Newbie wants to properly brew MINI Tuo Cha.

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


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Jan 15th, '13, 13:59
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Re: Newbie wants to properly brew MINI Tuo Cha.

by teaisme » Jan 15th, '13, 13:59

I imagine this one would help make up for some of the bad experiences people have had with mini toucha.
http://hojotea.com/item_e/d03e.htm

I'm just not a mini toucha kinda guy because it seems there are much better deals to be had by buying cakes, not to mention aging those things might be sketchy

Jan 15th, '13, 14:26
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Re: Newbie wants to properly brew MINI Tuo Cha.

by beecrofter » Jan 15th, '13, 14:26

You are very fortunate to have not only discovered mini tuos but to find out that you like them. This fortune allows you to go from entry level low quality minis up the entire spectrum of puerh over time knowing that you are also satisfied with the cheap stuff.
The initial brew of a mini tuo is grandpa style, drop the whole mini in a qt mason jar, give it a very fast rinse to wash away the mouse pee, and then pour about 3/4 of that jar full of boiling water. It should come out somewhat palatable for a 4-5 gm tuo and if it looks to be getting too strong you can pour it off and try using those same tea leaves again in another infusion but with about 1/3 the water because they really do wash out quickly.
So far the best mini's I have had are the CNNP ones that show up for about $30US/kilo and are probably 8 or so years old by now (shu- cooked type)

Jan 15th, '13, 21:47
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Re: Newbie wants to properly brew MINI Tuo Cha.

by ChengduCha » Jan 15th, '13, 21:47

teaisme wrote:I imagine this one would help make up for some of the bad experiences people have had with mini toucha.
http://hojotea.com/item_e/d03e.htm

I'm just not a mini toucha kinda guy because it seems there are much better deals to be had by buying cakes, not to mention aging those things might be sketchy
While I've never bought from Hojo, in Japan it's all about marketing. Japanese people have mastered the art of marketing even the cheapest products at the highest prices thanks to pretty packaging, service and fancy marketing material, so I doubt their tuo cha is miles better than other tuo cha of reasonable quality. Pretty pictures that have little to do with reality and a good marketing text is most likely the whole difference.

I used to be a tuo cha drinker because my regular choice had a good cha qi (something that most people wouldn't associate with cheap tuos), but taste wise it was everything but special.

If you want real pu without committing to whole cakes, I highly recommend buying a bunch of samples from Yunnan Sourcing.

There is a pretty good consensus regarding brewing times and the amount of pu needed, so you won't need a whole cake to see if a pu is to your liking. Even a 10g sample will mostly do just fine, unless you got a bad piece of the cake (but then it's not a great cake to begin with anyway).

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Jan 15th, '13, 22:01
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Re: Newbie wants to properly brew MINI Tuo Cha.

by wyardley » Jan 15th, '13, 22:01

I agree, and I'd more happily drink the OP's minituo from YSLLC (which are probably about as good as it gets as minituos go) over the ones from Hojo.

Jan 15th, '13, 22:15
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Re: Newbie wants to properly brew MINI Tuo Cha.

by ChengduCha » Jan 15th, '13, 22:15

JeffMI wrote: So, I am trying to figure out the proper way to brew this tea. I can't find too much info on brewing the Mini Tuo Chas. I know I need very hot water but how much water exactly do I need and what are the steep times? I am also not sure how big these Mini Tuo Chas are, as I am guessing that makes a difference in terms of how many of these you use and what the amount of water is as well as steep times.
Rinse twice with boiling water for about 5sec. After that start short with an infusion lasting 5-10sec and steep to your preferred strength afterwards. It might take 2-3 steeps until the tuo fully breaks up as most of them are heavily compressed. The amount of water makes no difference. Less water only increases the strength but doesn't change the taste. I really wouldn't expect too much though and if you hate it don't ditch pu erh but buy some samples of better pu (both sheng and shu).

Size wise they're one unit, so using more than one is overkill.

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Jan 15th, '13, 22:35
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Re: Newbie wants to properly brew MINI Tuo Cha.

by wyardley » Jan 15th, '13, 22:35

One other thing - even though they're single-serving, you may want to break it up a little ahead of time. I haven't brewed one myself, but that's what I'd probably do if presented with one.

Jan 15th, '13, 23:16
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Re: Newbie wants to properly brew MINI Tuo Cha.

by ChengduCha » Jan 15th, '13, 23:16

wyardley wrote:One other thing - even though they're single-serving, you may want to break it up a little ahead of time. I haven't brewed one myself, but that's what I'd probably do if presented with one.
You'd need a hammer for that with most tuo chas. :D

As others already stated, tea production leftovers are mostly used for tuos, which means that a tight compression is necessary to keep all the dust together.

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Jan 20th, '13, 13:48
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Re: Newbie wants to properly brew MINI Tuo Cha.

by apache » Jan 20th, '13, 13:48

Just saw these:
http://china-cha-dao.com/blogs/news/719 ... ct-release

Looks like chocolates ...

As they are from Douji, dare I say (no, I haven't tried them) they are probably a bit better than most mini tuos.

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Jan 20th, '13, 13:53
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Re: Newbie wants to properly brew MINI Tuo Cha.

by wyardley » Jan 20th, '13, 13:53

ChengduCha wrote:
wyardley wrote:One other thing - even though they're single-serving, you may want to break it up a little ahead of time. I haven't brewed one myself, but that's what I'd probably do if presented with one.
You'd need a hammer for that with most tuo chas. :D

As others already stated, tea production leftovers are mostly used for tuos, which means that a tight compression is necessary to keep all the dust together.
Yes, but the particular one the OP is writing about doesn't look like floor sweepings from the photos.

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