On Mar 16, 8:14 am, "cha bing" wrote:

And I have a strange urge to start smoking. I don't know if that is a
good thing or not. Interestingly, if I am reading correctly, tobacco
is aged in tins, not compressed. They don't press it into cakes, do
they? Does a densely rolled cigar age better than loose tobacco?

Oh my. Can that be good? Some friends have this theory: one gets hook
on pu'er as an alternative to smoking; but at the teashops we visit, I
found on several occasions that when the teashop owner brews a pu'er,
the ashtray gets filled up quicker...

Danny

On Mar 15, 9:29 am, "cha bing" wrote:
I broke an extremely tight tuocha apart a couple of months ago by
steaming it briefly, breaking it apart, and then redrying it. Then I
forgot about it. Now I am curious--I understand it will age faster
than compressed puer because it is looseleaf, but if I age it for a
year or two, will there be a significant drop in quality, or will it
taste similar to a slightly older aged compressed puer?

What if I break a cake into smaller pieces (of about 5-10g each) and
store them in a jar? Will that age the tea faster without fading the
quality?

Any ideas/experience in this area?

Sorry forgot about the initial question...

Recap:
1. You steamed the tuocha to loosen it.
2. You re-dried the tuocha.

I don't suggest this as a method of loosening the tuocha, some people
believe that if you don't control the temperature correctly you might
just end up with a pile of spent leaves that is basically green tea-
ish, and these would not age well, if not at all. Of the various
methods of processing green tea, the steam method is one that usually
doesn't allow the tea to age or change in its flavour (for the
better). If you keep a Longjing which is panfried, and a gyokuro which
is steamed processed, for a year, you'll find that while the Longjing
is still drinkable, the gyokuro would taste quite nasty.

How one re-dries the tea is also a contributing factor to the
condition of the tea later. From what I've read on other forums, the
end product of tea should not undergo sun-drying, for reasons unclear
it affects the taste of the tea and make it bland. Low heat baking
might alter it into a different tea, and leaving it to air-dried but
not dry it thoroughly.

You also asked if the tea broken into smaller pieces and kept in a jar
would age faster without fading the quality...

That is an interesting question. I'll let you know in 5 years'
time...

Conventional wisdom lays down several guidelines on this:

1. Break the cake into smaller pieces only if you intend to drink
them in the near future
2. For long term investment, it is better to keep the cake as intact
as possible
3. If the pu'er is new, a zisha clay jar would be ideal for it - to
allow it to breathe and age
4. If the pu'er is old (I wonder how old is old), a porcelain jar is
better - to slow down its ageing process

I think there are more guidelines, please feel free to add...

Danny

On Mar 15, 8:14 pm, "cha bing" wrote:
Interesting, thanks. I don't have much of the tuo cha left (my
original intent was to break it apart so I could drink it soon, but I
became distracted with other teas), but now I am really curious to see
what happens if I leave it for a while.

And I have a strange urge to start smoking. I don't know if that is a
good thing or not. Interestingly, if I am reading correctly, tobacco
is aged in tins, not compressed. They don't press it into cakes, do
they? Does a densely rolled cigar age better than loose tobacco?

Tobaccos are pressed into cakes, except in tobacco terminology these
are called "plugs". They sometimes leave tobaccos compressed for
months, which alters the taste profile. When you slice these aged plug
into thin (2-4mm thick) pieces, they are called "flakes". Tobaccos
have also long been baked, except in the tobacco jargon it's "stoved".
Many of the old English mixes have heavily stoved leaves.

While I'm not sure if rolled cigars age better than loose tobacco, I
can definitely say that there is nothing like good Virginia flake.
They smell like so good...like fig newtons. A good pipe tea IMHO is a
strong rosey Indian black, like assam, though you can also do Lapsang
Souchong.