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In Tang Dynasty, the steaming technic had been gradually perfected. At that time, the whole process of tie guan yin steamed bulk is steaming, resolving, crushing, mold feeding, drying, perforating, baking and sealing.
In the Song Dynasty, the tie guan yin tea producing technics developed fast, there were continuously new products came out. In the north Song Dynasty, the tie guan yin bulks were popular.
According to the book of Zhao Ruli, the producing technics of the dragon and phoenix tie guan yin tea bulks had six steps: steaming, pressing, pestling, shaping, filtering yellow and baking. Dig the newly picked tie guan yin leaves in water; pick the shapely buds and leaves and steam them; wash them with cold water; press to remove water and tie guan yin juice; put some water to pestle them; then mold and bake.
In the making process of dragon and phoenix tie guan yin tea, washing with cold water may keep the green color of the leaves, which improve the leaves quality. The method of dipping and pressing remove the true taste, which makes a big lose of tie guan yin and the whole process costs time, which spurred appearance of steamed tie guan yin tea.
4. From bulks to loose tie guan yin tea
In the producing of steaming tie guan yin tea, to improve the shortcoming that hard to remove bitter taste and hybrid scent, people gradually took the methods without kneading and pressing but baking straightly. They turned the steam bulk tie guan yin tea into steam the loose leaves, which kept the aroma of tie guan yin. Meanwhile, there came up the appreciating method and quality requirement of the loose tie guan yin tea. This revolution came up in the Song Dynasty.
From the Song to Yuan Dynasty, the bulk tie guan yin, the dragon and phoenix bulk and loose dragon well tea exist together. To the Ming Dynasty, the Tai Tsu Chu Yuan-chang issued an imperial edict that depose dragon bulks and encourage loose tie guan yin tea, which made the loose tie guan yin tea prevailed.