Traveling to Yunnan, I saw many teas made into tea cakes. What is the reason?

There are many reasons for seeing a lot of tea leaves made into tea cakes when traveling to Yunnan. Many friends who come into contact with Pu 'er tea for the first time will have such questions: Why are black tea, green tea and oolong tea all loose teas, while Pu 'er tea seen in the market is all tea cakes, tea bricks and even heavy melon tribute tea? In fact, Pu 'er tea is also sold in the form of loose tea. Most of them are sold as raw materials to tea merchants and manufacturers for secondary processing and production. Why do manufacturers go to great trouble to add an extra process to loose tea? Is there any significance behind the change of Pu 'er tea from loose tea to pressed tea?

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, with the development of the border trade market, the government opened up an ancient trade road with tea-horse exchange as the main content-the ancient tea-horse road. There are many routes along the ancient tea-horse road. One main route is from Yunnan (Xishuangbanna, Simao), the origin of Pu 'er tea, through Bangda, Gongbujiangda and Lhasa in Tibet, and then through Gyangze and Yadong to Myanmar, Nepal and India. Domestic routes are more than 3,800 kilometers long. Thousands of miles away, the terrain is high and the mountain road is dangerous. It may take several months to go back and forth. On this ancient road, the transportation of goods mainly depends on caravans, and the time and labor costs are basically fixed.

Conducive to transportation and storage, maintaining flavor. Pu 'er tea is produced in Yunnan, located in the plateau, with rugged terrain and narrow mountain roads. Pu 'er tea is mostly transported by manpower, but the transportation efficiency of Pu 'er loose tea is low and it is easy to be damaged during transportation. Compared with loose tea, the cake-shaped Pu 'er tea takes up less space, is more convenient to store, and reduces the storage cost of tea. Moreover, the pressed tea leaves are relatively stable in temperature and humidity, uniform and lasting in aging, and can be well preserved. After storage, the aroma and taste of pressed tea are better than that of loose tea. Moreover, cake tea is more enjoyable and interesting than loose tea.

Pressed tea leaves will have a stronger aroma. Compared with ordinary loose tea, the storage space of pressed tea is more closed, and the air permeability of tea is poor. Therefore, the aroma is stored and not volatile. We can smell the excellent "old tea fragrance" from the old Pu 'er dry tea stored for many years.