I agree, it is mostly down to compression...
Loose Raw tea will age more quickly due to it's increased level of exposure to air/moisture, but normally it is only kept in this form for 2-3 years before being pressed into cakes. As someone has commented, it will tend to loose it's fragrance more quickly.
The result of this is that a cake of say 5 yr old tea that was made of from 3 yr old mao cha will be very different from another cake made of the same 5 yr old leaves and pressed the same year the leaves were picked.
Of course, how it was pressed will also make a big difference - machine/hand/tightly/loosely etc. which is why bricks, which now are all machine made (very compressed) will turn out quite differently from cakes that may be hand-pressed.
If Puer is stored in a sealed container it will arrest the ageing process.
May 24th, '09, 10:19
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In the final analysis, it has not been determined what the true differences are in terms of its characteristics when aged. I believe that Art of Tea Mag touched briefly on this.zhi zheng wrote:I agree, it is mostly down to compression...
Loose Raw tea will age more quickly due to it's increased level of exposure to air/moisture, but normally it is only kept in this form for 2-3 years before being pressed into cakes. As someone has commented, it will tend to loose it's fragrance more quickly.
The result of this is that a cake of say 5 yr old tea that was made of from 3 yr old mao cha will be very different from another cake made of the same 5 yr old leaves and pressed the same year the leaves were picked.
Of course, how it was pressed will also make a big difference - machine/hand/tightly/loosely etc. which is why bricks, which now are all machine made (very compressed) will turn out quite differently from cakes that may be hand-pressed.
If Puer is stored in a sealed container it will arrest the ageing process.