It is usually Pu-erh 普洱 tea that is sold compressed
into biscuits or bricks and so forth, and yesterday was the first
time I had seen an oolong compressed into a brick. This is a
five-year-old lǎocóng shuǐxiān 老叢水仙: it is 100g of tea compressed
into a brick shaped like a kit-kat (i.e., it has grooves to you can
break pieces off with your hands instead of having to use a knife).
You have to wash it twice with hot water instead of the usual once
(the leaves are pressed very tight). The liquor is a dark red-brown
and very smooth: does not taste quite like any other 老叢水仙 I have
ever had. The leaves do open up as normal and you can only get four
decent infusions out of it, which is about usual for a Mt Wuyi 武夷嚴
tea.
