WarbyPicus
patreon
Finding the Tea Qi- 2020 Yunnan Sourcing “Wu Liang Mountain” Wild Arbor Raw Pu’erh Tea Cake
🕑 Added 2026-01-22 12:38:28 +0000 UTC
Another tea without much going on flavor-wise, but a very useful learning experience. I think most people reading this will know this, but a Tea Cake, in this context, refers to a pressed disk of dried tea. This is done, originally, for transportation long distances. These days it is actually done as a way to develop flavor. Pu’erh continues to develop with time, provided it has the right conditions. A not-too-densely-packed tea cake is optimal. As you shall read, my little piece of cake was too densely compressed, leading to challenges.
Steep 1- Loading the gaiwan with even more tea today, to counteract the mild flavor problem. Dense nugget, washed twice, first pour very, very light. Dry nugget was musty, even a little fishy. No scent from the liquor on the first steep. No real flavor either. Lightly sweet, perhaps. Nugget is still very dense, leaves really haven’t opened yet. Going to give it a long second steep.
Steep 2- pried the leaves open a bit with a knife, gave it a twenty second steep. Bitter and tannic. The color was a very pale yellow. Just a faint tea aroma. Kind of odd. This seems to be a nugget problem more than a time or liquid problem. Note for the future- BREAK UP THE NUGGET! Funny how the tea transforms the texture. I have read the clay pots affects the flavor inn a positive way, but I really don’t know.
Steep 3- One hundred percent a nugget issue. I broke it up more for this steep, it was still a dense lump and I had to gently split it into two smaller dense lumps. Starting to get that real Pu’erh, though. At 15 seconds, I’m getting a restrained tannin and mild sweetness and a more pronounced tea flavor. Not picking up subtle notes of whatever, but it’s a significant improvement. This is deffo a learning moment.
Odd to say, but a bit juicy? Not sure what else to call it. Menthol creeps in as the tea cools in the cup and the tannins get more pronounced. The color is a richer gold this time, like a nice apple juice color. NB, this tea gets tannic fast.
Steep 4- There was a single mouthful of sweet flavor, a hint of something fruity, then it was gone. Just tannin. Hmm.
Quick summary- I ran through two more steeps, and there just wasn’t anything going on there. It was developing more into bitter tannins and a faint sweetness, rather than any distinct tastes. I can’t help but feel I wronged this tea. It should have been broken up much more from the jump, giving those early steeps the opportunity to shine. It’s really interesting. We are in the early days here, so growth is fast as new experiences pile up. Too-dense tea cakes. Who would have thought?
Comments
Felix Giron
To help with mustiness (likely due to a storage issue) and making the cake looser, you can toast it at about 150 C for 10 minutes or so. Tea picks are also helpful as someone else suggested.
Endgame
I could have sworn that you are supposed to take a knife and scrape the side of the tea cake until you get the desired amount. Is that not true?
Kev Gamm
I have to imagine that greater exposed surface area will lead to greater flavor, so breaking up as many dense pieces of cake may help here. Maybe lightly masticating the tea with a pestle after the initial wash to flatten and break up the leaves?
Jack Schuyler
I only recently got into tea as well and I find that the puerhs that I’ve been drinking does really well with small amounts of tea (4-5 grams) and quick steeps (5-6 seconds) help wake up the leaves really well. I’ll also leave mine in the gaiwan open to dry between steeps and that helps the astringency.
Smokestack Matt
They make picks for breaking up tea cakes.
Colin Groh
How are you breaking it up? Fingers? I have a hypothesis that crushing or chopping or tearing is the wrong way to go, but I really don't know. My looseleaf has never come in bricks like that
