bǎiliǎng chá - shíliǎng chá

The family of “flower rolls” huajuan (花卷, huā juǎn) is a line of compressed dark tea cylinders from Anhua County, where the weight encoded in the name builds a ladder from the small Shiliang (十两茶, shí liǎng chá) to the legendary Qianliang Cha (千两茶, qiān liǎng chá). Bailiang (百两茶, bǎi liǎng chá) and Shiliang are the junior, “household” steps of the same technology that gave birth to the “king of teas”.

1. Classification and Origin:

• Type: dark tea (heicha, 黑茶, hēichá).
• Category: Anhua dark tea (安化黑茶, Ānhuà hēichá), family of “flower rolls” huajuan (花卷, huā juǎn).
• Origin: Anhua County, Hunan Province.
• Position in the family: Bailiang and Shiliang are the junior, “household” steps of the same technology that produced the “king of teas” Qianliang Cha; they stand on the same axis as Qianliang, differing from it only in size and mass.
• Assortment canon: described by the formula “三尖三砖一卷” (sān jiān sān zhuān yī juǎn) — “three pointed tips, three bricks, one roll”. “One roll” (一卷) is exactly the huajuan line, to which cylinders of all weight calibers belong.
• Standards: Anhua dark tea is normalized as an independent category of heicha within the system of national standards of the PRC.

The weight ladder is built around the old measure of weight liang (两, liǎng); the standard of the series is qianliang, a cylinder with a mass of about 36.25 kg and a height of approximately 1.65 m:

• Shiliang (十两茶, shí liǎng chá) — “ten liang”, the smallest format;
• Bailiang (百两茶, bǎi liǎng chá) — “one hundred liang”;
• Wubailiang (五百两, wǔ bǎi liǎng) — “five hundred liang”;
• Qianliang (千两, qiān liǎng) — “one thousand liang”, the standard cylinder;
• Wanliang (万两, wàn liǎng) — “ten thousand liang”, the largest.

Since the mass is defined by the number of old liang, Bailiang and Shiliang are proportionally lighter than qianliang — they are no longer a bulky “imperial” cylinder, but compact columns of household and gift format.

2. History and Cultural Significance:

• The huajuan line was born from trade demand.
• Bailiang as a form has been documented since the reign of Daoguang (清道光, Qīng Dàoguāng) of the Qing Dynasty; it is associated with Shaanxi merchants (陕商, shǎn shāng), who required standardized, densely packed, and transport-resistant tea for caravan routes.
• It was precisely its compactness that made Bailiang a convenient commodity for long-distance trade.
• From this commercial need, larger calibers later emerged, up to qianliang — the cylinder nicknamed “king of the world’s teas” (世界茶王, shìjiè cháwáng).
• The technology for tamping down cylinders is labor-intensive, and in the industrial era, part of the assortment was replaced by huazhuan (花砖, huā zhuān) — a “patterned brick” with ornamentation along the edges, whose production since 1958 became a compact replacement for the bulky qianliang.
• The rolls themselves have been preserved as a living craft and collectible tradition, and the weight ladder from Shiliang to Wanliang remains its recognizable symbol.
• The manufacturing technology of qianliang cha was included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage (国家级非物质文化遗产, guójiājí fēi wùzhì wénhuà yíchǎn) in 2008. Bailiang and Shiliang, produced using the same caizhi method, inherit this craft on a reduced scale.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material:

• Raw material: black maocha (黑毛茶, hēi máochá) of the second to third grade (二-三级).
• Raw material character: medium-coarse grind, with the presence of more mature leaf and stems — it is precisely this that gives the “rolls” their density, structure, and potential for long-term aging.
• Grade distribution: more tender grades of maocha go to the “pointed tip” teas of the sanjian series (三尖, sān jiān) — tianjian (天尖, tiān jiān) and gongjian (贡尖, gòng jiān); for the cylinders, volume, strength of the compressed mass, and the ability to mature evenly over decades are more important.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:

• A mountainous region with a humid subtropical climate, mists, and soils rich in weathered rock.
• Under these conditions, large-leaf, somewhat coarse raw material grows, ideally suited for lengthy fermentation and long-term maturation.

5. Production Technology:

• Technological signature: caizhi (踩制, cǎi zhì) — manual tamping and compressing of tea into a dense cylinder. Bailiang and Shiliang are produced by the same method as qianliang, only on a smaller scale.
• Sequence of operations:
  1. Qizheng (汽蒸, qì zhēng) — steaming the maocha with steam so that the leaf becomes soft and pliable.
  2. Zhuanglou (装篓, zhuāng lǒu) — stuffing the heated tea into a woven bamboo sheath mielou (篾篓, miè lǒu). The inner “clothing” of the cylinder is multilayered: palm fiber (棕, zōng) and knotweed leaves (蓼叶, liǎo yè) line the bamboo plating, forming the characteristic “shirt” of the roll.
  3. Guncaiyajiaochui (滚踩压绞锤, gǔn cǎi yā jiǎo chuí) — rolling, tamping with feet, pressing, and tightening with a lever-”hammer”; a team of craftsmen rolls out and tightens the cylinder, achieving maximum density.
  4. Rishai-yelu (日晒夜露, rì shài yè lù) — “by day in the sun, by night under the dew”: the finished cylinders are cured under the open sky for about 50 days, where the alternation of heat and moisture initiates a slow microbial and enzymatic transformation directly inside the compressed mass.
• The “sun and dew” stage is key: it distinguishes huajuan from the bricks of the sanzhuan series (三砖, sān zhuān), which are dried in chambers at a controlled temperature. It is natural maturation under the sky that imparts to the cylinders their special depth.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics:

• The rolls belong to the “the older, the more aromatic” style (越陈越香, yuè chén yuè xiāng).
• Young tea still retains a coarse woody note, but gains softness over the years.
• The infusion becomes dark amber, dense, with a matured “aged” aroma (陈香, chén xiāng), a sweet aftertaste, and almost no astringency.

9. Brewing:

• Since the mass is tamped down to stone-like density, before brewing, a flat disc is sawn or chipped off the cylinder, and then broken into smaller pieces.
• For Bailiang and Shiliang, whose discs are smaller than those of qianliang, this is easier than working with a heavy 36-kilogram cylinder.
• The tea opens well with multiple infusions in a gaiwan or teapot, and the dense, coarse raw material of aged rolls is also suitable for boiling.

11. Price and Counterfeits:

• Shape and plating: authentic huajuan is a cylindrical column in a woven bamboo sheath with an inner lining of palm fiber and knotweed leaves; the diameter and length directly correspond to the weight designation.
• Caliber vs. name: the numerical part of the name is the weight in old liang: Shiliang is small, Bailiang is larger, qianliang is the standard ~36 kg and ~1.65 m. A discrepancy between the size and the claimed name is a warning sign.
• Traces of caizhi: a tamped cylinder is extremely dense; on a break, a tight, layered structure of compressed coarse leaf with stems of the second or third grade is visible.
• Aging aroma: a mature roll yields a clean chen xiang without moldy mustiness; the infusion is clear, dark amber, with a sweet, long aftertaste.
• Difference from bricks: unlike fuzhuan (茯砖, fú zhuān), the rolls do not carry the “golden flower” (金花, jīn huā) as a mandatory signature, and from heizhuan (黑砖, hēi zhuān) and huazhuan they are distinguished precisely by the cylindrical shape and the “sun and dew” stage in production.

12. Interesting Facts:

• Bailiang and Shiliang embody the same philosophy of the Anhua roll as the celebrated qianliang, but on a human scale: compact enough to live at home, and noble enough to mature for years.