In the current national standard for Pu'er tea, only ripe Pu'er tea has loose tea and pressed tea, and raw Pu'er tea is pressed tea. However, from the daily life of drinking tea, Pu'er raw tea does not have the sun-dried green tea before pressing the cake, and many tea lovers have been Xi to call it Pu'er raw tea loose tea.

Is Pu'er tea better loose tea or cake tea? After reading this article, you will understand

Pu-erh tea form

1. Loose tea

Pu'er tea still retains the original scattered leaf shape of its tea leaves, has not been pressed by gravity, and has not been pressed into a special shape, that is, loose tea. The scattering of Pu'er tea is conducive to tea lovers to carefully observe the shape and color of the leaves, and it is convenient to touch the leaves and feel the feel of Pu'er tea.

2. Tuocha

Tuocha is a kind of pressed tea made of conical nest head, in order to facilitate the transportation of horses, generally several tea lumps wrapped in oil paper are connected, and the straw is wrapped to make long straw handles. Because the portion of a tea lump is much smaller than a tea brick, it is easier to buy and retail. Tuocha looks like a round bread from the surface, a thick-walled bowl from the bottom, and a concave middle, which is quite distinctive.

3. Tea cakes

There are large and small cakes, and the so-called seven cakes are this kind of tea (seven cakes put together). The standard bait was 357 grams per loaf, which was related to the fact that it was exported to the European market at that time and was calculated by the pound. The most traditional packaging of bamboo shoot shells and bamboo is the seven seed cakes. To this day, this standard tea cake still accounts for the majority.

4. Tea bricks

Tea bricks, also known as autoclaved tea, commonly known as side-pin tea, are tea leaves that look like bricks. It is also one of the more representative pressed teas, which is made of tea leaves, tea stems, and sometimes with tea powder. All brick teas are autoclaved, but the molding method is different. For example, black bricks, flower bricks, Fu bricks, green bricks, and rice brick tea are molded by machine pressing, and Kang brick tea is built with a stick hammer.

Pu'er tea in the form of cake tea, Tuo tea, square tea, brick tea and other forms is called "pressed tea", and the Pu'er tea is made into a pressed form for easy storage. On the contrary, it is loose tea, according to the old saying, one or two grades for loose tea, three or four grades for Tuo tea, seven or eight grades for cake tea, ninety grades for brick tea, and the current Pu'er tea, its appearance has nothing to do with its quality grade for a long time, there was indeed a difference in the past, but that was a long time ago, and now there is basically no difference.

After the tea cake is autoclaved, the tea body is tighter than loose tea, although its air permeability is not as good as loose tea, but it occupies a small tea storage space and reduces the cost of Tibetan tea. In the process of post-fermentation, the pressed tea can play a role in gathering the tea aroma, which can prevent the tea flavor from being dissipated too quickly, so that the fragrance of Pu'er tea can become more and more intense. Moreover, the temperature and humidity inside the pressed tea body are relatively stable, the aging is uniform and long-lasting, and it is more resistant to storage.

Loose tea can be in full contact with air in a short period of time to undergo oxidation reaction, to achieve a more ideal tasting effect, and also retain more original tea properties.

In terms of taste, whether it is cake tea or loose tea, tea lovers may not feel much difference. The taste of new tea is fresh, if it is directly autoclaved at high temperature, the tea cake will have a stuffy green taste, but there are better natural post-fermentation conditions, and the taste will be better after a period of transformation, especially for raw tea. Because of the certain shape, the pressed tea has a certain ornamentality, and when drinking, it is more fun to play and appreciate than the loose tea known as "grass tea". What's more, Pu'er pressed tea is mostly in the form of "square" and "round", which cleverly embodies the philosophical idea of "the sky is round and the place is round" in traditional Chinese culture.

Whether it is Pu'er loose tea or Pu'er cake tea, it is just the shape of Pu'er tea. Pu-erh tea is divided into pressed tea and loose tea according to its shape. The pressed tea is divided into cake tea, Tuo tea, square tea, brick tea and so on. Many people feel that cake tea is better, but this is actually a misunderstanding. In the past, there was a saying: one scattered, two cakes, three bricks and four Tuo.

Today, however, the appearance of Pu-erh tea has long been irrelevant to its quality. Therefore, when buying Pu'er, we should not take grade and appearance as the only criteria for weighing, but should use comprehensive factors such as raw materials, workmanship, appearance, aroma, soup color, and leaf bottom as the criteria for identification.

As a ration tea, there is good storage and condition, on loose tea. If you want to focus on collecting for a long time, the pursuit of "the older the more fragrant", it is best to choose pressed bricks, cakes, and Tuo tea.