How to break up a Puerh tea cake

[MrDrMagic]

it really is beautiful!

[MrPuppy29]

Cloud, I cannot find your book on the internet. It is not on ebay, and amazon doesnt have it on stock. Any ideas where I could get it from?

[12quillemall5321]

I brought pu erh tea in teabags. Is it real pu erh?

[MrPuppy29]

@12quillemall5321 Well, if your brew tastes earthy...then it should be real puerh tea. Loose tea: leaves, tea bags: tea powder. (but after all they all come from the same source....puerh tea).

Puerh cakes is just another way of storing tea. As you can see Could in this video is cracking up the tea cake, 'cos eventually he wants the loose tea leaves too.

I hopè my explanation is not too confusing?! :)

[MrNEGRITO94]

po amazing

[ragemanchoo82]

I love puerh tea :D

[techfan5730]

Thank you very much from Texas!

[nephildevil]

what a mess :D

[jm960]

Cloud, thank you. You have some of the most interesting writings about tea on the internet. I look forward to reading your books and am grateful for your teaching.

[cloudstea]

Thank you.

[MrPuppy29]

@jm960 Does Cloud have a site or something? I'd like to read about puerh tea more and buy his book.

[ambucias]

very informative, i have a tea cake and i was not sure how to break it !! thank you very much for this video cloud.

[violaguy312]

I love that sound!

[KillKyleWeiss]

Well-taught. Now I'm thirsty.

KW

[ikbeninbalans01]

Amazing technique, thank for sharing this.

[MultiCultiXpress]

Good video. Just brought back some Puer tea from Beijng and I didn't realize how compressed the bricks are. I struggled to break the tea and knew that art must exist to the process. You demonstrate the process well.  Some videos discuss cleaning Puer tea. What is your practice?

[globalhappy]

Thank you! Can you show how to break up Pu-erh Tuocha?

[zanecai1]

What is the weight of one cake of Puer Tea? -- One pound or less than one pound?

[cloudstea]

Hi, zanecai1,

Traditionally, a Puerh tea cake weighs 357g per piece. Seven pieces of tea cakes grouping together forms a Stack. 12 Stacks putting together in a bamboo basket will form a traditional Puerh tea trading unit (84 pieces in a basket). 

Why this was so?

0.357kg x 7 = 2.499kg

2.499kg x 12 = 29.988kg

which approximately equals to 30kg.

(...continued)

[cloudstea]

However, owing to modern manufacturing and the demands from the market, Puerh tea cakes are no longer having only the 357g standard.

A Puerh tea cake can be 25g, 50g, 100g, 125g, 145g, 150g, 200g, 250g, 300g, 357g, 360g, 380g, 400g, 440g, 480g, 500g, 1000g, 1.5kg, 2.5kg, 3kg per pieces... etc.

(...continued)

[zanecai1]

Thanks a lot! Cloudstea!

You are really knowledgable!

[cloudstea]

(they system did not allow me to reply more than 2 at the same time, here is the remaining part)

A0187.jpg from my Photo Album

In the photo, you can see the smaller ones at the back are traditional stacks with tea cakes inside being 357g per piece. However, you can see there are extra-large tea cakes which are 2.5kg per piece in the front.

(...continued)

[cloudstea]

(I know now, the system does not allow me to post URL)

Therefore, the answer to your question is "less than one pound (454g)" if comparing with the traditional one.

Cloud (Hong Kong)

Cloud's Tea Collection - Private Tea Album

My Private Tea Album? please check my profile.

[StormOfSwords]

nice gloves michael

[sixlbsmallie]

very helpful. Thanks cloud!

[Omigamii]

awesome^^ I love vids like that :)

[Oockar]

Excellent information.