What is tiled tea, manufacturing features. The ability to make at home, calorie content and chemical composition. The benefits and harms of using, how to brew. Interesting facts about tea tiles.
Tiled tea is a pressed infusion for a drink that is prepared by infusion. Produced from black and green varieties, it can be expensive and cheap. The shape resembles chocolate. The surface is rough, sometimes it is decorated with embossing, there is no gloss. The final cost is determined by the raw materials that are included in the composition. More expensive types of products are made from varietal leaves, cheaper ones - from residual waste, sowing, crumbs, rough leaves. In most cases, the feedstock is crushed before pressing. Tiled tea is produced on the territory of Georgia and China, where it received a common name - Puer.
How is tiled tea made?
Regardless of the type of end product, manufacturing begins with the collection of raw materials. It is allowed to add tea crumbs and seedings when pressing, but not more than 30%. For tiled black tea, the coarse fleshy lower leaves are plucked, for green tea, the upper ones.
Before being placed in heaps for fermentation, the leaves are twisted in a special unit, and the coarse raw materials are additionally sprinkled with water. After 7-10 days, the fermented leaves are heated in cauldrons, constantly stirring, thoroughly crushing them with stirrers. If pressing of green varieties is planned, then drying is carried out in special boxes, black - when stacking, under a damp cloth. The height of the pile of future tea reaches 2, 5 m. The pile is periodically agitated and additionally moistened.
After 7-10 days, small metal containers are filled with an ordinary shovel and the tea leaves are sent for steaming - open containers are placed in a room saturated with wet steam.
Then they go directly to pressing using special forms. The saturation of useful substances and the special aroma of pressed tiled tea is explained by the fact that the almost finished product is finally dried and fermented.
Interesting! Ground nutmeg must be added to black tiled tea.
Tea tiles can also be made at home. The only equipment you need is a juicer from the Soviet era. It looks like an ordinary meat grinder, but the auger is a shaft with cutting along the edges. The brew will taste different from the factory one, since the finished product is used as a raw material, but it will acquire some new properties.
Features of making tiled tea at home:
- Large-leaf tea leaves with residual moisture, purchased by weight, are cleaned from the remnants of cuttings.
- Warm up in a dry frying pan to 70-75 ° C.
- Then frying, without cooling, is passed through a juicer, laid out in ceramic boxes or tin cans, dried with a hairdryer.
- Leave for 6-9 hours, stirring occasionally and drying.
- Raw materials ripen on baking sheets in an oven preheated to 80 ° C. The final moisture should be 8%.
- For a few seconds, the crushed leaves are placed in a water bath, and then sent under oppression.
- The compact is left to ripen for up to 3 weeks.
Such tiles will not be durable, but using home technology, you can make a figurine for a gift or provide ease of transportation. Many people do not like tea bags, and it is currently problematic to purchase factory-made tiles.
Composition and calorie content of tiled tea
The nutritional value of the drink is low, but it is difficult to call dry dietary brew.
The calorie content of green tiled tea is 140.9 kcal per 100 g, of which:
- Protein - 20 g;
- Fat - 5.1 g;
- Carbohydrates - 4 g.
Vitamins per 100 g:
- Vitamin A - 50 mcg;
- Vitamin B1, thiamine - 0.07 mg;
- Vitamin B2, riboflavin - 1 mg;
- Vitamin C, ascorbic acid - 10 mg;
- Vitamin PP - 8 mg.
Macronutrients per 100 g:
- Potassium, K - 2480 mg;
- Calcium, Ca - 495 mg;
- Magnesium, Mg - 440 mg;
- Sodium, Na - 82 mg;
- Phosphorus, P - 824 mg.
Trace elements are represented by iron - 82 mg per 100 g.
The composition of pressed pressed tea contains all the substances that are also found in baikhov:
- Amino acid catechin, which has an antioxidant effect, increases the absorption of ascorbic acid and normalizes the water-electrolyte balance.
- Tannins - help to cleanse the body and protect the digestive tract from the aggressive effects of hydrochloric acid, increase blood clotting.
- Caffeine - (there is more of it in black) excites the nervous system, tones, accelerates blood flow and pulsation.
- Theophylline - facilitates breathing, eliminates bronchial spasms.
Kalmyk tea, coarse-pressed tiles from mixed raw materials - waste of long and black varieties, additionally contain zinc and iodine, which has a beneficial effect on the work of the nervous, endocrine and reproductive systems.
The composition of the Georgian pressing differs from the Chinese one. It has much more tips - tea buds. This improves the quality of the final product, but reduces the amount of tannins.
Useful properties of tiled tea
The medicinal properties of the brewed drink have been appreciated since ancient times. The tiles, which were carried by travelers and nomads, returned strength in difficult transitions. If there were no conditions for making tea, the compact was chewed, soaked with saliva.
The benefits of tiled tea:
- Improves thinking ability and stimulates reaction speed.
- Normalizes water and electrolyte balance.
- It has a general antioxidant effect, cleanses the intestines from toxins and toxins.
- Improves thyroid function.
- Accelerates the transformation of sugar and conversion to glucose, increases the production of insulin.
- Restores the reserve of nutrients in the body, improves immunity.
- Stops the development of osteoporosis and arthrosis.
- Has antimicrobial and antiseptic effect.
Green tea regulates lipid-protein metabolism, promotes weight loss, has a pronounced diuretic effect, liquefies phlegm, helps to get rid of cholesterol deposits and uric acid salts, and lowers temperature.
Black tea increases blood clotting, increases tone, stops the development of complications in ARVI, accelerates heart contractions, and stops the development of diarrhea.
There are no age restrictions. Secondary weak brew can be given to infants from 2 weeks of age.
Contraindications and harm of tiled tea
When choosing a press for brewing, one should take into account possible allergic reactions. Green tea intolerance is more common.
Particular care should be taken when welding Kalmyk tiles. They are made in artisanal conditions, and the raw material can be the collection and leaves with unfinished fermentation.
In addition, milk can be used instead of water for pressing. This type of tiled tea can be harmful in people with celiac disease (milk protein intolerance).
Drinks made from black tea bars are stronger and richer. For people with diseases of the cardiovascular system, increased acidity of gastric juice, with frequent migraine attacks and high blood pressure, it is advisable to dilute the infusion, insist the secondary one or add milk. Drinking a strong drink at an elevated temperature can provoke the development of general intoxication.
The effect on the body of tea from green pressing is almost the same as from long tea of the same type. Abuse significantly lowers blood pressure, irritates the mucous membrane of the stomach and digestive tract, can provoke the development of diarrhea and the appearance of hepatic colic by stimulating the gallbladder.
Note! You can not drink tea with medicines - their effect on the body changes.
Too hot a strong drink has an aggressive effect on the esophagus and gastric mucosa. With repeated brewing, nutrients are destroyed, and there will be no benefit from drinking tea.
How to Brew Tiled Tea?
The methods of making tea depend on the type of product and the composition of the raw materials. The Chinese recommend using special dishes for making the tiles, in which a strainer is installed - a separator. This is explained by the fact that there is a large amount of tea crumbs in the feedstock, and in order to enjoy the taste of the drink, it should be drained.
Infusion utensils: gaiwan, chahe (deep spoon with holes in the hollow handle), ordinary ceramic teapot with a trap basket.
How to brew slab tea:
- Shu Puer … For cheap Chinese products, preliminary preparation is required. This type of infusion is produced in tablets and squares of 10 g, based on 1 glass of liquid. Since there is no packaging, you must first boil the "dose" with boiling water or rinse with running water. Then it is poured over with hot liquid and left for 3 minutes. There is another way to brew Shu Puer: after soaking in hot water, the infusion square is poured with hot milk. The color of the drink becomes brownish-pinkish, the original taste is fully preserved and enriched.
- Expensive varieties of Chinese tea … A piece of 2-4 g is broken off from a tile of green tea, poured with hot water - 95 ° C, no more than 150 ml. Leave for 3 minutes. If you reduce the amount of infusion, a rich drink will not work.
- Black tea … Brew in the same way as green, that is, directly in a glass, infusing for 3 minutes.
- With added milk … First, a piece of tile is placed in a French press, poured with boiling water and left for 2-3 minutes. Then the tea leaves are strained, and the liquid is combined with hot milk, sugar and cinnamon are added.
The nomadic tiled tea is brewed only with milk. To get an original taste, it is recommended to observe the proportions of tea leaves and water - 50 g per 1 liter. Chip off a piece of tile, pound it thoroughly. Pour into a boiled liquid, boil for 1 minute, pour in milk - it should be the same as water, add caraway seeds, pepper mixture, cinnamon, bay leaf crumbs. After 1, 5 minutes, turn off, drop a piece of ghee.
Interesting facts about tiled tea
The production of slab tea began in the 8th century. China, made of varietal tea, especially for the emperor. The pressing was given various shapes - a circle with a hole in the center, an oval, squares. Hieroglyphs were squeezed onto the surface.
In the X-XI centuries. pressing began to be done in order to dispose of waste in the production of long tea. It already included a tea collection, the remains of leaves, crumbs, cuttings. Unlike brick pressing, tile was fragile, the plates were delaminated. This was due to the fact that the feedstock was crushed. To eliminate this disadvantage, rice glue was added for a long time.
Russian industrialist Ponomarev improved technology at the end of the 19th century. Now the tea leaves were pressed from Huaxiang sowing tea, the crumbs accounted for only 30%. The tiles turned out to be durable, and the product of the same name, like the raw material, was bought with pleasure to supply the army, and was sent for export to Mongolia and Kalmykia. Moreover, this type of brewing began to be called "Kalmyk tea".
Meanwhile, in China, they began to produce elite products, which ousted Ponomarev's tiles from the market. The production was carried out by the British, Russian and French, who bought the tea factories. On the surface of the tiles, the year of manufacture, the factory, the image with the local flavor - for example, pagodas, were stamped on the surface of the tiles.
Since the middle of the twentieth century, pressed tea leaves have been produced in Georgia. Most of all, the products resembled chocolate: the surface was divided into squares, the wrapper was foil. Crumbling was considered a disadvantage.
Now tiled tea can be found only in the countries that produce it - China and Georgia. But if you want to enjoy the "real" taste, you should buy Chinese products. It is much higher in quality.
Chinese tea varieties:
- Puer Palace … Elite and expensive. It contains only varietal leaves. Manufactured in Yunnan province. The taste and smell of the drink resembles prunes, the color is rich, dark brown.
- Shu puer … It is pressed into squares weighing up to 10 g. It is inexpensive, it is made from seed-crops. The smell is fresh, rotten foliage and cut grass, the taste is nutty and honey.
- Puerh "Yellow Ribbon" … Packaged like chocolate, but wrapped in bamboo paper. It is considered an elite variety, the taste is fruity and woody. You can brew up to 4 times.
Black tiled tea in China is rarely produced, and it contains only waste of baikh varieties. If the green pressing is not to your taste, you will have to visit Georgia to purchase the “delicacy”.
How to brew Kalmyk tea - watch the video:
