Breaking apart a raw tea cake: faster aging?

[spinmail]

As you know, raw Puerh can take quite some time to age; for better teas, you can wait ten, twenty, or more years. The tight compression of most tea cakes compounds the problem.

Has anyone tried breaking apart the tea cake to reduce the aging time? Increased air should make the leaves oxidize more quickly.

Anyone have luck with this method? Your results?

[shogun89]

I have thought about doing this with tight cakes like menghai recipe cakes. However I think that the more they are exposed to air the more quickly they will loose flavor.

[entropyembrace]

The reason why puerh is pressed into cakes is to make it easier to age by limiting the air flow. If you´re going to age loose tea of any kind it needs to be kept in a canister that will prevent air flow and exposure to light.

[spinmail]

Thanks for your thoughtful replies. It's a very interesting topic for me.

There's no question that exposure to light (and perhaps heat) will cause puerh flavors to degrade over time.

However, the aging of puerh is caused by the incidence of (good) mold and secondary microbial action. Therefore, making a greater surface area by breaking up the cake would increase the mold/microbial action. That could only be a good thing.

It's a good point that some might feel this would cause the puerh to lose some of its flavor. But this would also diminish the harshness of an immature puerh cake, and make it taste better, faster. And if you're going to age a cake for several years, you're going to lose a lot of flavor to the air anyway.

I wonder if anyone has tried breaking up a cake and let it age this way?

[zeusmta]

The reason why puerh is pressed into cakes is to make it easier to age by limiting the air flow. If you´re going to age loose tea of any kind it needs to be kept in a canister that will prevent air flow and exposure to light.

According to Chan Kam Pong in his excellent book "A First Step To Chinese Puerh Tea" (http://www.amazon.com/First-Step-Chines ... 9789578962), at pp. 41-42, the reason Puerh tea is compressed is a historical one: It was easier to export from Yunnan, particularly to Tibet, in compressed forms.

[wyardley]

The reason for compression was originally historical, yes, but plenty of people have tried aging teas both ways (loose and compressed), and the consensus seems to be that compressed tea ages differently from loose tea (not just more slowly).

I think there was a similar thread a year or so back, though I haven't found it yet.

But the short answer is that you're not the first person to think of this idea, and yet people continue to primarily collect and age puer in compressed form, though certainly loose tea is available, and you can certainly break up the tea (either into chunks, or steam it into loose tea and then dry it) and store it that way if you prefer.

I will break up a cake, or part of a cake, and store it in a jar, but usually only when I'm ready to drink it.

[bearsbearsbears]

However, the aging of puerh is caused by the incidence of (good) mold and secondary microbial action.

Mold and bacteria were found to be active in the conversion process of mao cha to shu pu'er, and many of these same molds and bacteria are found on old tea, but how much responsibility they carry for aging the [sheng] tea is unknown. I think it's reasonable to assume that slower oxidation means slower mold & bacterial activity.

Perhaps this allows oxygen to break down the cell walls and oxidize the leaf into components that, when mold & bacteria feed on them, produce different flavors than less oxygen-weathered leaf? Or maybe this "weathering" converts oxidized chemicals that only certain bacteria can consume?

Interesting to think about. But wyardley is right that shop owners "in the know" prefer to age tea whole.

If you're ever in LA, swing by my place and I'll brew up some 70s/80s sheng chunks that were (supposedly) aged as chunks. They're quite interesting.

[spinmail]

I would be very interested in learning from your experiences with "chunK' vs "whole" puerh. While it's not a new idea, based on the posts I've read here, I'm sure many would be interested in learning more.

I can only think of one drawback: the outward appearance of the tea cakes. There's something reassuring, and aesthetically pleasing, about seeing whole, fully wrapped cakes.

But once we move beyond appearance, it all boils down to taste. I don't think it's very practical to have to wait twenty, forty years to enjoy a mature tea cake. Some older puerh fans would have to wait half of their lifetime to drink this archived tea at its peak. Several people will be in retirement by them, if not beyond that.

It's also possible to leave one half of a cake broken into pieces, and the other half relatively intact. I'm trying to figure which of my teas would be the best candidates.

If you have any suggestions, I'm game.

[AdamMY]

As Wyardley said there was a thread on this about a year or so ago, and I'll reiterate my feelings on this. The compression in the cake allows for the preservation of essential oils, in the center of the cake. Breaking it up would cause the leaves to dry out, and essentially become stale. (Stale tea is not aged tea!)

To prevent major loss of oils it would be necessary to keep the cake chunks in a large jar and let it remain relatively untouched for quite some time. This I feel would remove the chance for exposure to airborne microbes, and you would basically need to rely on the growth of those already existing contained in the jar, which might actually slow down aging.

Then you are playing a game of trying to expose it to enough air to introduce new microbes, without losing the essential oils.

I think last time the great example was given, that you would not age a chunk of cheddar cheese by breaking it into little pieces and leaving it out on a tray.

A parting note:

Its called aging because it takes time regardless of how you do it.

[spinmail]

I read your comments with interest.

I follow your reasoning how certain essential oils (and/or compounds) may dissipate once a tea cake is broken apart. A cake would presumably become stale, as it would with most biological products. While I don't have evidence for this, it seems credible.

Presuming this, is another option possible? Puerh experts have observed that the outer leaves of a cake age more completely than the inside. In fact, these outside leaves can be completely aged and mature. After a certain amount of time, wouldn't it make sense to shave away the outside of a cake, drink this puerh, and let the remainder age as normal? True, the outside leaves will be rough and broken - and possibly undesirable to some drinkers - but they would be completely aged, and you could drink the remainder of the cake as you go.

In particular, I want to enjoy the cakes I already own - without waiting for decades.

[Maitre_Tea]

there is a way to age pu-erh faster: it's called ripe pu-erh

[betta]

there is a way to age pu-erh faster: it's called ripe pu-erh

Neither ripe puerh nor aged ripe puerh is the same as aged raw puerh. Somehow the aging effect of raw puerh can't be reproduced fully in ripe puerh.

[spinmail]

I agree 100%.

Ripe puerh does have the advantage of immediate drinkability, which is fine if convenience is your goal. I've sampled several ripe Menghai cakes; while they have a rich color, the aroma and taste can be a little one-dimensional, with nearly all of the sweetness gone.

But no one has yet objected to the idea of aging a good quality tea cake for a while, letting the surface age sufficiently, shaving the outside surface of the cake - and drinking that tea. There's another potential method that looks promising.

Has anyone attempted this approach to consuming puerh?

[AdamMY]

I do not think any one has objected because it seems like it would be hard to accomplish in practice. Like what is considered the outer layer the first 1 mm or the first 2? And how would you accomplish such precise removal of just the outer layer of basically a tangled mass of dried leaves?

I am not saying it can not be done, I am not even saying it won't work. I just have trouble figuring out how it is feasible to produce something drink able (i.e. not a bunch of tiny little leaf fragments).

This also is troubling from the aspect of if you are using 5 grams per serving, after 10 years of aging, you probably only have enough for 20 or so brews before you have to put it away for another 10 years.

[Maitre_Tea]

if you want to drink aged tea now, buy aged tea. Even waiting for the outside layer of a tea to become "aged" takes years. If you don't want to spend the money on good aged tea, why don't you buy aged loose leaf stuff from various Hong Kong shops, or even Nada. Even though the level of complexity found in aged loose leaf won't match up with comparative cakes from the era, but it's hard to complain with the price.

Unfortunately the very art of aging pu-erh takes time. Aging pu-erh in small chunks and pieces may make it age faster, but I'm sure you're going to lose something in the process.