Square Tea, Jincha, and Pillar Tea: Less Common Shapes
The national standard for pu'er classifies compressed tea by shape as round cakes, bowl shapes, squares, pillars, and so on. Besides the most common cakes, tuocha, and bricks, there are a few less common shapes, each with its own story.
What Is Square Tea?
Square tea (fangcha) is flat, square pu'er, commonly about 10 cm on a side and 1–2 cm thick, thinner than a brick. It falls in the same "square" category of compressed tea as bricks, but looks more like a square cake.
What sets square tea apart is that its surface often has characters or designs pressed into it, such as the tea's name, auspicious characters, or the factory's logo, varying by factory and era. The characters are pressed with molds carved with text, so square tea is often made as commemorative tea or as gifts. Older square teas were mostly raw; today there are both raw and ripe.
What Is Jincha?
Jincha is compressed tea with a "stem": the body looks like a heart or a mushroom, rounded on top with a stem-like protrusion at the bottom, so it's also called "heart-shaped jincha" or "mushroom tuo." The traditional size is around 250 grams.
Why a Heart Shape?
Jincha's shape is tied to how it was transported and drunk. It was sold mainly to Tibetan areas, over long distances in changeable weather:
- Easy to pack and transport: each jincha was wrapped in paper and packed in strings into baskets, so they didn't break up on the backs of yaks and horses.
- Breathable, not stuffy: the stem and hollow spaces of the heart shape made the tea less likely to develop stuffy odors on the long journey.
- Easy to use: in Tibetan areas it was mostly boiled or used for butter tea, and you could break it off at the stem and put it straight in the pot.
The "heart" also carries a bit of romance, and some writing says it symbolizes affection, though that's mostly a later interpretation.
Where Was Jincha Sold?
Jincha belongs to "frontier tea" (bianxiaocha), traditionally sold mainly to Tibet and Tibetan areas such as Garzê in Sichuan, with some going to Nepal, Bhutan, and elsewhere. Xiaguan in Dali is the most important producer of jincha, and the Kang-Zang Tea Factory founded in Xiaguan in 1941 mainly produced jincha for Tibetan areas.
A common account in the tea world is that jincha was pressed as bricks for a time in the 1960s to make production and transport easier, and the heart shape returned only in the mid-1980s. This history is often linked to demand from Tibetan areas and suggestions from religious figures, though accounts of the details vary. Xiaguan still makes heart-shaped jincha today, and it's a shape many tea drinkers like to collect. For the Xiaguan story, see Xiaguan Tea Factory: Tuocha and Iron Cakes.
Pillar Tea: Pu'er in the Qianliang Style
Pillar tea (zhucha) is long, cylindrical pu'er inspired by the "Qianliang tea" of Anhua in Hunan: tea is packed into a long basket woven from bamboo strips, then trampled, twisted tight, and bound by a team of people to form a pillar of tea over 1 meter long that looks like a log.
Pu'er pillar tea comes in two forms:
- Large pillars: made the Qianliang way, bound and pressed into a long pillar with bamboo strips, mostly for collecting or display.
- Small pillars: pressed in a mold into a cylinder about the length of a hand, easy to cut into slices.
To use pillar tea, the whole pillar is usually sawn into "tea slices," and tea is then pried from each slice, which is quite different from other shapes.
Does Shape Affect Quality?
Shape itself doesn't determine quality; material, processing, and storage are what matter. Shape does affect a few things, though:
| Shape | Compression | How to use | Aging in storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square tea | Thin, moderate | Pry from the corners | Thin with lots of surface area, changes faster |
| Jincha | Fairly tight | Break apart at the stem | Hollow center, breathes well |
| Pillar tea | Very tight | Saw into slices, then pry | Center changes slowly |
These special shapes are often commemorative or collectible, and their price doesn't necessarily reflect the quality of the tea. When choosing, come back to the material's source and the liquor itself. For an overview of all the shapes, see Cakes, Bricks, Tuocha, Dragon Pearls, and Loose Tea: The Shapes of Pu'er.
How to Pry Special Shapes
- Square tea: thin and squared off. Insert a tea needle at an angle at the four corners and pry along the layers. If you want to keep the characters on the surface intact, start from the back.
- Jincha: start at the stem or the hollow of the heart. The stem is usually easier to break apart.
- Pillar tea: have the tea shop saw it into slices, or saw it yourself with a fine-toothed saw, then pry from the edge of each slice. Wrap the sawn slices in cotton paper.
General prying technique is covered in How to Open a Pu'er Cake.
Tips for Collecting Shaped Tea
Specially shaped teas are often regarded as collectibles or souvenirs. When buying, check that the shape is intact with no knocks or chipped corners, that the surface has no mold spots or off-odors, and that the factory name, year, and specifications on the package are clear. The price of these teas is often driven by shape and rarity and isn't necessarily proportional to the quality of the tea itself. If you're buying to drink, tasting first is the most reliable approach.
FAQ
What is square tea? Flat, square pu'er, thinner than a brick, often with the tea's name or auspicious characters pressed into the surface.
What is jincha, and why is it heart-shaped? Compressed tea shaped like a heart or mushroom with a stem. The shape made it easy to transport for the frontier trade, kept it from getting stuffy, and made it easy to break off for boiling.
Where was jincha sold? Traditionally mainly to Tibet and the Tibetan areas of Sichuan, with Xiaguan as the most important producer.
What is pillar tea? Long, cylindrical pu'er made in the style of Hunan's Qianliang tea, sawn into slices before use.