How to brew Fu Brick properly?

Fu Brick is a pressed, post-fermented dark tea, and it's a forgiving one — hard to over-brew, easy to enjoy. The one thing it needs is heat: full boiling water. And don't worry about the golden flower — boiling water won't harm it. High heat is exactly what coaxes out its mellow sweetness and aroma.

The Vessel: Gaiwan or Yixing Clay

Brew it in a gaiwan for clean, easy tasting, or a Yixing clay teapot for a rounder, fuller cup — the clay holds heat and deepens the body over time. Keep one clay pot for dark tea only.

The Ritual (Gongfu Style)

• Temperature: 100°C — full boiling water. A pressed brick needs proper heat to open up and release the golden-flower aroma.
• Ratio: 1:20 to 1:30 — for a 150ml gaiwan, use 5–7g.
• Step 1 — Warm the Vessel: pour boiling water in, swirl, discard. Pre-heats and primes the vessel.
• Step 2 — Break & Add the Leaves: slide a tea pin in from the edge and lever gently, keeping the leaf as whole as you can, then add it to the warm vessel. Intact leaf brews more evenly and lasts more steeps.
• Step 3 — Rinse (洗茶): pour boiling water in and decant within 5–10 seconds. Discard. This washes the pressed leaf and wakes it up. Repeat once if the piece is tight.
• Step 4 — First Three Brews: 10–15 seconds each. Pour down the inner wall, not straight onto the leaves. Decant cleanly.
• Step 5 — Brews 4–6: extend gradually to 20–30 seconds.
• Step 6 — Brew 7+: push to a minute or longer. A good Fu Brick gives 8–10 infusions.
• Step 7 — Drink: smell the empty cup first. The finish is sweet, soft and lingering.

Two more ways to brew it

• Simmer (for aged bricks): rinse once, then use roughly 1:100 (about 5g to 500ml). Start in cold water, bring to the boil, drop to a low simmer for 3–5 minutes, then rest a minute. Rounder and sweeter.
• Thermos (office days): drop 2–3g into a flask, fill with boiling water, steep about 5 minutes. It stays sweet and smooth all afternoon — never bitter.

Common Mistakes

• ❌ Water under 95°C — a pressed brick stays flat and thin without proper heat.
• ❌ Skipping the rinse — the first cup tastes dusty and closed.
• ❌ Leaving leaf sitting in liquor between pours — the cup turns muddy. Decant fully each time.
• ❌ Using a clay pot that's held green or floral tea — flavours cross-contaminate. Keep one pot for dark tea only.

Storage Care for Fu Brick

Fu Brick is a post-fermented dark tea, which means it's built to be kept. Unlike delicate teas that fade, a well-stored Fu Brick improves with age — sharp notes soften, the body rounds out, and the golden-flower character deepens over the years.

• Cool, Dry and Dark: store in a cool, dry spot out of direct sunlight. Do NOT refrigerate — a dark tea like this keeps at room temperature.
• Let It Breathe: this is the key difference from green or floral teas. Do NOT seal Fu Brick airtight — post-fermented tea needs a little airflow to keep maturing. A breathable wrap (kraft paper, cotton bag, or an unglazed clay jar) is ideal.
• Away From Odours: dark tea readily absorbs smells. Keep it away from coffee, spices and scented foods, and never store different teas together — they cross-scent.
• Age It (Optional): if you'd like to age it, keep the brick somewhere stable and breathable and let time do the work. Well-stored bricks keep improving for many years. (This describes flavour maturing over time, not any health effect.)
• Keep the Brick Whole: break off only what you need each time. A whole brick ages more evenly and slowly than loose broken leaf.

From the High Mountains of Anhua

• Core Terroir: Anhua (安化), in Hunan Province — one of the historic heartlands of Chinese dark tea (hei cha), where cool cloud and altitude grow a slow, full-flavoured leaf.
• The Leaf: a first-grade pick from the early spring of 2015 — full, strong leaf, rich and deep in colour — then traditionally compressed into a Fu Brick the same year. Now nicely aged, with plenty of room to develop further.
• The Craft: made by the traditional Fu Brick method, finished with the signature "fa-hua" (发花) step. Under carefully controlled warmth and humidity, the golden flower (Jin Hua, Eurotium cristatum) develops naturally inside the brick — much like yeast in bread.
• The Golden Flower (金花): those tiny golden specks are the mark of a well-made Fu Brick — the denser and more even they are, the better. They give the tea its mellow sweetness and its unmistakable aroma, earthy and soft, like an old wooden cabin after the rain.
• VGT Sourcing: for 18 years, Valley Green Tea has been a trusted place to buy authentic Chinese dark tea (hei cha) online in Australia. Looking for other dark teas? Try our lighter, brighter Tian Jian, or the smooth, betelnut-scented Liu Bao — or browse the full Chinese Dark Tea collection.