Puerh tea, with its unique aging aroma and mellow flavor, is very popular among tea lovers. As a common form of Pu-erh tea, Pu-erh tea cakes are highly sought after for their firmness and durability. However, for tea lovers who are new to Puerh tea cakes, how to pry open a tea cake correctly is quite a challenge.
This article will bring you a detailed prying strategy for Puerh tea cakes, to help you easily master the skills of prying tea, and savor the rich fragrance of Puerh tea cakes.
Preparation: tools and tea cakes
Before we start prying the tea, we need to prepare the necessary tools and tea cakes first.
Tools:
- **Tea Cutter or Tea Needle:**The special tool for prying tea, there are common metal tea cutter and bamboo tea needle on the market. Metal tea knife sharpness is higher, suitable for prying tightly pressed tea cakes; bamboo tea needle is softer, not easy to hurt the tea.
- **Tea Tray or Tray:** Used to hold the tea leaves when prying them off to avoid scattering.
Tea Cakes:
- Choose your favorite Puerh tea cake and check whether the packaging of the tea cake is intact, whether there is any damage or odor.
Prying Tea Steps: Detailed Operation Techniques
The process of prying tea may seem simple, but in fact, it requires certain skills to do a complete prying of tea leaves, to avoid the tea leaves broken. Below is a detailed description of the steps of prying tea:
- Finding the right needle drop point: Observe the surface of the tea cake and find the place where there is a big gap between the tea leaves as the needle drop point. Generally speaking, the edge of the tea cake, the middle depression and the loose parts are the better needle drop points.
- Light prying and slow prying: Insert the tea knife or tea needle gently into the point of needle drop, do not use too much force, so as not to pry the tea leaves. Along the direction of the tea leaves, slowly pry the tea cake, so that the tea cake is gradually loosened.
- Layered prying: Don't rush to pry the whole tea cake at once, but pry it in layers. First pry the loose tea leaves from the outer layer, and then gradually go deeper into the inner layer.
- Change the angle: In the process of prying, pay attention to change the angle of the tea knife or tea needle, avoid prying all the time in one position, so as not to cause the tea leaves to break.
- Patient prying: Prying tea requires a certain degree of patience, do not be impatient. If you encounter a tight tea cake, you can use warm water to soften it before prying.
Caveats:
- Before prying the tea, you can put the tea cake in a warm environment to wake up the tea, making the tea leaves softer and easier to pry.
- Pay attention to the strength when prying the tea, to avoid too much force causing the tea leaves to break.
- Pry down the tea leaves should be preserved in time to avoid moisture deterioration.
Once you have mastered the correct prying technique, you can easily enjoy the flavor and pleasure brought by Puerh tea cakes. Grab your tea knife and experience the fun of prying tea!