hua Juan Cha: The practical purchase for almost everybody.
In summary: The size difference is real and its effect on the tea is the part nobody can quantify honestly. What can be said plainly: these are not two teas, the smaller format exists because the larger one is impractical, and paying a premium for the Qian Liang name buys a story about how the log was trodden rather than a demonstrably different cup.
Point by point
| Dimension | Qian Liang Cha | Hua Juan Cha |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Dark tea and pu-erh · not applicable · post-fermented (microbial wet piling) | Dark tea and pu-erh · not applicable · post-fermented (microbial wet piling) |
| Production | In order: Kill-green (fixation) → Rolling and shaping → Wet piling (wo dui) → Drying → Compression → Basket ageing → Ageing and storage. summer harvest. | In order: Kill-green (fixation) → Rolling and shaping → Wet piling (wo dui) → Drying → Compression → Basket ageing → Ageing and storage. summer harvest. |
| Origin | China — Anhua | China — Anhua |
| Flavour | woody, sweet and earthy. full bodied, rich and smooth in the mouth. Aroma: bamboo, dried longan, wood, earth. Moderate in character. Bold in intensity. | woody and sweet. full bodied and smooth in the mouth. Aroma: bamboo, wood, dried fruit. Moderate in character. Moderate in intensity. |
| Brewing | Gongfu brewing (gaiwan): 5–7 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 8s of 6 authored. Western brewing (teapot or mug): 1.5–2.5 g/100 ml at 95–100 °C, first steep 180s. Boiling aged and dark tea (zhu cha): 1–2 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 480s. Gongfu brewing (Yixing pot): 5–7 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 12s of 8 authored. | Gongfu brewing (gaiwan): 5–7 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 8s of 6 authored. Western brewing (teapot or mug): 1.5–2.5 g/100 ml at 95–100 °C, first steep 180s. Boiling aged and dark tea (zhu cha): 1–2 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 480s. Gongfu brewing (Yixing pot): 5–7 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 10s of 7 authored. |
| Cultural context | Not recorded for this tea. | Not recorded for this tea. |
| Who may prefer it | Someone who wants the cup to assert itself and has drunk enough tea to notice what changes between infusions. It rewards attention to leaf weight and timing. | Someone who wants presence without being dominated and wants to enjoy it on the first cup. It tolerates an imprecise brew. |
Nothing above is a recommendation. The last row describes the drinker each tea suits, using each tea’s own authored fields and the same sentence structure for both, so neither can be framed as the safe choice.