Once upon a time, Xiaguan tea factory started a brand called 'Tibetan flame', which produced pu erh tea specially for export to western China. This tea was normally brewed with milk and spices and this tea was an important dietary requirement of the people there. With no proper transport in the olden days, this tea was delivered by horses that traverse the mountainous terrain. Pu erh tea had to be compressed to shapes that make transporting these tea easily.
Today tea is easily transported to these neighbouring areas. However, we still get to see thsee various shapes of compressed tea today. Tuo or nest shape, cakes and bricks and even mushroom shaped. My guess mushroom shaped tea could be an auspicious shape to the people there.
I opened a 2004 Xiaguan raw mushroom. This 250g tea was easy to break open. This tea originally came in a pack of 3. This tea is woody with a nice medicinal aroma and taste. The tea is very dark amber in colour when brewed. Strong and mellow. Very nice. Wicked stuff. I will brew the tea for Christmas for my tea drinking guests.
