THE MIND BLOWING DIFFERENCE - Breaking your PuErh Cakes Pt2.
Vložit
- čas přidán 21. 05. 2021
- I have always known that it is better to break up your aged tea cakes about a month before you plan on drinking, in order to improve the experience. But, I had never done a proper test and I am shocked at the difference it makes after just 4 weeks.
TEAWARE:
Gong Fu Vessel: meileaf.com/p/cl-gfcv
Tiny White Gaiwan: meileaf.com/p/cl-swgw
Blue Tulip Cups: meileaf.com/p/cl-mlcp
VIDEOS:
Pt 1 - HOW and WHY you Break Tea Cakes: • HOW and WHY to break u...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shop online: meileaf.com/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join us on Instagram
/ mei_leaf
Tweet along with us
/ mei_leaf_tea
Write some friendly graffiti on our Facebook wall
/ meileaf
You make the best tea related videos on CZcams bar none. Thank you.
Wow, I've never seen you that excited and surprised. What an interesting comparison. I really would like to see the changes after 3 and 6 month and a year.
I'm sure they'll get back to it, it seems like too interesting an experiment to miss out on.
Seconded! Request for Pt3 and Pt4 please!
(~*sighs*~ Begins to rethink tea storage...) Thanks Don...
Oh my gosh I was so excited and relieved to hear these results because I thought I was crazy. I love to drink my puer fresh and last year I got my first tong of an affordable puer which I loved (to drink most of it, and age 2 cakes). When I finished my first cake and started the second one I realized a HUGE difference. The new cake was singing a lot more compared to the old cake I was going through in 4-5 months. That's basically the result you found with the new and half broken tea. When I first discovered it, I was freaking out and wondered what I should do (I didn't know about breaking up whole cakes). I then switched to storing the cakes I am drinking atm always in a zip-lock bag. That made a huge difference! The freshness is preserved a lot more (what I like) and the aromatics seemingly too. That seems to refer a bit to the result you got with your low-oxygen storage version (although my cakes weren't aged ones). Now after having watched this video I am considering switching to breaking up the cakes I am drinking and storing them in zip-lock bags (because I can't afford clay jars ..), but most importantly, I am kinda reassured that my zip-lock cake storage for daily drinking really seems to have some effect (I thought I was going crazy and paranoid over my first tong a bit haha). Ofc I am talking about kinda fresh cakes, but from my experience it makes a huge difference too. Anyway, thanks for those videos Don!
That explains the difference between when I just broke into the Aianna cake at the very beginning only to have two sessions some months later & it jus wasn't as good & fresh as I recalled when I just broke into it.
Another rabbit hole... here we go...
If you want to try authentic Chinese green tea, please leave me a message. As a young man who does tea processing in an ancient tea area, I am very happy to give my tea to people who want to drink Chinese tea for free. Of course, you can also ask me to buy Chinese tea.
I've been storing a few sessions worth of broken cakes in PORCELAIN jars. There"s also traditional wisdom regarding porcelain jar storage. would love a comparison between zisha, porcelain and bag storage.
There are the usual glass jars for herbs
I got 3/4 into this video and immediately started breaking my tea cake up. So happy for this info
Was there ever a part 3 in this series? I'd love to see what's happened since breaking up the cake.
This is exactly the kind of storage video I needed to watch!!! Thank you Don!
Surprised this is just now coming to fruition.
It's 7:30 in the morning, I'm working, and smiling more widely than I have at this time in the morning in quite a while. Looking forward to visiting Mei Leaf soon. And have some cake breaking to get to! Thanks Don!
Thanks you so much for this, Don! Advancing the state of the art by experiment!
Ok we need another update in a month
Fascinating video! It felt like watching a Sherlock Holmes movie! So much suspense and excitement ! One thousand thank you!
Great video, so much information. Thank you.
I think you should definitely do more tasting between broken breathable and broken airtight.
Another Super Vid! Thank You!
Very interesting. Thank you.
Interesting. I'll make sure to break up my remaining Monocle Boss today. Would the same logic apply to aged white tea cakes I wonder?
@Royal S aged white tea in cake form
@@tylerdavis7623 I was wondering about the aged white tea cakes too! Can't wait to hear what Don has to say.
I’ve got partial cakes of all the Jade Star teas…now I’m wondering if they need to be broken up 😬
I think it does apply to the aged white cakes. I just received one as a gift and I’ve been breaking it as I go. Sure enough, I noticed a flatter, mustier taste coming up before I even watched this video. I was a disappointed but now I know how to fix it! Thanks Don!
Ahh Monocle Boss was incredible when it was fresh. I better break up the rest of that cake for further aging. Great video!
Supper interesting. I suspect humidity place big roll here.
The new cake has a mix of humidity. The broken cake has probably the lowest humidity because of handeling.
The clay will have had the time to even the humidity out bringing the tea back alive.
The vacuum will be an amplifier because the humidity cant go anywhere.
You can already taste the difference if you drink you favorite cake during summer (more humidity) or during winter (less humidity). It's even gotten to the point that during winter I just don't like pu-erh and just leave them alone in an air tide container until summer starts up again.
Still its interesting to see how much difference the fully broken and the have broken have.
I appreciate the test and the results, but respectfully, it's way too soon to draw conclusions of any kind. The broken/breathable might be peaking now, and be worse three weeks from now. The broken/sealed might peak six weeks from now and decline after that. Results also might vary based on the individual tea, or the category.
Maybe but I don't think either would be worse or better. Just different, but that preference is up to the individual. My theory is sealed will change the least in the long-term, unless your storage vessel is plastic and leaching plastic flavors into it. So I guess depending on when the humidity and organisms equalize in the sealed storage it would be the most consistent. Everything else would "age" or get worse imo. Still not sold in aging honestly, I feel like it's a marketing strategy to sell off old bitter tea. But I'm still new to all this, so I'm coming from very little exposure to old teas.
Damn, although I really like you stackable tins, it seems like I need bigger tea tins if I want to break of enough for like 6 month.
I'm definitely curious for more experiments in the future :D
Thanks for this Don, interesting and looking forward to the sequels...! Re: the traditional, breathable option - would you say that this only works in clay? Where do you think tins and tightly woven baskets fall on the storing loose spectrum? What would you say about storing in tins v compostable bags?
Dear Don,
I wanted to bring to your attention a subtle observation during the recent experiment. While pouring water into the cups, there was a slight time gap between each pour. However, when transferring tea from the Gai Wans, the process appeared continuous.
This discrepancy inadvertently impacted the brewing time for subsequent cups, affecting the experiment's consistency and accuracy. Consequently, the following cups exhibited reduced intensity, color, and overall quality.
I believe adjusting the pouring intervals during tea transfer will enhance the precision of future experiments. Your attention to this detail will undoubtedly contribute to the scientific rigor of our testing processes.
Thank you for your understanding and consideration.
Best regards,
Igar
Interesting and good to know. Just bought a teacake. White tea but still good to know. Dont have a clay container, but do have a large glass one I'll probably be storing under a counter, once it comes in.
My personal experience has been that breaking up a session’s worth of leaves from a cake a few days in advance can have a very notable improvement. While you have the cake out, if you know you’re going to be drinking that same tea again in the near future, you can break off some more leaves so you’ll have them ready to go. Breaking up the whole cake only really makes sense if you’re planning on drinking it all within the next year or two.
I've seen a case where a guy broke up lots of tea & stored it in large clay jars for at least 10 years.
He sure thinks it's good
@@reubenk1615 The tea would age differently and faster. I personally find the taste of oxidation boring and too familiar, so I aim to minimize surface area as much as possible. There’s no right or wrong, but once you break up a cake there’s no going back (I mean you could re-steam the leaves and press them, but very few would actually go through that kind of trouble).
I have a couple of cakes broken up in Jianshui jars because I needed to make space in my pumidor for teas I’m more fond of. The teas are extremely dry because the indoor humidity is between 10-30%RH for most of the year, but the teas have certainly changed over the years, despite what many people online would tell you, although the changes do seem to stem chiefly from oxidation, at least to my palate. Some people may prefer the taste of tea aged loose, others pressed.
Certain fungi only really thrive in cakes where they have room to spread and form networks, while others are content living on individual leaves. Loose vs. pressed can thus have an impact on which kinds of cultivars you can expect to find playing the dominant role and how the tea will develop. Obviously humidity and temperature play a huge role as well. Certain fungi thrive at certain humidity levels, and once you reach really high humidity the bacteria start to dominate how your tea ages.
I am doing the same thing. I normally break of 10 - 20 g off of a cake (for 2 - 3 sessions) and store it for a few days in a Yixing pot. It really improves the tea.
@@Utkuak I'll have to experiment for myself. Just recently got a new order of sheng.
Right from the broken cake its amazing.
I have a tendency to break off a bit too much so the extra I just leave for the next break so when I'm ready for the next one I weigh the old loose & some freshly loosened but this should according to this experiment have that "storage taste" all the same.
I'll clean & dry my yixing pot from my recent sessions then fill with 8g loose to have in a week.
20 grams break off to store on it's own.
20 grams in it's own bag.
The rest of the cake leave half picked.
Mind you he's done this with 5 year old tea but I feel this is true for young sheng as well because I've had a young sheng taste delicious when first broken into but when I came back for more of it at least a month later I swear it just wasn't as good as I remembered.
Living tea indeed
If you want to try authentic Chinese green tea, please leave me a message. As a young man who does tea processing in an ancient tea area, I am very happy to give my tea to people who want to drink Chinese tea for free. Of course, you can also ask me to buy Chinese tea.
That really interesting. Especially because mei leaf puerh cake samplers come in those air sealed bags. Maybe it could be interesting to compare the taste of a full cake to the sampler 🤔.
Vacuum bag always brings out an additional dimension to the tea. I honestly prefer storing my tea in a sealed environment. You should experiment with cakes stored in vacuum bags for a few years versus ones in open air too.
Time to learn the traditions of every tea
Hi, I had a lot of problems with storage due to spare and humidity. My trick solución is to store tea in sealed finge bags. Then about 8h before y breack a partir and let it inside my (cheap) yixing pot. When going to brew, first add ambient temperature water and remove it instantly, let it 5 minutes and the do an instant steep for cleaning, followed by pouring this Hot water over the pot to help heating. After that I brew as usually. This method given me more sweetnes on the tea, not a very big deal but enough to make a difference.
A lady told a story of hers when she had tea with a master, he would leave the tea dry in the pot for some time "until ready" over the water kettle for the tea to slowly open up.
Not what we do by placing in a hot rinced pot.
We should try this
If you want to try authentic Chinese green tea, please leave me a message. As a young man who does tea processing in an ancient tea area, I am very happy to give my tea to people who want to drink Chinese tea for free. Of course, you can also ask me to buy Chinese tea.
Very interesting! Storage would be an issue for me though with all the cakes I have. I wonder if breaking the cake in half perpendicular would already improve the taste? It would still fit in the wrapper I figure. Will have to test😄
It would be all wonky and you'll just get more dust would be my wager.
Keep us updated
waiting for part 3 😈
The video mentioned this being beneficial for 5+ year old tea, but I’m curious if the characteristics of the more intense flavors and aromas of breaking up the cake still transfer to young cakes. Anyone tried this?
Hello Don, would you recommend some clay pot for breaking up a 200g cake? What volume would be optimal? Are you planning on including some in your shop?
Would be interesting to have some information about the 5th and 6th infusions - came they closer?
Further more it would be interesting to have some information on the relative humidity of the storage environment.
Thank you! :-)
What about the absolute humidity measurement?
Isn't that one more accurate?
OMG. I loveed having nice looking round cakes in my living room. From now on there are only half cakes :( ... :D
Yeah, now we need a video to see which affordable & lightweight storage solution compares best to a clay pot. If I were to put all my cakes into clay pots it would rip the floating shelves right out of my wall!
Nice Video, but I have a question? Where can I buy such a clay pot? Thanks
Perhaps the container material is also an influence, not just the oxygen amount.
If you want to try authentic Chinese green tea, please leave me a message. As a young man who does tea processing in an ancient tea area, I am very happy to give my tea to people who want to drink Chinese tea for free. Of course, you can also ask me to buy Chinese tea.
I suspect there's something going on with microbiology here. Isn't there a relation between the aromatics of the tea and the organisms that exist on the leaves? If so, I think breaking up the tea might give them oxygen to "thrive" and the process of breaking up might expose the leaves to organisms present in the air, like the natural yeast of a sourdough or something.
Not an expert on any of this, I just drink tea 🍵
A question to Don, some People tells me about storage using same King of clay, as teapot, for example jianshui storage and jianshui teapot, ¿ will you do that test ?
For me is impossible due to space and storage conditions, but I'm curious 🤔
great video. wondering how much these change 6-12 months out.
Hey Don, I have a bunch of Toucha’s. Do you think this advice would apply for them?
Hi Don, I understand your conundrum over the half broken tea cake and the zisha pot. The ozmotic relationship is not the same. Also paper means the tea is more exposed to its storage conditions. which increases the "contamination" issues when comparing half broken against unbroken cakes (especially if the whole cake is being stored in tong packaging.) jm2cw. As always, fantastic video, and I loved your surprised responses to the tea you were tasting. Best Wishes.
by the way, would you advocate, breaking up half a cake, and vacuum packing the unbroken half?
thats what i did, after all pu'er aging involves fungus consuming the carbon material of the pu'er tea itself for further post fermentation.
This is incredibly interesting. I'm very new to cake aged teas, I have much more experience with Oolongs and Japanese style teas and I'm branching out. I was expecting there to be a "loser" when it comes to storage after breaking, but this just inspired me to split up my cake when I get it and store most of it in a clay vessel and some in an emptied tea tin with a decent seal. I'm not sure where to buy a zisha vessel, so I might have to improvise. I'm almost sure the breathability might be key in that storage more than the material, so I might end up having to use terra cotta or an old crock, possibly. Somebody, please feel free to tell me if the type of clay will ruin the effect.
Are we going to get a part three, please?
I'm going to break up my whole cake and keep it in the vacuum bag, instead of just breaking off a piece at a time. 💕
@meileaf what do you think about loose leaf pyramids although it’s not the same as loose I find it’s a good way to give people loose leaf that don’t like the storage and brewing requirements of loose leaf. But is it worth having loose leaf tea pyramids if you’ve always had loose? Do you think the quality is better than teabags? And can you still get the same quality with the loose leaf pyramids as you can loose I imagine not but wanted your opinion
I think the two issues with pyramidal tea bags is 1. How much room there is to steep and 2. The quality that the vendor puts into them.
Pyramids are way better on the breathability department than traditional square bags, but still hugely less than you’d get with most any good loose brewing infuser. Hence the flavor gets a bit messed up with some water getting stronger than others. Might not matter as much for some kinds (strong blacks say), but larger leaf types will suffer.
The biggie, though, is the quality issue. Most companies that make them almost never put the same quality of leaf into a pyramid than you could get buying loose. I’m sure some companies are better than others, but almost all I’ve tried tend to be very basic commodity tea quality, even when priced higher than the equivalent for loose.
Don probably has videos on this somewhere, but those are just my observations.
Will there be a follow-up on this video soon?
Just curious, the cake that you had that was opened but wrapped…have you been using that cake for the years you’ve had the cake or has it been left untouched (but used) for a few years? Does that question make sense?
I was wondering the exact same thing, how long was the half broken cake in that state for. From memory of the first video I think he broke a fresh cake a month ago, gonna go check.
Trying this with a ripe, Bling Rock Kingpin.
Awesome experiment. But does this hold up to all types of tea 🤔
No, this one is only for post-fermented teas like raw PuErh, ripened PuErh and other Hei Chas.
Don, usually I can afford to buy only one cake at a time.
So I break off what I want to drink, then I rewrap the cake in its original paper wrapping and put it back into its ziplock bag, where it remains (sometimes for a few months).
Every few months, I go through all my ziplock bags and open them for a few seconds to let some air in, then I reseal the bags.
Doies this practice seem reasonable? - I can't afford storage jars, and don't have sufficient storage space for jars.
Now I'm wondering if this applies to white teas. I have a shou mei cake I like and it's around 4 years old (allegedly but we know how that goes). Now I'm wondering if i should break it up.
Hi Don,
I know that you did a video on rinsing your tea, but watching your videos I noticed that you don't do it for all teas. The same is true for the filters that you use, sometimes you don't use a filter, sometimes you use a fine filter etc.
I am wondering which teas should or should not be rinsed or filtered (those 2 topics seem related to me, as they change the level of impurities but could also decrease texture) might be cool to have a video on that topic, maybe with a slight focus on the teas that should NOT be rinsed or filtered, as that would be a good complement to the other video.
Good question.
In my experience personally:
Sheng, green & silver needle is not a must, I'm rather lazy & dont mind some soft leaf getting through.
Sheng, oolongs & aged whites I think you must because they are not pleasant to get in your sip.
Writing this makes me realize that it depends on the nature or hardness of the leaf & how dusty or clean it is.
Japanese green Seneca & Gyokuro I would absolutely not if using a proper shiboridashi, simply unnecessary if brewed with care.
Know your tea I guess and filter if you find it nessesary.
Overly broken tea like Genmaicha with the matcha, rice and other herbals are very messy regardless & clog the fine strainer so I personally would not recommend it.
My take: Rinse most everything once. Greens you may not have to rinse. Puer is rinsed twice.
I stopped using any type of filter/screen. If you're using a serving/fairness pitcher, any solid matter would sink to the bottom and you can just avoid pouring that out into your cup. You'll always leave a very small amount of tea with the solids, but it's no biggie. IMO it's better than filtering out elements you do want which add texture, and you've also got 1 less thing to manage and clean.
Does this apply also to cooked puerh? I just bought a ripe puerh from mei leaf, so I store it properly when it arrives. Thank you
cooked pu'er is already a completed product similar to over 70% aging, to achieve 70% aging thats like 50 yrs of aging raw pu'er.
@Mei Leaf Will this towel be availible soon?
Yeah mine storage have to change.... dear lord I need to find space🙈🙈
Don't we all.
I'll have to break up a years worth of tea of my choosing but I can never make up my mind...
HELP!
@@reubenk1615 Choose what you drink more
Should I brake up the white cakes as well? I have Jade star 5 and Peony Chirps
I was always taught to keep teas in an airtight dark container
Puer is the exception to the rule. Usually you do not want your tea to interact with the environment since it lowers the quality, but with puer you are looking for that interaction because it produces tastes you want with this tea type. Sometimes the aging can go wrong and the tea looses all taste.
@@kattkatt744 I've heard of it going mouldy
@@jamesburton-carter7657 so sad
Hi I was wondering if somebody could help me with my query. How can I drink tea e.g. oolongs, matcha and black tea and still maintain healthy body fat and weight?
I've always been on the slender side for all my life and have started making changes to this by eating a high healthy fat diet. However, I love my Mei leaf tea's and know that tea is a fat burner. So how can I still enjoy my tea's without burning out all my fat intake?
Look forward to hearing back from anyone who would have some information regarding this.
Tea does increase energy consumption through various paths but is not a 'weight loss' supplement that can contribute to underweight from any study that I have seen myself.
@@MeiLeaf Thanks mate!
Does anyone know where to buy a nice clay storage pot like Don has? Can't seem to find one anywhere and I'm currently storing my cakes in tea-type-specific dark plastic storage containers with boveda packs.
Even Ebay doesn't have good options.
I'm considering finding local potters & making a private request.
Don carried the one in the video for a short time but was a disaster, most broke in transit to London & final destination wherever the poor soul lives who ordered one.
If you find one please let me know
@@reubenk1615 I found one last month on eBay at China art Store; it should arrive hopefully before the end of June (I ordered end of april). Search for "Yixing Clay tea storage caddy"
Will, you carry the clay storage pots?
As so often one answer leads to more questions. I don't own any aged PuErh, but I will try this out with my Cream Bun Scallywag cake. Breaking up about half of it and testing if it makes a difference.
So what is the conventional wisdom for Ripe PuErh cakes or Aged White cakes? Storing in cake form or broken up?
From my experience I've stored both JS2 & AfterPartyEnchanter in their original sealed bags and they are aging nicely.
Tasted both some 6 months ago and are much more rich in texture. JS2 has developed some amazing fruitiness. Its amazing.
What's been your experience?
@@reubenk1615 My sample size is not really that big, only own 3 cakes at the moment. So far I stored them in the original bags and for the white tea and ripe Puerh cake, I didn't experience any negatives or huge changes in flavour. My fresh PuErh cake, on the other hand, stored the same way, I am a little disappointed with. Always have the feeling I can't get its full potential compared to the experience I had the first time trying it. That might be physiological or contributed to different factors, but compared to Young Gushu which is stored loosely in a sealed bag, the difference is notably. Thus I am really interested if I can replicate Dons result with my PuErh cake.
You still need to have some clay storage jars made or bamboo canisters or something! That would be nice
If you want to try authentic Chinese green tea, please leave me a message. As a young man who does tea processing in an ancient tea area, I am very happy to give my tea to people who want to drink Chinese tea for free. Of course, you can also ask me to buy Chinese tea.
Would the same principles apply to shou?
Well, I’m sold. Will this make no difference to young cakes? I have two uncracked tub highnesses in their pouches in my cupboard and I’m tempted to break one up, and then drop it back into it’s pouch. Will it fit? Is it a bad idea? :) don?
29:10
@@GilbertBarrierLaDanseduSilence oh well I just broke up what I have left of a shimmer bliss roady cake and I’ll see what happens ;) if no difference then no loss…
In any case it doesn't seem that it can make it worst unless we don't drink it in the half year coming. Enjoy your experiments
@@GilbertBarrierLaDanseduSilence if nothing else it at least means you don’t have that miserable end of cake beeng hole experience, can spread out the broken leaves with the good stuff.. :)
I do notice a simelarity in my Weckpots after 1 month of resting with my loose tea
Does this apply equally to ripened peurh?
where did you get your bean pot?
Can it be glass jars instead of clay jars?
What kind of jar is that?
Are you using 50 or 80ml gaiwans?
50
have. you tried with new cakes yet? 1/7/2022
Oh no. I dreaded this moment. To get my personal experience and hunch verified by an expert. Any ideas for cheaper storage container than a zi sha cha pot? They are way to expensive for me at the moment.
Now repeat this whole experiment from scratch to get a final conclusion.
Hello!! Do you know what is going on with the shipping? I ordered ceremonial matcha around 2 weeks ago. Are you all going to get tins soon? I wish to stock up!
Hi. Most worldwide shipping services are operating with delays depending on where you live. If you email sales-support@meileaf.com with your order number we can double check if we have any further information.
@@MeiLeaf I just now got it in the mail!! It’s delicious. It warms my very soul.
Does that mean you'll start selling broken up cakes now? I think it would work, but it wouldn't be smart to take business advice/ideas from an idiot like me. At least I could see myself splurging on a small 20-30g pack of 5 year old fancy tea rather than committing to a whole expensive cake.
So... How does one go about becoming part of your crew? lol
If I drank Pu'er every day could I finish a cake in a few months?
You're going to need a white lab coat for the next video. Science, baby!
My girlfriend will not like the consequences of these results
Next: eject a quarter of a semi-broken cake into space in a vacuum sealed bag, send one full cake to Mars and place another half cake's worth of broken up yellow flakes in a kangaroo's pouch. Wait for 7 years, try them side by side and see which one has got the most of that dried goosberry skin fragrance the likes of which you dremt about the last time you snorted to much purple matcha.