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
'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.
Point by point
| Dimension | Qing Zhuan | Gunpowder green tea |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Dark tea and pu-erh · not applicable · post-fermented (wet piling then ageing) | Green tea · unoxidised |
| Production | In order: Kill-green (fixation) → Rolling and shaping → Wet piling (wo dui) → Drying → Compression → Ageing and storage. mature leaf and summer harvest. | In order: Withering → Kill-green (fixation) → Rolling and shaping → Pearl forming (chao gan cheng yuan) → Drying. spring harvest. |
| Origin | China — Yangloudong | China |
| Flavour | woody, smoky and earthy. full bodied and medium in the mouth. Aroma: wood, smoke, dried hay, earth. Straightforward in character. Moderate in intensity. | smoky, grassy and mineral. medium, astringent and drying in the mouth. Aroma: woodsmoke, hay, mineral, green olive. Straightforward in character. Moderate in intensity. |
| Brewing | Boiling and decoction: 0.5–1 g/100 ml at 95–100 °C, first steep 600s. 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. Mongolian milk tea (suutei tsai): 1–2 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 600s. | Western brewing (teapot or mug): 1–2 g/100 ml at 80–90 °C, first steep 150s. Moroccan mint tea preparation: 1.5–2.5 g/100 ml at 95–100 °C, first steep 240s. Sun tea: 1–1.5 g/100 ml at 20–40 °C, first steep 14400s. Gongfu brewing (gaiwan): 3–4 g/100 ml at 75–85 °C, first steep 20s of 4 authored. Noon chai (Kashmiri pink tea): 1.5–3 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 2400s. Tea bag brewing: 1–1.5 g/100 ml at 75–85 °C, first steep 90s. |
| Cultural context | Used in Tibetan butter tea and the Himalayan tea trade and Suutei tsai (Mongolian milk tea). | Used in Maghrebi mint tea, The Central Asian chaikhana, Kashmiri noon chai and kahwah, Pakistani tea customs, The Canton System, Sanpaotai and eight-treasure tea, Afghan tea customs, Saharan three-glass tea and Attaya in Senegal and the Gambia. In Morocco and across the Maghreb it is brewed strong with a large quantity of fresh mint and sugar, and poured from height. That preparation is the dominant use of the tea worldwide. |
| Who may prefer it | Someone who wants presence without being dominated and is willing to drink something several times before it makes sense. 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.