---
title: "Zhútǒng chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/zhutong-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-08
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Zhútǒng chá (竹筒茶)

**Zhutong Cha** (*Zhútǒng chá*, 竹筒茶), "tea in bamboo," more precisely "tea in a bamboo tube." This is not a variety or a class of tea, but a method of production and a form: processed tea leaf—pan-fired, fixed, or softened by steam—is packed into a section of bamboo stem, and the tube is heated by a fire; to extract the dense tea cylinder, the tube is split open. This tea is made by the peoples of southern Yunnan Province—according to official and scholarly sources, the Dai, Bulang, and Hani; the Dai craft was included in the intangible cultural heritage list of the Xishuangbanna Autonomous Prefecture in 2023. What ends up inside the tube is determined by the raw material and processing: if compared with the national tea classification, fresh leaf that has been pan-fired or fixed results in a tea whose set of operations is close to green tea, while finished sun-dried maocha produces a pressed tea. Judging by amateur descriptions from the mid-2000s, this tea was sold in the Russian-language tea trade as "puerh in bamboo." The Chinese name 竹筒茶 is also used for other things—sour tea that ferments in bamboo, and the bamboo internode as a vessel—so the meaning of the name must be clarified each time.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** There is no single type—it depends on the raw material and processing. The national tea classification GB/T 30766-2014 divides tea primarily by technology and product properties, taking into account cultivar, raw material, and region. Green tea (绿茶, *lǜchá*) in it is a product made from fresh leaf that has undergone fixation, rolling, and drying. Pressed tea ([紧压茶](https://thetea.app/article/jinyachaxingzhuang), *jǐnyāchá*) is a product made from already finished tea: it is sifted, blended, steamed, pressed, and dried, and it belongs to reprocessed teas (再加工茶, *zàijiāgōngchá*). The variants of bamboo tea described in the sources fall into different places in this scheme: variants made from fresh leaf are, by their set of operations, closer to green tea, while the variant made from finished sun-dried maocha is closer to pressed tea. None of the official documents read attribute bamboo tea to a specific class; the comparison with the standard's definitions is an editorial reading, not a classification.
* **Assessment from a report on Laos:** The Japanese ethnographer Matsushita Satoru (松下智), in a 1996 article, cites a report on Luang Namtha Province in northern Laos. Steamed fresh leaf, tightly packed into bamboo and dried, is considered by the report's author to be the same as the bamboo tea found in Yunnan, and is called, essentially, pressed green tea to which microorganisms have no relation. This is the report author's assessment of Lao samples, not a classification of Yunnan tea.
* **Category:** A form and a production method. Not a plant cultivar, not a trademark, and not a region.
* **Puerh or not:** According to standard GB/T 22111-2008, puerh ([普洱茶](https://thetea.app/article/pu-ercha), *pǔ'ěrchá*) is tea made from Yunnan large-leaf sun-dried tea ([晒青](https://thetea.app/article/shai-qing)茶, *shàiqīngchá*) within the geographical indication zone and reprocessed there using a special technology. Pressed puerh, sheng and shu, under the same standard, is produced as a round cake, bowl, square, column, and in other forms (圆饼形、碗臼形、方形、柱形等). The standard does not name the bamboo tube and does not say whether a cylinder from bamboo belongs to the "column" (柱形, *zhùxíng*). Hence an editorial conclusion: tea in bamboo is puerh only when the raw material and processing meet the standard's definition. In descriptions of variants made from fresh leaf, sun-drying is absent.
* **Origin:** China, Yunnan Province (云南, *Yúnnán*). Sources name:
    * **Xishuangbanna (西双版纳, *Xīshuāngbǎnnà*), Menghai County ([勐海](https://thetea.app/article/meng-hai), *Měnghǎi*).** The Dai craft from the prefectural heritage list; its custodian is the Menghai County cultural center. Matsushita (1996) writes about bamboo tea among the Hani of Menghai and Jinghong (景洪, *Jǐnghóng*).
    * **Wenshan (文山, *Wénshān*), Guangnan County (广南, *Guǎngnán*), Dixu Township (底圩, *Dǐxū*).** This is the source of raw material for the samples in a 2025 scientific article. About the local bamboo "girl tea," see the article "Dixu Cha."
    * **The Bulang (布朗族, *Bùlǎngzú*).** Their custom is described by the reference page of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission of the PRC and by a 1982 Chinese survey quoted by Matsushita; the district is not named in these texts.
    * The review section of the 2025 article names Menghai and Guangnan counties as production areas, while confusing the prefectures: Menghai belongs to Xishuangbanna, and Guangnan to Wenshan.
* **Outside China:** According to the report cited by Matsushita, two kinds of "tea in bamboo" were found in Luang Namtha Province in northern Laos: leaf steamed and pressed in bamboo, and an analogue of the Bulang sour tea—"pickled tea for eating."
* **Geographic coordinates:** There is no single point: the form is known in several districts of southern Yunnan, and the sources do not provide coordinates.
* **Standard:** No national (GB) or local (DB) standard under the names 竹筒茶 and 竹筒香茶 was found in a search of state databases in October 2026; this does not rule out a document under another name. The database of group standards could not be checked.
* **Heritage:** The craft "傣族传统竹筒茶制作技艺" (*Dǎizú chuántǒng zhútǒngchá zhìzuò jìyì*), the traditional Dai technology for making bamboo tea, was included in the seventh batch of the intangible cultural heritage list of the Xishuangbanna Autonomous Prefecture by prefectural government decree 西政发〔2023〕13号 of 21 November 2023. The bearer people is the Dai (傣族, *Dǎizú*), and the safeguarding organization is the Menghai County cultural center (勐海县文化馆, *Měnghǎi xiàn wénhuàguǎn*). The decree does not contain a description of the technology itself.
* **Geographical indication:** Not mentioned in the sources read under this name.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **1980.** According to the Japanese researcher Nakamura Yoichiro (中村羊一郎, 1995 article), the Chinese book "Ethnic Minorities of Yunnan" (1980) calls fermented "tea for eating" by the names 竹筒茶 and 酸茶. Nakamura notes that these are descriptive names based on the production method, and the book does not report what the producers themselves call such tea.
    * **1982.** A Chinese survey of Bulang society, quoted by Matsushita, names three main methods of tea processing among them: loose tea (散茶, *sǎnchá*), tea in bamboo, and sour tea. According to the survey, tea in bamboo is made in the sixth to seventh month of the Dai calendar: picked tender tips are pan-fired, packed while hot into a bamboo tube, and heated by the hearth until the tube's skin is charred; then the tube is split open, and the tea is ready for consumption. The survey itself is known here only through this quotation.
    * **1996.** Matsushita writes that among the Hani (哈尼族, *Hānízú*) of Menghai and Jinghong, tea packed into bamboo tubes is part of the tea-making tradition, and the custom of drinking tea from bamboo tubes and clay vessels for roasting tea is partially preserved. About bamboo tubes and such vessels among the Tibeto-Burman peoples of southern Yunnan in general, he notes that with the modernization of daily life and Sinicization they are disappearing day by day, and bamboo tubes are already used almost exclusively for tourists.
    * **Mid-2000s.** Judging by amateur texts of those years, in the Russian-language tea community tea in bamboo was sold and drunk as "puerh in bamboo." In the tea menu of an amateur event from 2004, it is described as "puerh pressed into a section of bamboo stem"; in an amateur description from the same year, a sample bought in a Saint Petersburg shop turned out, inside the split tube, to be a dense "tea sausage." The origin, producer, and tea class are not named in these texts.
    * **2023.** The Dai craft of bamboo tea is included in the intangible cultural heritage list of the Xishuangbanna Autonomous Prefecture.
    * **2025.** A scientific article is published on the volatile aromatic compounds of four tea types from Dixu Township—white, black, green, and bamboo tea.
* **Name:**
    * **竹筒茶** (*zhútǒngchá*): 竹 means bamboo, 筒 means tube, 茶 means tea; literally "tea in a bamboo tube." This is how the 2023 Xishuangbanna government decree, the reference page of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, and Japanese ethnographic articles write it.
    * **Romanization.** The only English-language scholarly source found, the 2025 article, writes "zhutong tea" without tones and descriptively as "bamboo tube tea." The toned reading *zhútǒng chá* is the standard reading of the characters.
    * **竹筒香茶** (*zhútǒng xiāngchá*), "fragrant tea in a bamboo tube," is a form from a popular user reference; it is absent from the official and scholarly texts that could be read.
    * **"Girl tea."** The 2025 article writes that in China this tea is called "girl tea" and "Wazana," but does not provide characters. A popular reference writes "girl tea" as 姑娘茶 (*gūniang chá*). Explanations of the name differ: the reference links it to the tenderness of the raw material, while the 2025 article links it to its maturity. Local names in the Dai and Lahu languages given by the reference are not confirmed by primary sources and are not repeated here.
    * **Homonyms of "girl tea."** The name 姑娘茶 in the encyclopedia is also borne by Qing-era tea balls 女儿茶 (see "Yunnan Xiaguan Tuocha"), and the Russian "girl tea" also refers to the Guizhou [坡柳娘娘茶](https://thetea.app/article/poliu-niangniang-cha) (see "Poluo Niangniang Cha"). These are other teas.
    * **"Puerh in bamboo," "bamboo puerh."** Russian trade names from the mid-2000s, known from amateur texts. In 2005 discussions, "bamboo puerh" also referred to puerh wrapped in bamboo leaves—stacks of cakes or mini-cakes in such wrapping. That has no relation to tea in a bamboo tube.
    * **In the encyclopedia.** Previously this form was mentioned in passing in the articles "Yunnan Lücha" (as Zhutong Xiang Cha), "Naka," "Paka Cha," and "Dixu Cha"; there was no separate article.
* **Three meanings of 竹筒茶:**
    * **Tea pressed and heated in bamboo**—the subject of this article.
    * **Sour tea that ferments in bamboo.** According to the reference page of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Bulang boil fresh leaf, let it sour, pack it into a tube, and bury it in the ground. Other sources call such tea 竹筒茶: according to Nakamura, the 1980 Chinese book designates fermented "tea for eating" both as 竹筒茶 and as 酸茶, and in the report on Laos cited by Matsushita, the analogue of Bulang sour tea is named one of two kinds of 竹筒茶.
    * **The bamboo internode as a vessel.** Matsushita (1996) uses 竹筒茶 also in the sense of utensils: a bamboo internode serves both for storing tea leaf and for boiling water instead of a pot and a teapot. He suggests that the custom was adopted from the Dai, who once held power in southern Yunnan as hereditary local rulers (土司, *tǔsī*). One of the photographs in his article is captioned "竹筒茶 found among the Lahu"; the caption does not describe the technology.
* **Cultural significance:**
    * **Craft as heritage.** What was included in the prefectural list is not a product or a brand, but a craft—a traditional technology. The same list contains, as separate entries, the puerh crafts—shu puerh (普洱茶制作技艺（熟茶）) and three more entries "普洱茶制作技艺（…）": [金瓜贡茶](https://thetea.app/article/jingua-gongcha), [易武](https://thetea.app/article/yi-wu)同兴号, and 易武元宝茶—as well as the craft of Menghai sun-dried tea (勐海晒青茶制作技艺). The list does not call Dai bamboo tea a variety of the puerh craft; however, the structure of the list is not a classification of tea.
    * **In material about UNESCO heritage.** The portal of the national center for intangible heritage protection, in a material dated 21 November 2023 about the Yunnan part of the UNESCO element "Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China" (中国传统制茶技艺及其相关习俗), lists six national entries for Yunnan: two puerh crafts—gongcha and "Dayi" tea (2008), Xiaguan tuocha (2011), Dianhong and the "three teas" custom of the Bai people (2014), and De'ang sour tea (2021). Bamboo tea is not among them.
    * **Hani tea.** According to Matsushita, the large tea tree of Nannuo Mountain ([南糯山](https://thetea.app/article/nannuoshan), *Nánnuòshān*) shows that the Hani are one of the main tea-producing peoples in Menghai and Jinghong, and bamboo tea is part of their tea-making tradition.
    * **Lahu.** The article "Naka" writes about a bamboo tea tradition among the Lahu of Naka village; no primary description of this tradition could be found, and in Matsushita the Lahu are mentioned only in a photograph caption of a bamboo vessel.

**3. Botanical Description and Raw Material:**

* **Cultivar:** Not named in the sources. The review section of the 2025 article writes about large-leaf raw material, and the reference page of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission about tender shoot tips (嫩[毛尖](https://thetea.app/article/mao-jian), *nèn máojiān*). No description specifies which variety of tea plant went into the tube.
* **Raw material:** According to the descriptions, either fresh leaf (Bulang, 2025 samples) or finished sun-dried maocha (晒青毛茶, *shàiqīng máochá*)—this is how one described product was made. For the 2025 study samples, fresh leaf from one village in Guangnan County (named in the article in Latin script as Diyi), grown under identical conditions and free of pests and diseases, was used.
* **Bamboo:** The bamboo species is not named in official or scholarly sources. The reference page of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission writes about bamboo tubes with a lid. The seller of one product speaks of sections of "fragrant" bamboo of a special variety that, according to him, grows only in Menghai County; this is the seller's claim.
* **Harvesting:** According to the reference page of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission—the fourth to fifth month; according to the 1982 survey—the sixth to seventh month of the Dai calendar. The reference page does not specify the calendar, and the sources do not give a conversion from one calendar to the other, so the dates cannot be reconciled here. The product made from maocha, according to the seller's description, was made from spring tea.
* **Picking standard:** Tender shoot tips—according to both descriptions of Bulang tea; how many leaves are taken is not specified by primary sources.
* **Raw material requirements:** No standard for bamboo tea has been found, so there are no formal requirements. If the tea is sold as puerh, the raw material must meet the puerh standard: Yunnan large-leaf sun-dried tea from the geographical indication zone.

**4. Terroir and Growing Characteristics:**

* **Regions:** Xishuangbanna (Menghai County), Wenshan (Guangnan County, Dixu Township), and places where the Bulang and Hani live in southern Yunnan. Tea in bamboo is a processing method, not the product of a single terroir: the described variants are made from leaf from different districts.
* **Relief and climate:** No descriptions of relief and climate specifically for bamboo tea are found in the verified sources.
* **Growing altitude:** No data.
* **Soils:** No data.
* **The 2025 experiment:** The authors of the scientific article made all four tea types—white, black, green, and bamboo tea—from leaf from one village grown under identical conditions, and they link the woody note of bamboo tea to the specifics of processing: by the design of the experiment, the growing location is the same for the samples, while the differences between them are set by processing.

**5. Production Technology:**

What the descriptions from Yunnan have in common is one thing: processed leaf is packed into a bamboo tube and heated by a fire or over charcoal. Everything else—raw material, primary processing of the leaf, duration of heating, treatment of the tube after heating—differs. There is no standard, and the sources do not give a single technology; below is a generalized sequence and the described variants with an indication of who describes them.

1.  **Picking (采摘, *cǎizhāi*):** Tender shoot tips (Bulang) or fresh leaf (2025 samples); for the product from maocha—spring leaf.
2.  **Primary processing of the leaf:** Pan-firing to dryness in a wok (炒干, *chǎogān*) among the Bulang; fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*) and rolling (揉捻, *róuniǎn*) for the 2025 samples; for the product—making sun-dried maocha and then softening it with steam.
3.  **Packing into the tube (装入竹筒, *zhuāngrù zhútǒng*):** The processed leaf is packed into a bamboo tube: among the Bulang while hot, and according to the reference page of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission also into a tube with a lid; for the product from maocha—softened by steam and tamped down.
4.  **Heating by the fire (烘烤, *hōngkǎo*):** The tube is placed by the hearth (火塘, *huǒtáng*) or over charcoal. Among the Bulang it is heated until the bamboo skin is charred; the 2025 samples were roasted over charcoal for 18 hours.
5.  **Additional drying:** For the 2025 samples, there was a separate drying stage after roasting. Other descriptions do not mention it.
6.  **Opening the tube (砍破竹筒, *kǎnpò zhútǒng*):** According to the 1982 survey, the tube is split open, and the tea is ready for consumption. For the product from maocha, according to the seller, the tea is left in the tube for storage and aging.

**Described variants:**

1.  **Bulang.** The reference page of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission: every year in the fourth to fifth month, Bulang women pan-fire the picked tender shoot tips in a wok until dry, pack them while hot into bamboo tubes with lids, and heat them by the hearth until the bamboo skin is charred—this is how fragrant bamboo tea is made. The 1982 survey describes the same process, naming the sixth to seventh month of the Dai calendar, and adds that the tube is then split open.
2.  **Samples from Dixu Township (2025 article).** Fresh leaf is fixed, rolled, placed in bamboo tubes, and roasted over charcoal for 18 hours, after which it is further dried. This is the production scheme for the samples of one study, not a standard.
3.  **From finished maocha (one product).** The seller describes his product (2020 card) as follows: spring 2019 tea from Mengsong village was first made into sun-dried maocha, then softened with steam, tamped into sections of fragrant bamboo, and roasted in a hearth. The blackened outer part of the bamboo is cut away and lightly sanded so that it does not stain with soot; each section contains about 200 g of tea (plus or minus 25 g). This is a description of one product; the producer is not named in it.
4.  **Steamed leaf (Laos).** According to the report cited by Matsushita, fresh leaf is steamed, tightly packed into bamboo, and dried; the report's author considers such tea to be the same as Yunnan bamboo tea.

A popular user reference also describes methods with glutinous rice (糯米, *nuòmǐ*): the leaf or finished maocha is softened by steam over boiling rice and only then packed into bamboo; in the article "Dixu Cha," according to a local publication, the already packed tube is steamed over rice. No primary confirmation of these descriptions could be found, and the reference itself lists the methods inconsistently.

**Where the descriptions diverge:**

* **Raw material.** Fresh leaf (Bulang, 2025 samples) or finished sun-dried maocha (a product). This determines which class the finished tea is closer to (section 1).
* **Pan-firing, fixation, or steam.** A wok among the Bulang, fixation and rolling for the 2025 samples, steam for the product from maocha and in the Laos report.
* **Fermentation.** Neither scholarly nor official descriptions of pan-fired or fixed bamboo tea say that the leaf ferments in the tube; the steamed variant in the Laos report is explicitly called tea to which microorganisms have no relation. The tea that really ferments in bamboo is sour tea (section 13); that is a different product.
* **Bamboo as form or packaging.** The tube serves as a form: the cylinder pressed in it is removed by splitting the bamboo. The national standard on excessive packaging of food products GB 23350-2021 does not treat as a packaging layer a material that directly touches the product and constitutes its inherent property, and among the examples it names bamboo tubes (竹筒, *zhútǒng*). Tea is not named in that clause; applying the rule to bamboo tea is an editorial reading. The seller of the product from maocha leaves the tea in the tube also for storage (section 10).
* **Regimes.** The sources do not provide temperatures or humidity. The only duration is 18 hours of roasting for the 2025 samples, and the only mass is about 200 g for one product.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

There is no standardized organoleptic description of bamboo tea in the verified sources. Below is the little that is known, with an indication of who says it.

* **Appearance of the dry leaf:** A dense cylinder in the shape of the bamboo tube cavity. In an amateur description from 2004, inside a tube split lengthwise there was a dense "tea sausage" from which pieces of pressed tea broke off easily. The dimensions of the cylinder given by a popular reference are not confirmed by primary sources.
* **Aroma of the dry leaf:** No descriptions in the verified sources.
* **Aroma of the infusion:** The only systematic description of the aroma is the 2025 study of samples from Dixu Township, and its formulations diverge. The abstract of the article writes that the aroma of black, green, and bamboo teas is accompanied by fruity notes. In the sensory analysis results, the bamboo tea samples were found to have a strong woody aroma, and in the discussion—distinct woody notes that the authors link to processing specifics; the most intense aroma with a pronounced fruity note was found in black tea. The article does not specify whether the tasters evaluated the samples dry or brewed. These are the properties of the samples of one study, not of the whole form.
* **Taste:** No descriptions of taste are found in scholarly or official sources. Individual reviews by sellers and amateurs concern specific samples and disagree with one another, so a typical taste of bamboo tea cannot be named: much depends on the raw material and processing.
* **Infusion color:** No descriptions in the verified sources.
* **Wet leaf (spent leaf):** No descriptions in the verified sources.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

* **Volatile compounds.** The 2025 article in the journal Metabolites compared the volatile aromatic compounds of white, black, green, and bamboo teas from Dixu Township using headspace solid-phase microextraction with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) and by odor activity value. The main conclusion about bamboo tea is distinct woody notes linked to processing.
* **Earlier work.** The same article cites a study by Zheng Lin and co-authors: the chemical composition of bamboo tea was studied by steam distillation and extraction with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (journal Yunnan Chemical Industry, 2021). The text of that work is not accessible, and its data are not reproduced here.
* **Non-volatile compounds.** Polyphenols, amino acids, caffeine, vitamins, and minerals of bamboo tea have not been measured in the verified sources.

A general pattern, not data about this tea: as with most teas, composition is determined by raw material and processing, so the variant from fresh leaf and the variant from sun-dried maocha can differ noticeably. How many hours of heating in bamboo affect the composition is unknown.

**8. Health Properties:**

There are no verified data about the effects of bamboo tea specifically. A popular reference attributes a medicinal effect to it, but no research confirming this is found in the verified sources, so such claims are not repeated here. Like any beverage made from the leaf of the tea plant, bamboo tea contains caffeine; how much has not been measured.

**9. Brewing:**

No brewing parameters are given in the sources. According to the descriptions, the tube is split open and pieces are broken off the cylinder. Since the tea class in bamboo depends on the raw material, the practice of the class to which the sample is closer can serve as a guide: for the variant from fresh leaf—as for most green teas; for the variant from sun-dried maocha—as for most pressed teas of puerh raw material (sheng). This practice has not been verified for bamboo tea itself.

* **Water temperature:** 80–85 °C, as for most green teas; 90–95 °C, as for most sheng puerhs.
* **Amount of tea:** About 3 g per 150 ml for the green variant; 5–7 g per 100–150 ml for the pressed one.
* **Teaware:** A gaiwan (盖碗, *gàiwǎn*) suits both variants; for the green one also a glass cup, for the pressed one a clay teapot. According to Matsushita, among the Hani the custom of drinking tea from bamboo tubes and clay vessels for roasting tea is partially preserved.
* **Process:**
    1. Split the tube lengthwise if the tea is still in it, and break off a piece of the needed weight from the cylinder, trying not to crumble the leaf.
    2. Warm the teaware with hot water.
    3. Add the tea.
    4. The variant from maocha, like most pressed teas, should be briefly rinsed and the water discarded; the green variant is usually not rinsed.
    5. The first infusion—40–60 seconds for the green variant and 10–20 seconds for the pressed one, as for most teas of these classes; pour out the infusion completely.
    6. Repeat infusions, gradually lengthening the steeping time. How many infusions bamboo tea withstands is not stated in the sources.

**10. Storage:**

Primary sources do not describe storage conditions. The seller of the product from maocha leaves the tea in the tube: the open end of the section, according to him, is closed with paper and twine for storage and aging. This is the practice of one seller.

General practice, not data about this tea. The variant from sun-dried maocha, like most pressed teas, is kept in a dry, clean, ventilated place away from direct sunlight and foreign odors. The variant from fresh leaf, like most green teas, is best kept cool and, if the tea is removed from the tube, in tightly closed packaging. Whether and how bamboo tea changes with aging is unknown.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

No price benchmarks suitable for an encyclopedia are found in the verified sources. No standard for bamboo tea has been found, and the sources read do not report a geographical indication, so it cannot be verified by a mark or a normative document; the inclusion of the craft in the heritage list concerns the technology, not a specific product, and does not serve as a quality mark.

* **How to avoid confusion and counterfeits:**
    * **Bamboo does not indicate the class.** Inside there may be tea from fresh leaf, close in processing to green tea, or pressed sun-dried maocha. The raw material and processing method should be clarified with the seller.
    * **"Puerh" only according to the standard.** Tea in bamboo is puerh only if the raw material and processing meet the puerh standard: Yunnan large-leaf sun-dried tea from the geographical indication zone.
    * **"Bamboo puerh" is not always a tube.** In Russian trade of the mid-2000s, this also referred to puerh wrapped in bamboo leaves.
    * **The name 竹筒茶 is polysemous.** It may conceal sour tea that ferments in bamboo—a product with a different technology and a different taste.
    * **Sellers' claims.** Words about special bamboo that supposedly grows only in one county, or about the antiquity of the tradition, remain the seller's words until confirmed by an independent source.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* What was included in the heritage list of the Xishuangbanna Autonomous Prefecture is not a product but a craft—the traditional Dai technology of bamboo tea—and its custodian is the Menghai County cultural center.
* One Chinese name 竹筒茶 denotes three different things: tea heated in bamboo, sour tea that ferments in bamboo, and the bamboo internode as a vessel for storing leaf and boiling water.
* The national standard on excessive packaging does not consider a bamboo tube a packaging layer: together with zongzi leaves (粽叶, *zòngyè*) it is listed as a material inherent to the product itself.
* A Chinese survey from 1982 names tea in bamboo one of three tea processing methods among the Bulang—alongside loose tea and sour tea.
* In 2004, the author of an amateur description, having split lengthwise a tube of "puerh in bamboo" bought in Saint Petersburg, found inside a dense "tea sausage" from which pieces broke off easily.

**13. Comparison with Similar Teas:**

* **Sour tea in bamboo (酸茶, *suānchá*):** Among the Bulang, fresh leaf is boiled, allowed to sour, placed in a bamboo tube, tightly stoppered, the tube wrapped in bamboo shoot leaves, and buried in the ground—for three to four months according to the reference page of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, or for one month according to the 1982 survey, which places the production in the seventh to eighth month. The sour tea of the De'ang people (德昂族酸茶, *Dé'ángzú suānchá*), according to the portal of the national center for heritage protection, is usually made in spring and summer from fresh leaf of Yunnan large-leaf tea: fixation, rolling, anaerobic fermentation, pounding, shaping, and drying; according to a reprint on the same portal, the leaf ferments sealed in a bamboo tube. The De'ang sour tea craft was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2021. These are fermented products, not pan-fired or pressed tea in bamboo.
* **Paka Cha (帕卡茶, *Pàkǎ chá*):** A tea of Jiangcheng County that is also pressed in a bamboo tube, but according to the descriptions the cylinder is dried outside the tube. More in the article "Paka Cha."
* **Puerh in bamboo leaves:** In amateur discussions of the mid-2000s, a stack of puerh cakes or mini-cakes wrapped in bamboo shoot leaves is described; here bamboo is a wrapper, and the form of the tea itself is different. Such puerh was also called "bamboo" in Russian trade of those years.
* **Bamboo as a vessel:** Storing leaf and boiling water in a bamboo internode is the second meaning of 竹筒茶 in Matsushita. Here bamboo is a utensil, not a form for tea.
* **Puerh column (柱形, *zhùxíng*):** The puerh standard names the column among the forms of pressed puerh. The standard does not say whether a cylinder from a bamboo tube belongs to it; such a cylinder will be puerh only if the raw material and processing meet the standard.

**In conclusion:**

Tea in bamboo is a form, not a class. Leaf that has been pan-fired, fixed, or softened by steam is packed into a bamboo tube and heated by a fire—among the Bulang, until the bamboo skin is charred—and the Dai craft has been listed since 2023 in the prefectural intangible cultural heritage register of Xishuangbanna. What ends up inside the tube—tea close in processing to green tea, or pressed sun-dried maocha—is determined by the raw material and processing, not by the bamboo.

Much about tea in bamboo remains unknown: the typical taste and infusion color, the cultivar of the bush, the species of bamboo, the heating regimes outside one study. For those interested in tea as part of a local way of life, it shows how leaf and bamboo become one object; and it reminds the buyer that what speaks about tea is not the wrapper, but what it was made from and how.