Paste

The Song Dynasty was a time of abundant brick tea (also known as "tuán chá" or "piàn chá"). Regarding the production techniques of this period's brick teas, apart from the main processes recorded in "Beiyuan Bielu" for tribute teas (picking, sorting, steaming, pressing, grinding, shaping, drying), there was also the "gao you shou mian" technique, which involved adding a paste-like substance to the surface of the brick tea. Although this technique has been widely discussed by Song literati, detailed records of its specific operations are scarce, leading to a lack of systematic research on it within academia. Academic interpretations of "gao you shou mian" have largely focused on Su Shi's poem, "To know the purity of heart is good, not new with paste on the surface," interpreting it primarily as the act of applying paste to the surface of brick tea, with some suggesting it was a method of tea fraud. There are few discussions in academia about the formation of "gao you shou mian," though some trace it back to the Tang Dynasty, but their arguments are not particularly persuasive. The selection of materials for the paste is widely mentioned to include fragrant pastes, rice paste, and occasionally tea…