is this a recent trend?

[orguz]

http://www.teaspring.com/Wu-Yi-Yan-Cha-Bing.asp

Is this product a recent invention or is yancha in beeng form an old tradition? I want to ask serious tea collectors that travel to China/Taiwan/H.K whether they have seen this cake before, just curious.

[gingkoseto]

long feng tuan bing (as the teaspring bing is called in the description) is believed the ancestor of oolong. But real long feng tuan tradition was lost long time ago (or, I guess, out competed by other teas). This seems a modern redemption, in light of the hot puerh market (that's just what I guess ).

There are some ever existing oolong bricks though, as mentioned in one of the links herb_master mentioned in his post. For example, I've never had this one, zhang ping shui xian, but have been wanting it for a while It's a 8g small cake.

[Victoria]

That looks pretty tasty.

[orguz]

Yeah and at $9.90/150grams is cheap too, the description doesn't mention the degree of roasting if any at all.

[Space Samurai]

Its all right, but its not that good. I don't know anyone who has finished a whole one. It tastes like an average, daily yancha, but the price is fair, so you get what you pay for.

[chrl42]

It's a revival of Long Feng Duan Cha.

Long Feng Duan was a tribute tea from Song (another name existed before), is like the ancestor of Wuyi teas, long-worshipped by emperors and poets along with Yang Xian Cha of Yixing (origin of Yixing Hong), Gu Zhi Zi Sun of Zhejiang (still exists), Meng Shan Cha of Sichuan (origin of Meng Ding Gan Lu) etc. Back then, green tea was a Bing form until Ming founder's order 'only drink loose-leaf tea'. Long Feng Duan had a shape of disk with Long (dragon) and Feng (phoenix) letter written.