Your wife assumed correctly.

The thing is, the leaves are not weighed each time they are pressed in
bricks, nor after. A general average is taken from the total weight of the
consignment. Take for example a brick that says it weighs 250gm. This
figure is based on the average of one dozen of 5 bricks each in one bundle,
which is 30kg. (250gm X 5 X 24 = 30kg).

Some bricks will weigh slightly more and some will weigh slightly lesser.
Not all are at 250gm exact. The same goes for the bingcha.

On the other hand, when the bricks are fresh out of the factory, the
moisture content is at about 6-11%. Over time in an arid environment, the
cake will lose the moisture and weight less, while in a highly humid
condition, the cake will weigh roughly the same as the one it was shipped
out.

There are 2 types of Worm Dropping pu'er. One is the real pu'er, the other
isn't.

The real worm droppings are the by products of small whitish worms that
appear on aged ole pu'er. This ocurs mainly in the warehouse where the teas
are kept, before you buy it home. There are mainly 2 types of pests on the
pu'er : one is the whitish worm, very tiny, which grow into ant-like
insects (greyish-white and tiny) that scuttle all over the cake, and the
last is the silverfish. But silverfish eats only the wrapper.

Leaving the cake in the shade of the sun in summer for a couple of hours
will usually rid the cakes of these pests.

The by-products of the insects (worms) are seen mostly on the inside of the
wrapper, they are tiny pellets with a slightly thread-like thing to hold
them in a line of some sort.

Some people will remove these and throw them away, some will brew them right
from the wrapper, some will sun them for a couple of hours before brewing
them. I prefer the last method, the brew tastes slightly better, though I
must say there is nothing much to it.

The other type of Worm Dropping tea is cultivated from the worms of a moth
found in Guangxi. This tea is much tastier and interesting. The locals
will collect the leaves from mulberry trees and keep them in a dark room.
The moths will gyrate to these leaves, and lay their eggs there, and the
wormds will feed on the fermenting leaves. The locals will collect the
droppings, and fry them, sometime they mix it with honey. The droppings are
then taken like a thrist quencher on hot summer days as it is believed to
cool the body.

Danny


"stePH" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Michael Plant wrote:
>> stePH, I've yet to get the brick, tuo, or bing that was exactly the
>> advertised weight. This includes some damned old cakes. I chalk it up to
>> variation unless I'm buying a small number of grams.
>
> My wife wonders if it's not because there's some moisture in the tea at
> the time of pressing, that later evaporates out and makes the gross
> weight of the tea lighter. I weighed the other three bricks and they
> were all between 5 and 7 grams light. Is she on to something?
>
>
> stePH
> --
> I'll brew another pot of ambiguity.
>