Description:

Fu Zhuan is pressed into bricks and then aged warm until Eurotium cristatum, the golden flower, blooms through the leaf in visible yellow specks. This is intentional and is the whole point: the fungus consumes the harsh compounds and leaves a sweet mushroom-and-date character with no bite at all. On the steppe it is broken off, boiled hard and served with milk and salt, which is still the best way to drink it. Steeped normally it wants more leaf and longer than you would expect, around five minutes.