How do I make pu-erh from a cake?

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Dec 15th, '13, 22:50
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How do I make pu-erh from a cake?

by ClarG » Dec 15th, '13, 22:50

I bought some tea from someone on this site and they included a small piece of a pu-erh cake. I've made loose pu-erh before from loose tea leaves of young pu-erh; but never from a cake of pu-erh.

What is the best way to make it for a 12oz cup western style? Do I use one teaspoon or less than that? What is the best way to get the compressed tea off of the cake? Should I use boiling water, or just hot water as you would for green tea? How long do I steep the leaves for? How many times should I re-steep the pu-erh?

Dec 16th, '13, 01:10
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Re: How do I make pu-erh from a cake?

by Zared » Dec 16th, '13, 01:10

ClarG wrote:I bought some tea from someone on this site and they included a small piece of a pu-erh cake. I've made loose pu-erh before from loose tea leaves of young pu-erh; but never from a cake of pu-erh.

What is the best way to make it for a 12oz cup western style? Do I use one teaspoon or less than that? What is the best way to get the compressed tea off of the cake? Should I use boiling water, or just hot water as you would for green tea? How long do I steep the leaves for? How many times should I re-steep the pu-erh?
Its not much different than brewing loose tea. Just break it up into small pieces and brew like you normally do with loose.

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Dec 16th, '13, 12:44
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Re: How do I make pu-erh from a cake?

by William » Dec 16th, '13, 12:44

ClarG wrote:I bought some tea from someone on this site and they included a small piece of a pu-erh cake. I've made loose pu-erh before from loose tea leaves of young pu-erh; but never from a cake of pu-erh.

What is the best way to make it for a 12oz cup western style? Do I use one teaspoon or less than that? What is the best way to get the compressed tea off of the cake? Should I use boiling water, or just hot water as you would for green tea? How long do I steep the leaves for? How many times should I re-steep the pu-erh?
Well, first of all I think that prepare Pu Erh in western style is almost impossibile .. In most cases, you'd be overwhelmed by the amount of acidity/bitterness/caffeine released from the tea, which is not a good thing.
Why not buy a teapot or better a gaiwan made of porcelain, and experiment with the method of multiple infusions? You would appreciate the tea much more.

I suggest you, if you want to know more, to do some research in the forum, you will easily find dozens of threads about this topic.

As for the other questions, I would recommend you to break the leaves as little as possible while you take some of them from the pieces that you have, if it is hardly compressed, just remove larger pieces .. To do this you should buy one of the many pu erh knife that exist on the market.

You should use boiling water.

This are my parameters for most of my session with Pu Erh (6/8 grammi, 100/120 ml, quick rinse - throw away the infusion, the first infusions a couple of seconds each, the following you choose according to your taste and according to the tea, especially if you find it relatively strong or not.
Usually you can step in a single session the Pu Erh 10/12 times and more.
Last edited by William on Dec 16th, '13, 12:55, edited 1 time in total.

Dec 16th, '13, 12:54
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Re: How do I make pu-erh from a cake?

by ClarG » Dec 16th, '13, 12:54

William wrote:
ClarG wrote:I bought some tea from someone on this site and they included a small piece of a pu-erh cake. I've made loose pu-erh before from loose tea leaves of young pu-erh; but never from a cake of pu-erh.

What is the best way to make it for a 12oz cup western style? Do I use one teaspoon or less than that? What is the best way to get the compressed tea off of the cake? Should I use boiling water, or just hot water as you would for green tea? How long do I steep the leaves for? How many times should I re-steep the pu-erh?
Well, first of all I think that prepare Pu Erh in western style is almost impossibile .. In most cases, you'd be overwhelmed by the amount of acidity/bitterness/caffeine released from the tea, which is not a good thing.
Why not buy a teapot or better a gaiwan made of porcelain, and experiment with the method of multiple infusions? You would appreciate the tea much more.

I suggest you, if you want to know more, to do some research in the forum, you will easily find dozens of threads about this topic.
OK thanks for the reply. I found this website and it explained how to make pu-erh in a teapot. http://www.tuochatea.com/brewing-and-storage.aspx

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Dec 16th, '13, 12:57
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Re: How do I make pu-erh from a cake?

by William » Dec 16th, '13, 12:57

ClarG wrote:
William wrote:
ClarG wrote:I bought some tea from someone on this site and they included a small piece of a pu-erh cake. I've made loose pu-erh before from loose tea leaves of young pu-erh; but never from a cake of pu-erh.

What is the best way to make it for a 12oz cup western style? Do I use one teaspoon or less than that? What is the best way to get the compressed tea off of the cake? Should I use boiling water, or just hot water as you would for green tea? How long do I steep the leaves for? How many times should I re-steep the pu-erh?
Well, first of all I think that prepare Pu Erh in western style is almost impossibile .. In most cases, you'd be overwhelmed by the amount of acidity/bitterness/caffeine released from the tea, which is not a good thing.
Why not buy a teapot or better a gaiwan made of porcelain, and experiment with the method of multiple infusions? You would appreciate the tea much more.

I suggest you, if you want to know more, to do some research in the forum, you will easily find dozens of threads about this topic.
OK thanks for the reply. I found this website and it explained how to make pu-erh in a teapot. http://www.tuochatea.com/brewing-and-storage.aspx
Try it and see how it goes! :)

Dec 16th, '13, 19:26
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Re: How do I make pu-erh from a cake?

by ClarG » Dec 16th, '13, 19:26

I have a very large teapot made out of metal, and I don't own a gaiwan but I found this video and I will try it this method:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz_MJeBClJE

I will not use a very large amount of the pu-erh from a cake like they do in this video.

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Dec 17th, '13, 03:55
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Re: How do I make pu-erh from a cake?

by William » Dec 17th, '13, 03:55

ClarG wrote:I have a very large teapot made out of metal, and I don't own a gaiwan but I found this video and I will try it this method:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz_MJeBClJE

I will not use a very large amount of the pu-erh from a cake like they do in this video.
Tell us how it goes! :D

Dec 17th, '13, 16:03
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Re: How do I make pu-erh from a cake?

by ClarG » Dec 17th, '13, 16:03

William wrote:
ClarG wrote:I have a very large teapot made out of metal, and I don't own a gaiwan but I found this video and I will try it this method:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz_MJeBClJE

I will not use a very large amount of the pu-erh from a cake like they do in this video.
Tell us how it goes! :D
OK I tried it this way with red song ping pu-erh and it worked pretty well but I did not use a full teaspoon of leaves.

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