Preparation of pu-erh involves first separating a well-sized portion of the compressed tea for brewing. This can be done by flaking off pieces of the cake or by steaming the entire cake until it is soft from heat and hydration. A pu-erh knife, which is similar to an oyster knife or a rigid letter opener, is used to pry large horizontal flakes of tea off the cake such as to minimize leaf breakage.
Steaming is usually performed on smaller teas such as tuocha or mushroom pu-erh and involves steaming the cake until it can be rubbed apart and then dried. In both cases, a vertical sampling of the cake should be obtained since the quality of the leaves in a cake usually varies between the surface and the center of the cake.
Pu-erh is generally expected to be served Gong Fu style, generally in Yixing teaware or in a type of Chinese tea cup called a gaiwan.
Optimum temperatures are generally regarded to be around 95 degree Celsius for lower quality pu-erhs and 85-89 degree Celsius for good ripened and aged raw pu-erh. Steeping times last from 12–30 seconds in the first few infusions, up to 2–10 minutes in the last infusions.
The prolonged steeping techniques used by some western tea makers can produce dark, bitter, and unpleasant brews. Quality aged pu-erh can yield many more infusions, with different flavour nuances when brewed in the traditional Gong-Fu method.
Because of the prolonged fermentation in ripened pu-erh and slow oxidization of aged raw pu-erh, these teas often lack the bitter, astringent properties of other tea types, and also can be brewed much stronger and repeatedly, with some claiming 20 or more infusions of tea from one pot of leaves.
On the other hand, young raw pu-erh is known and expected to be strong and aromatic, yet very bitter and somewhat astringent when brewed, since these characteristics are believed to produce better aged raw pu-erh.
My brother recommended I may like this web site. He used to
be entirely right. This put up actually made my
day. You can not believe simply how much time I had spent for this info!
Thank you!
Hello, I check your blogs daily. Your writing style is witty, keep up the good work!
Sweet blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News.
Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed
in Yahoo News? I've been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
Cheers
hi!,I love your writing so so much! share we communicate extra approximately
your article on AOL? I require an expert in this space to resolve my problem.
May be that's you! Looking forward to peer you.
whoah this weblog is excellent i love reading your articles.
Keep up the good work! You know, many people are hunting round for this info, you can aid them greatly.
Great blog right here! Also your website a lot up fast!
What web host are you using? Can I am getting your associate hyperlink on your
host? I desire my web site loaded up as quickly as yours
lol
I was suggested thius website by means of my
cousin. I am nnow not sure whether this submit is written bby way of him as no one else understand such specified approximately
my problem. You're wonderful! Thanks!
Excellent post. Keep posting such kind of information on your page.
Im really impressed by it.
Hello there, You have performed an excellent job.
I will certainly digg it and individually suggest to
my friends. I am confident they'll be benefited from this website.
Excellent post however I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this topic?
I'd be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit
more. Thanks!
May I just say what a relief to uncover an individual who
truly understands what they are talking about on the web.
You definitely know how to bring a problem to light and make it important.
A lot more people should check this out and understand this side of your story.
It's surprising you aren't more popular because you certainly possess the
gift.