You bring up an interesting question. All the things I've read online about these topics and what makes sense to me boils down to aging environments. Logic tells us that loosely stone pressed cakes would age faster than iron cakes, which makes sense to me, but remember an iron cake in Hong Kong can age faster than a stone pressed cake in Kunming.betta wrote:I understand the logic of doing stone pressing, which results in rather loose cakes good for aging and it maybe the technique available widely before machine-pressing was introduced later on. But what is the logic behind doing iron-pressing and other tight pressing?zhi zheng wrote:This is why factors to do with the size, shape (brick,cake,etc.) and the degree of pressure used in compressing the cake (a basic differentiation is between machine and stone pressed, though with either method pressure can vary considerably) are all important and will have an effect on the way the thing ages.
I'm personally interested in whether or not stone pressed teas produce a better aged tea than other compression methods, simply because they age faster. Does it make a difference to the actual aging of the tea besides speed?