enjoychinatea
Tuo tea is a kind of cone-shaped condensed tea. It is generally made of dark tea and sometimes green tea. The tea which takes slender and tender sun-cured green tea as raw material and is made after steamed and condensed called Yunnan Tuo tea. The tea made with the diffused Pu'er tea is called Yunnan Pu'er Tuo tea. Yunnan Pu'er Tuo tea is normally 8 cm in diameter, 4.5cm high. Each of it is about 100g.
Brewing difficulty : General difficulty
Best season to taste: Autumn
Origin: Yunnan and Sichuan Province.
Recognizing
Unfermented Tuo Tea
Dry tea: the real unfermented Tuo tea is square, bowl-shaped, with deep and round fossa. The surface is covered with white fuzz. The fake unfermented Tuo tea is irregular and distorted with shallow and small fossa. The surface isn't covered with fuzz.
Tea soup: the liquid of the real unfermented Tuo tea is yellow and bright with pure and lasting aroma. It tastes thick, mellow, fresh and cool. The brewed tea leaves are stout, fresh and tender. But the liquid of the fake is turbid, green with yellow. The aroma is light even with other odor. It tastes sour and astringent. The brewed tea leaves are coarse, old, thin and hard.
Fermented Tuo Tea
Packing: the packing paper of real fermented Tuo tea is brilliant and bright with clear pictures and words. That of the imitated goods is coarse paper. the color is easy to fall off and the pictures and letters are dark and old.
Tea ceremony
Water temperature: boiling water.
Tea sets: try to use the comparatively large teapot for continued infusions, not affecting the water temperature.
Xiaguang Tuocha Tea making techniques