An onlooker trys to compress Tuocha tea. (Photo/ Cathy Chen)

Finally packaged Tuocha tea is shown to onlookers. (Photo/ Cathy Chen)

[InKunming--Kunming]  The 9th China Yunnan Pu'er Tea Expo is held in Kunming from May 9 to May 12. Xiaguan Tuocha Tea(沱茶), a kind of bowl-shaped tea product that is only made in Xiagua(下关), capital city of Dali prefecture, Yunnan, is displayed on the expo.

Within the exhibition area, two men wearing Bai people's ethnic clothes, showed the making processes of Xiaguan Tuocha tea, which attracted a lot of onlookers.

Making skills of Tuocha tea had been inherited for 112 years since 1902. Tea producers firstly rubbed just-steamed and heated tea leaves with cotton gauze into a soft and loose state. And then, producers put packaged tea leaves under a long wooden bar that was fixed on a bench. Tea leaves were compressed tightly by producers who sat on another side of the bench.

After compressing leaves into a shape of round bowl, a lump of Tuocha tea was finished. Producers would lay up the molded Tuocha tea lump on wooden shelves and dry these lumps for a longer time in the sun.

Compressed and dried Tuocha tea has moisture-proof and longer shelf life advantages, so that it was more convenient for merchants to bring out of Dali and was more easily to be sold.

Tuocha tea was one of the most important products on Ancient Tea and Horse Road, and was even sold to South Asian and South-east Asian countries.

Some onlookers watched the two men make the tuocha tea on the scene of the expo and itched to try the making skills by themselves, who found great funs and learned knowledge about tea there.

Click here to view Chinese report.

A man waering Bai people's ethnic clothe rubs the tea. (Photo/ Cathy Chen)

One rubs the tea, and the other compresses the tea. (Photo/ Cathy Chen)

Click here to view Chinese report.

(Editors: Cathy Chen, Tracy)