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We carried
a woven bamboo case of these mini-tea cakes back with us from Hong Kong on
the advice of our tea friend Steve at the Sun Sing Tea Co. You can see the
beautiful woven bamboo ‘case’ in the photograph – it is a simple but
effective container made of hand-woven bamboo strapping. It is custom made
to hold 12 tongs of tea ( each tong contains 5 beeng cha ) securely in
place for easy transport and carrying. One by one, we take out a new tong
and open it as we need more cakes to sell.
Steve knows tea and he selected this Pu-erh from his extensive
collection for us to introduce to our tea enthusiast customers. The cake
is from Yiwu Mt. in Xishuangbanna ( one of our favorite Pu-erh tastes )
and is comprised of large leaf Yiwu material that was pressed in 2009. The
cake has plenty of silvery tip and the clean, woodsy aroma associated with
Yiwu Pu-erh. These cakes are stone pressed with a light compression, so
they can easily be pulled apart with your hands. (You can hear the ‘voice’
of the tea when you carefully bend the tea back and forth.) Put this cake
away so that it has at least 1 more year of aging before you begin to
drink it. Steve says so.
We feel three times fortunate to have this tea:
fortunate that the cakes were not taken away
at customs; fortunate that the tea was not damaged in transit, and lastly,
fortunate that Steve recommended these cakes to us.
In most
instances use 2-3 grams of leaf per 6 ounces of water,
which can roughly be equated as 2 teaspoons of leaf per 6 oz of water.
Pu-erh can steep for 3-4 minutes.
More water can be added to steep a second and sometimes a third infusion.
(This is the standard Pu-erh preparation for the beverage accompaniment at
dim sum).
Use water that is 200 - 212°F
Asian description: ‘turbulent waters’
That’s just at the boil - Boil the water and pour it onto the leaves
Note: Pu-erh is always ‘rinsed’ before being steeped.
This is a
quick application of hot water that is poured off immediately,
and then
fresh water is used for the steepings that are drunk.
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