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breaking up a puerh cake
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Michael Plant
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breaking up a puerh cake
Dan
3/14/04
> My experience with puerh has so far been limited to looseleaf and mini
> tuocha. But I just ordered some green puerh cakes and mushrooms.
Good for you, Dan. Seems as though Mike's turning us all in the right
direction.
>
> Is it common for a cake or mushroom to be so hard that you have to break
> it up with a towel and hammer? I had been kind of imagining I'd be able
> to just break off a piece with my fingers until I saw a website
> suggesting a hammer.
Between fingers and a hammar is a knife to pry up a chunk along an edge.
(Finger blood is considered an appropriate pu-erh additive.) This ought to
work in most cases. I've gotten some green pu-erhs from Michael Ryan of M
and J's and from David Hoffman of Silk Road Teas. I've got a life of happy
adventure ahead of me. I also am the proud possessor of a two kilo brick
which I don't want to hack up, but would rather cut into four neat squares.
Any suggestions on how to do this?
>Seems a little sad in a way, to smash something so
> artfully put together all at once - but perhaps that's better than
> keeping a towel and hammer at the office.
Well, what you do with your towel and hammar at the office is of course your
own business. I'd try the knife first. I agree about destroying such
artfully put together tea. Tea SM?
>
> And should I try to use a quantity of puerh about the same volume as a
> mini toucha?
Lew Perin, my green pu-erh mentor, goes with something like 160-170F degrees
and approximately half the number of grams as the number of ounces of water.
This seems to work admirably well. Without a gram scale, I'd say a
mini-toucha's worth would be good for four or five ounces, assuming
approximately two grams per toucha. Multiple steeps, of course. What say you
Lew?
The finger blood comment is a joke. Be real careful with that knife. Take it
from me. I notice that Michael Ryan's site includes a sort of triangular
(pyramidal?) pu-erh knife without sharp edges. I might give that one a try
myself.
Michael
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