Bǎiliǎng chá shíliǎng chá

Bǎi liǎng and shí liǎng are the junior, “domestic” rungs of the same technology that gave rise to the “king of teas”. They belong to the huā juǎn (花卷) family — a line of pressed heicha columns from Anhua County, where the weight, woven right into the name, builds a ladder from the small shí liǎng chá (十两茶) to the legendary qiān liǎng chá (千两茶).

Origin and Terroir

All huā juǎn belong to the large family of Anhua dark tea (安化黑茶, Ānhuà hēichá) from Hunan Province. This is a mountainous region with a humid subtropical climate, mists, and soils rich in weathered rock — conditions that yield a large-leaf, somewhat coarse raw material ideally suited to prolonged fermentation and years-long maturation.

The canon of the Anhua assortment is described by the formula “三尖三砖一卷” (sān jiān sān zhuān yī juǎn) — “three sharp-pointed, three bricks, one scroll”. The “one scroll” (一卷) is precisely the huā juǎn line, to which the columns of all weight calibres belong. Bǎi liǎng and shí liǎng stand on the same axis as qiān liǎng, differing from it only in size and mass.

Raw Material and Grade

The basis for the entire line is black máochá (黑毛茶, hēi máochá) of the second or third grade (二-三级). This is a medium-coarse raw material, with the presence of more mature leaf and stems — it is exactly this that gives the “scrolls” their density, structure, and potential for multi-year ageing. The more tender grades of máochá are allocated to the “sharp-pointed” teas of the sān jiān series (天尖, 贡尖), whereas for the columns, volume, the strength of the pressed mass, and the ability to mature evenly over decades are more important.

The Logic of the Weight Ladder

The name of each product is an old measure of weight: 两 (liǎng). The benchmark of the series is the qiān liǎng — the “thousand liǎng” column, weighing about 36.25 kg and standing approximately 1.65 m tall. The other calibres are built around it:

十两茶 (shí liǎng chá) — “ten liǎng”, the smallest format;
百两茶 (bǎi liǎng chá) — “one hundred liǎng”;
五百两 (wǔ bǎi liǎng) — “five hundred liǎng”;
千两 (qiān liǎng) — “one thousand liǎng”, the benchmark column;
万两 (wàn liǎng) — “ten thousand liǎng”, the largest.

Since the mass is fixed by the number of old liǎng, bǎi liǎng and shí liǎng are proportionally lighter than qiān liǎng — they are no longer a cumbersome “imperial” column, but compact columns in a domestic and gift format. It was precisely this compactness that made bǎi liǎng a convenient commodity for long-distance trade.

Technology: 踩制 — “Treading” the Scroll

The main technological signature of the entire series is cǎi zhì (踩制), the manual treading and tightening of the tea into a dense cylinder. Bǎi liǎng and shí liǎng are made by the same method as qiān liǎng, only on a smaller scale. The sequence of operations is as follows:

汽蒸 (qì zhēng) — steaming the máochá to make the leaf soft and pliable.
装篓 (zhuāng lǒu) — packing the heated tea into a woven bamboo casing, miè lǒu (篾篓). The inner “garment” of the column is multi-layered: palm fibre (棕, zōng) and knotweed leaves (蓼叶, liǎo yè) line the bamboo braid, forming the scroll’s characteristic “shirt”.
滚踩压绞锤 (gǔn cǎi yā jiǎo chuí) — rolling, treading underfoot, pressing, and tightening with a lever “hammer”. A team of craftsmen rolls out and tightens the column, achieving extreme density.
日晒夜露 (rì shài yè lù) — “sun by day, dew by night”. The finished columns are left under the open sky for about 50 days, where the alternation of heat and moisture initiates a slow microbial and enzymatic transformation right inside the pressed mass.

This stage of “sun and dew” is key: it distinguishes huā juǎn from the bricks of the sān zhuān series, which are dried in chambers at a controlled temperature. It is this natural maturation under the sky that gives the columns their special depth.

Standards and Status

Anhua dark tea is standardised as an independent category of heicha within the PRC’s national standards system. The special value of huā juǎn is also confirmed by its cultural status: the manufacturing technique of qiān liǎng chá was included in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list (国家级非物质文化遗产) in 2008. Bǎi liǎng and shí liǎng, executed using the same cǎi zhì methodology, inherit this craft on a reduced scale.

Flavour and Brewing

The scrolls 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 over the years it gains softness: the infusion becomes dark amber, dense, with a mature “aged” aroma (陈香, chén xiāng), a sweet aftertaste, and almost no astringency.

Since the mass is compressed to a stone-like density, a flat disc is sawn or chipped off the column before brewing, and then broken into smaller pieces. For bǎi liǎng and shí liǎng, whose discs are smaller than those of qiān liǎng, this is easier than working with a heavy 36-kilogram column. The tea reveals itself well through multiple infusions in a gaiwan or teapot, and the dense, coarse raw material of aged scrolls is also suitable for boiling.

History and Culture

The huā juǎn line was born from a trade requirement. Bǎi liǎng as a form is documented from the Daoguang reign (清道光) of the Qing Dynasty: it is linked to Shaanxi merchants (陕商, shǎn shāng), who required a standardised, densely packed, and transport-resistant tea for caravan routes. From this commercial need, the larger calibres later grew, right up to qiān liǎng — the column nicknamed the “king of teas of the world” (世界茶王).

The technology of treading the columns is labour-intensive, and in the industrial era, part of the assortment was replaced by huā zhuān (花砖) — a “patterned brick” with an ornament around the edges, whose production since 1958 became a compact substitute for the cumbersome qiān liǎng. However, the scrolls themselves have been preserved as a living artisanal and collectible tradition, and the weight ladder from shí liǎng to wàn liǎng remains its recognisable symbol.

How to Distinguish

Shape and Braid. A genuine huā juǎn is a cylindrical column in a woven bamboo casing with an inner lining of palm fibre and knotweed leaves; diameter and length directly correspond to the weight name.
Calibre versus Name. The numerical part of the name is the weight in old liǎng: shí liǎng is small, bǎi liǎng is larger, qiān liǎng is the benchmark ~36 kg and ~1.65 m. A mismatch between the size and the stated name is a warning sign.
Traces of 踩制. A trodden column is extremely dense; on the break, a tight, layered structure of pressed, coarse leaf with second or third-grade stems is visible.
Aroma of Ageing. A mature scroll yields a clean chén xiāng without any musty mouldiness; the infusion is transparent, dark amber, with a sweet, long aftertaste.
Difference from Bricks. Unlike fú zhuān (茯砖), scrolls do not carry “golden flowers” (金花) as an obligatory signature, and they differ from hēi zhuān and huā zhuān precisely by their cylindrical shape and the “sun and dew” stage in production.

Bǎi liǎng and shí liǎng represent the same philosophy of the Anhua scroll as the celebrated qiān liǎng, but on a human scale: compact enough to live at home, and noble enough to mature for years.