"Rush tea"

As a traditional tribute tea, it has been exactly recorded that it started to be tributed during the Guangde period of the Tang Dynasty, and Lu Yu, the sage of tea, once ranked it as "the first among teas". During the Guangde period of the Tang Dynasty, Guzhu Purple Bamboo Shoots were in the form of dragon ball tea, and after the tribute was withdrawn in the eighth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, it was changed to loose tea in the form of strips according to the requirements of the upper echelon at that time. The late Ming and early Qing dynasties, purple bamboo shoot tea gradually disappeared, until the late 1970s was rediscovered.

Guzhu purple bamboo shoots were called "rush tea" when it was used as tribute tea. The Tang Dynasty divided Guzhu tribute tea into five classes, the first class must be sent to the palace before the Qingming. Originally the tea harvesting before the Qingming to "look at the sky to eat", the amount is very scarce, coupled with the inconvenience of transportation, tea just made, we have to fast horses, a chain of replacement horses, a journey to the palace without the slightest dare to stop, running dead horses happen from time to time, so called "rush tea".