about charcoal （炭），baking（焙）

We  are very particular about the charcoal we used for baking ,avoid the wood with smell , such as pine, cypress, maple, etc, having fat flavor, burning out the charcoal  will bring peculiar smell, is not suitable for baking tea

Firing Wood need according to its density, until thoroughly burnt, fade the pyrotechnic gas, wood absorption from the inside out exudes fragrant charcoal. When charcoal lighted, immediately covered with grey shades tightly , keep fire.

After the charcoal choosing ,during baking step ,the experience of tea making and the  sensitivity of the tea aroma changes for the tea markers are badly needed .when baking tea ,the markers need to adjust the time of baking and the degree of the fire accoring to their tea 'feature (like the water content ,the degree of thickness of the leaves and so on) . Meantime ,they need to be  very sensitive to the aroma changes ,so they can cotrol the fire degree and time length appropriatly .

About tea baking

   Many tea friends ask me about the  wuyi rock tea Charcoal fire baking .Some people never saw that before ,through the video looking  ,they still know nothing about that .So send some  pics in my baking room .
It is the  hole ,two tools  one is for scraping the ashes ,one shovel is taking the ashes .

 It is the basket :this bamboo sieve is special designed .

 There are some nails in the waist of the basket ,so that can prop up the sieve ,putting the sieve on that , and later just put the tea on sieve ,

 Fire making :quite hot in the room ,about 150degree Temperature .Sweat flows like water

About :5hours later the fire is ready .We put the ashes on the fire ,using the heat of the fire to baking the tea .Remember that speically -designed  basket ,the buttom half is emputy  ,the heat can  come up through there .

 We can through using the ashe to control the fire 'degree .Like Putting on some thick ashes  to make the fire much smaller ,of couse through scraping the ashes to make the fire much bigger  .

 Normally one time charcoal fire making can last 15-18days ,in order to make full use of the fire .My family have two shifts ,anyway it is hard work for the men ,Of course they can loose weight  during this time .

Tea  baking is not just simply putting  the basket on the fires and waiting the time .We need the tasting the tea each 1-2hours to see how is the brewed leaves color changing and tea soup changing ,and each  half -1hours we need to turn them one time .For the tea baking ,there is no a booking which we can copy ,they are all the experience from parctice .

laocong shuixian mao cha tasting

Wuyi rock tea in the first year is changing all the time ,can be better also can be  worse .Tasting Maocha is very easily for us to know its essence .Understand the characteristics of the tea ,like advantages and deficiency.So later we can bake the tea  accoring to its  features ,can be lightly -roasted ,or  higly -roasted .Of course we also bake the tea accoring to the  our clients 'styles.