Hello Katrin,
Thank you for your question. A brick tea made from a white tea is a compressed white tea. When this tea is turned dark through exposure to the environment or through an induced process, it becomes a dark tea.
This is the same in Pu’er teas. A fresh shengcha (aka raw tea) is a white tea. When it turns dark, it GRADUALLY becomes a dark tea. It can be years or decades a white tea is turned dark.
I first saw a compressed Fuding white tea in 2008. It had been compressed the year before, I was told. They still use Fujian white tea varieties to produce such products. This happens not only in Fuding, but also in other sub-regions, such as Zhenghe and Chongan.
I’d also like to add that compressing tea has been a practice outside of dark tea regions since antiquity. For example, there are oolongs and black teas. Compressed green teas had been the imperial court standard in China until the 15th century.
