huā juǎn

The huā juǎn (花卷) family is a line of pressed cylindrical dark teas from Anhua County, where the weight embedded in the very name builds a ladder from the small shí liǎng chá (十两茶) to the legendary qiān liǎng chá (千两茶). Bǎi liǎng (百两茶) and shí liǎng (十两茶) are the junior, “domestic” rungs of the same technology that gave birth to the “King of Teas”.

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 produce large-leafed, somewhat coarse raw material, ideally suited for prolonged fermentation and multi-year aging.

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 cylinders of all weight calibers 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 foundation for the entire line is a second-to-third grade (二-三级) dark máochá (黑毛茶, hēi máochá). This is raw material of medium coarseness, with the presence of more mature leaf and stems — it is precisely this that gives the “scrolls” their density, structure, and potential for many years of aging. The more tender grades of máochá are used for the “sharp-pointed” teas of the sān jiān series (天尖, 贡尖), whereas for the cylinders, volume, the strength of the compressed 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 qiān liǎng — “one thousand liǎng,” a cylinder with a mass of about 36.25 kg and a height of around 1.65 m. The other calibers 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 cylinder;
• 万两 (wàn liǎng) — “ten thousand liǎng,” the largest.

Since the mass is determined by the number of old liǎng, bǎi liǎng and shí liǎng are proportionally lighter than the qiān liǎng — these are no longer the cumbersome “royal” cylinder, but compact columns of 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:

1. 汽蒸 (qì zhēng) — steaming the máochá to make the leaf soft and pliable.
2. 装篓 (zhuāng lǒu) — packing the heated tea into a woven bamboo casing, miè lǒu (篾篓). The inner “clothing” of the cylinder is multi-layered: palm fiber (棕, zōng) and knotweed leaves (蓼叶, liǎo yè) line the bamboo sheath, forming the characteristic “shirt” of the scroll.
3. 滚踩压绞锤 (gǔn cǎi yā jiǎo chuí) — rolling, treading by foot, pressing, and tightening with a lever-”hammer.” A team of masters rolls and tightens the cylinder, achieving ultimate density.
4. 日晒夜露 (rì shài yè lù) — “by day in the sun, by night under the dew.” The finished cylinders are left under the open sky for about 50 days, where the alternation of heat and moisture initiates a slow microbial and fermentative transformation right inside the compressed mass.

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

Standards and Status

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

Taste and Brewing

The scrolls belong to the style “the older, the more aromatic” (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 an aged “old” aroma (陈香, chén xiāng), a sweet aftertaste, and almost no astringency.

Since the mass is compressed to a stone-like density, before brewing, a flat disc is sawed or chipped off the cylinder, 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 cylinder. 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 trade demand. Bǎi liǎng as a form is documented from the Daoguang era (清道光) of the Qing Dynasty: it is associated with Shaanxi merchants (陕商, shǎn shāng), who needed a standardized, tightly packed, and transport-resistant tea for caravan routes. From this commercial need, larger calibers later evolved, up to the qiān liǎng — the cylinder dubbed the “King of Teas of the World” (世界茶王).

The technology of treading cylinders is labor-intensive, and in the industrial era, part of the assortment was replaced by huā zhuān (花砖) — the “patterned brick” with an ornamental border, the production of which, since 1958, became a compact replacement for the cumbersome qiān liǎng. However, the scrolls themselves have been preserved as a living artisanal and collector’s tradition, and the weight ladder from shí liǎng to wàn liǎng remains its recognizable symbol.

How to Distinguish

• Shape and sheath. A genuine huā juǎn is a cylindrical column in a woven bamboo casing with an inner lining of palm fiber and knotweed leaves; the diameter and length directly correspond to the weight name.
• Caliber vs. name. The numerical part of the name is the weight in old liǎng: shí liǎng is small, bǎi liǎng is larger, and 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 treaded cylinder is extremely dense; on the fracture, a tight, layered structure of pressed, coarse leaf with second-to-third grade stems is visible.
• Aroma of aging. A mature scroll gives a clean chén xiāng without moldy mustiness; the infusion is clear, dark amber, with a sweet, long aftertaste.
• Difference from bricks. Unlike fú zhuān (茯砖), the scrolls do not bear the “golden flower” (金花) as an obligatory signature, and they differ from hēi zhuān and huā zhuān precisely in their cylindrical shape and the “sun and dew” stage in production.

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