That's great that you can enjoy Wuyi brick tea. The processing is simple. After the tea is oxidized/shaken, fixated, it's then rolled in a rolling machine. The rolling machine breaks up the cell walls and expresses juices to the outer leaf. This tea is then spread out to rest on plastic sheets or on bamboo baskets. Once its at this naturally sticky stage, it can be compressed into a number of forms. Then the tea can be baked and allowed to completely dry naturally.

Any Yancha can age, and can age well - provided it was baked heavily. So it's an advantage to have Yancha brick tea which can be left for a number of years to age.

You are also right that there will be some microbial action on the leaf - depending on humidity, etc. The baking produces baked flavor, aging produces aged flavor. Well aged tea is like well-aged fine wine. The taste should be smooth, tasty, earthy.


> It's difficult for me to ascertain exactly what processing the Wuyi
>
> brick has undergone. It does have an earthier taste reminiscent of a
>
> cooked puerh, so I'm not sure I would rule out microbial aging quite
>
> yet.