Aging Cakes/Bricks/Touchas

[AllanK]

I have heard that cakes age best and bricks not as well. I have also heard that touchas are sometimes too dense to age well. What is the accurate low down on type and aging for Raw Puerh?

I am thinking of buying a 1 KG melon tea and wonder where a melon style tea fits?

[shah82]

Use the search function. There isn't an easy digested answer to give. One quick point is that tuos and bricks are lower quality because they use not as good leaves as what goes into cakes (up to a few years ago), and that has a bit to do with the quality of aging.

Melon will do fine, but most things will do fine.

[Exempt]

A 1 kilo melon will probably take much longer to age than a cake. It will most likely be more tightly compressed, and there is a lower surface area exposed to the air so the center will take much longer to age.

[wyardley]

The shape will have an effect, but I think the compression is a bigger factor (and the storage environment, of course). Most tuocha and bricks are more tightly compressed than most cakes, and tend to be made with lower quality raw material, but there are plenty of exceptions to all of these.

Also depends if the tea has had traditional storage before you got it, and what kind of taste you prefer.

As far as your super tight Xiaguan tuocha, I don't want it unless it had some pretty wet storage early in its life.

I would avoid the melon shapes altogether, and especially so if you live in a dry climate.

[TwoDog2]

I have heard that cakes age best and bricks not as well. I have also heard that touchas are sometimes too dense to age well. What is the accurate low down on type and aging for Raw Puerh?

I am thinking of buying a 1 KG melon tea and wonder where a melon style tea fits?

Like wyardley said, compression is a bigger factor than shape. Tightly compressed tea will generally age slower and is more suitable for more humid storage. Tightly compressed teas in a dry environment will age slowly. All of this is up to personal preference. Different people champion different types of storage and results

[AllanK]

A 1 kilo melon will probably take much longer to age than a cake. It will most likely be more tightly compressed, and there is a lower surface area exposed to the air so the center will take much longer to age.

I had not realized surface area was a factor. If aging is slow I will probably skip the melon and stick to cakes and bricks. The melon I was looking at was a 2013 so it would have been something to drink five years from now anyway.

[Zared]

One thing to keep in mind is that better leaf usually goes into cakes first. Bricks, toucha and other goofy shapes end up with lesser quality. I imagine they're a pain to break off pieces w/o creating dust. I think they look cool though so If i ever have a nice formal tea area in my apt i would love to buy some as decoration.

[Exempt]

A 1 kilo melon will probably take much longer to age than a cake. It will most likely be more tightly compressed, and there is a lower surface area exposed to the air so the center will take much longer to age.

I had not realized surface area was a factor. If aging is slow I will probably skip the melon and stick to cakes and bricks. The melon I was looking at was a 2013 so it would have been something to drink five years from now anyway.

I own a 500g 12 year old melon that is still fairly unaged on the inside and in the awkward stage between young and aged on the outside due to the tight compression. If you want a cake that you can buy new and have a noticeable change in 5 years I would go with a loosely compressed cake such as a yunnansourcing puerh.