Origin of Golden Flower Fu Tea

Fu Tea, also known as Fu Brick Tea, Golden Flower Fu Tea, or Fuzhuan Tea, is a type of tea.

Fu Tea is a fermented tea, specifically a post-fermented tea, mainly made from dark tea leaves and classified as dark tea.

It is commonly pressed into brick shapes under normal pressure, hence the name "Fu Brick Tea." 

It is called "Fu Tea" because it is mainly produced during the hottest days of summer ("sān fú tiān" in Chinese Pinyin).

Fu Tea originates mainly from "Hunan" and "Hubei" provinces (though nowadays, it is also made from tea leaves purchased from various tea-producing regions nationwide). Due to the yellow granules resembling "golden flowers" in the tea brick, it is also known as "Golden Flower Fu Tea." 

Fu Tea was once favored by minority ethnic groups in border areas, primarily consuming meat; hence, it was also called "Border Sales Tea."

Fu Tea is a type of microbial fermented tea. Its yellow granules comprise a precious microbial fungus known as "golden flower fungus," scientifically named "Eurotium cristatum."

Due to its significant functions of "grease digestion" and "gastrointestinal regulation," Fu Tea is particularly popular among people in the western nomadic regions. In Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and other border areas, it is revered as the "tea of life" and was once an indispensable beverage in residents' daily lives. A local saying goes, "Better to go without meat for three days than without tea for one."

"Tea has never been grown in the north of the Qinling Mountains. Except in Jingyang."

This means there has been no history of tea cultivation north of the Qinling Mountains since ancient times. Still, Jingyang County, on the north side of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province, has produced a mysterious tea—Fu Tea.

Chang'an (Now Xi'an) has been the capital of 13 dynasties in China, a gathering place for merchants, and a land of plenty.

Since the Han Dynasty, it has been the starting point of the Silk Road, where goods were transferred through the Wei River water transportation system and distributed along the Jing River before being transported to the Western Regions by mules and camels. According to records, the appearance of "golden flowers" in some tea processed and transported in Jingyang coincidentally occurred in 1068, during the Xining period of the Northern Song Dynasty, nearly a thousand years ago.

A mysterious microorganism exists in the Fu Tea tea in Jingyang, the "soul of Fu Tea tea" - "the fungus of the golden flower." The fungus of the golden flower is originally an ordinary microorganism on the earth and is widespread in the subtropical regions of the planet. However, it has received people's attention in Jingyang because it grows in the Fu Tea tea and creates the unique taste and health care function value of the Fu Tea tea, and has only received significant attention from the scientific community in recent years.

The fungus of the golden flower mainly attaches to the branches and leaves of dead plants to grow. When tea is processed into brick tea, the moisture content in the brick tea, the air humidity, and the temperature in the workshop and other environments meet the growth conditions of the fungus of the golden flower. Hence, the golden flower "settles down" in the tea, thus producing the Fu Tea tea, and the fungus of the golden flower becomes the "soul of Fu Tea tea."