Bamboo tube tea is made by the Dai people living in Xishuangbanna of Yunnan Province. Offering bamboo tube tea is a high-standard etiquette of the Dai people in receiving guests.
The fresh fragrant bamboo is the best for making bamboo tube tea. The upper bamboo section is cut off and the lower section is used as the bamboo tube. Then, insert the fresh tea leaves into the tube and bake it on a fire. Turn it around every several minutes to heat it evenly. After the tea leaves slowly shrink, insert a stick into the tube to compress them and add more new tea leaves. Repeat the process for several rounds until the bamboo tube is compact full. When the outer wall of the bamboo tube turns from green to yellow, it indicates that the baking process is almost complete. To get the tea, the bamboo tube should be halved with a knife. The cutting force should be right to get a perfect tea cylinder. The tea brewed at that very moment has the best taste, which contains both the tea's mellowness and the bamboo's fragrance.