THE MIND BLOWING DIFFERENCE - Breaking your PuErh Cakes Pt2. 

You make the best tea related videos on RU-vid bar none. Thank you.

Wow, I've never seen you that excited and surprised. What an interesting comparison. I really would like to see the changes after 3 and 6 month and a year.

(~*sighs*~ Begins to rethink tea storage...) Thanks Don...

Oh my gosh I was so excited and relieved to hear these results because I thought I was crazy. I love to drink my puer fresh and last year I got my first tong of an affordable puer which I loved (to drink most of it, and age 2 cakes). When I finished my first cake and started the second one I realized a HUGE difference. The new cake was singing a lot more compared to the old cake I was going through in 4-5 months. That's basically the result you found with the new and half broken tea. When I first discovered it, I was freaking out and wondered what I should do (I didn't know about breaking up whole cakes). I then switched to storing the cakes I am drinking atm always in a zip-lock bag. That made a huge difference! The freshness is preserved a lot more (what I like) and the aromatics seemingly too. That seems to refer a bit to the result you got with your low-oxygen storage version (although my cakes weren't aged ones). Now after having watched this video I am considering switching to breaking up the cakes I am drinking and storing them in zip-lock bags (because I can't afford clay jars ..), but most importantly, I am kinda reassured that my zip-lock cake storage for daily drinking really seems to have some effect (I thought I was going crazy and paranoid over my first tong a bit haha). Ofc I am talking about kinda fresh cakes, but from my experience it makes a huge difference too. Anyway, thanks for those videos Don!

I've been storing a few sessions worth of broken cakes in PORCELAIN jars. There"s also traditional wisdom regarding porcelain jar storage. would love a comparison between zisha, porcelain and bag storage.

I got 3/4 into this video and immediately started breaking my tea cake up. So happy for this info

Was there ever a part 3 in this series? I'd love to see what's happened since breaking up the cake.

This is exactly the kind of storage video I needed to watch!!! Thank you Don!

Surprised this is just now coming to fruition.

It's 7:30 in the morning, I'm working, and smiling more widely than I have at this time in the morning in quite a while. Looking forward to visiting Mei Leaf soon. And have some cake breaking to get to! Thanks Don!

Thanks you so much for this, Don! Advancing the state of the art by experiment!

Ok we need another update in a month

Fascinating video! It felt like watching a Sherlock Holmes movie! So much suspense and excitement ! One thousand thank you!

Great video, so much information. Thank you. I think you should definitely do more tasting between broken breathable and broken airtight.

Another Super Vid! Thank You!

Very interesting. Thank you.

Interesting. I'll make sure to break up my remaining Monocle Boss today. Would the same logic apply to aged white tea cakes I wonder?

Ahh Monocle Boss was incredible when it was fresh. I better break up the rest of that cake for further aging. Great video!

Supper interesting. I suspect humidity place big roll here. The new cake has a mix of humidity. The broken cake has probably the lowest humidity because of handeling. The clay will have had the time to even the humidity out bringing the tea back alive. The vacuum will be an amplifier because the humidity cant go anywhere. You can already taste the difference if you drink you favorite cake during summer (more humidity) or during winter (less humidity). It's even gotten to the point that during winter I just don't like pu-erh and just leave them alone in an air tide container until summer starts up again. Still its interesting to see how much difference the fully broken and the have broken have.

I appreciate the test and the results, but respectfully, it's way too soon to draw conclusions of any kind. The broken/breathable might be peaking now, and be worse three weeks from now. The broken/sealed might peak six weeks from now and decline after that. Results also might vary based on the individual tea, or the category.

Damn, although I really like you stackable tins, it seems like I need bigger tea tins if I want to break of enough for like 6 month. I'm definitely curious for more experiments in the future :D

Thanks for this Don, interesting and looking forward to the sequels...! Re: the traditional, breathable option - would you say that this only works in clay? Where do you think tins and tightly woven baskets fall on the storing loose spectrum? What would you say about storing in tins v compostable bags?

Dear Don, I wanted to bring to your attention a subtle observation during the recent experiment. While pouring water into the cups, there was a slight time gap between each pour. However, when transferring tea from the Gai Wans, the process appeared continuous. This discrepancy inadvertently impacted the brewing time for subsequent cups, affecting the experiment's consistency and accuracy. Consequently, the following cups exhibited reduced intensity, color, and overall quality. I believe adjusting the pouring intervals during tea transfer will enhance the precision of future experiments. Your attention to this detail will undoubtedly contribute to the scientific rigor of our testing processes. Thank you for your understanding and consideration. Best regards, Igar

Interesting and good to know. Just bought a teacake. White tea but still good to know. Dont have a clay container, but do have a large glass one I'll probably be storing under a counter, once it comes in.

My personal experience has been that breaking up a session’s worth of leaves from a cake a few days in advance can have a very notable improvement. While you have the cake out, if you know you’re going to be drinking that same tea again in the near future, you can break off some more leaves so you’ll have them ready to go. Breaking up the whole cake only really makes sense if you’re planning on drinking it all within the next year or two.

That really interesting. Especially because mei leaf puerh cake samplers come in those air sealed bags. Maybe it could be interesting to compare the taste of a full cake to the sampler 🤔.

Vacuum bag always brings out an additional dimension to the tea. I honestly prefer storing my tea in a sealed environment. You should experiment with cakes stored in vacuum bags for a few years versus ones in open air too.

Time to learn the traditions of every tea

Hi, I had a lot of problems with storage due to spare and humidity. My trick solución is to store tea in sealed finge bags. Then about 8h before y breack a partir and let it inside my (cheap) yixing pot. When going to brew, first add ambient temperature water and remove it instantly, let it 5 minutes and the do an instant steep for cleaning, followed by pouring this Hot water over the pot to help heating. After that I brew as usually. This method given me more sweetnes on the tea, not a very big deal but enough to make a difference.

Very interesting! Storage would be an issue for me though with all the cakes I have. I wonder if breaking the cake in half perpendicular would already improve the taste? It would still fit in the wrapper I figure. Will have to test😄

waiting for part 3 😈

The video mentioned this being beneficial for 5+ year old tea, but I’m curious if the characteristics of the more intense flavors and aromas of breaking up the cake still transfer to young cakes. Anyone tried this?

Hello Don, would you recommend some clay pot for breaking up a 200g cake? What volume would be optimal? Are you planning on including some in your shop?

Would be interesting to have some information about the 5th and 6th infusions - came they closer? Further more it would be interesting to have some information on the relative humidity of the storage environment. Thank you! :-)

OMG. I loveed having nice looking round cakes in my living room. From now on there are only half cakes :( ... :D

Yeah, now we need a video to see which affordable & lightweight storage solution compares best to a clay pot. If I were to put all my cakes into clay pots it would rip the floating shelves right out of my wall!

Nice Video, but I have a question? Where can I buy such a clay pot? Thanks

Perhaps the container material is also an influence, not just the oxygen amount.

I suspect there's something going on with microbiology here. Isn't there a relation between the aromatics of the tea and the organisms that exist on the leaves? If so, I think breaking up the tea might give them oxygen to "thrive" and the process of breaking up might expose the leaves to organisms present in the air, like the natural yeast of a sourdough or something. Not an expert on any of this, I just drink tea 🍵

A question to Don, some People tells me about storage using same King of clay, as teapot, for example jianshui storage and jianshui teapot, ¿ will you do that test ? For me is impossible due to space and storage conditions, but I'm curious 🤔

great video. wondering how much these change 6-12 months out.

Hey Don, I have a bunch of Toucha’s. Do you think this advice would apply for them?

Hi Don, I understand your conundrum over the half broken tea cake and the zisha pot. The ozmotic relationship is not the same. Also paper means the tea is more exposed to its storage conditions. which increases the "contamination" issues when comparing half broken against unbroken cakes (especially if the whole cake is being stored in tong packaging.) jm2cw. As always, fantastic video, and I loved your surprised responses to the tea you were tasting. Best Wishes. by the way, would you advocate, breaking up half a cake, and vacuum packing the unbroken half?

This is incredibly interesting. I'm very new to cake aged teas, I have much more experience with Oolongs and Japanese style teas and I'm branching out. I was expecting there to be a "loser" when it comes to storage after breaking, but this just inspired me to split up my cake when I get it and store most of it in a clay vessel and some in an emptied tea tin with a decent seal. I'm not sure where to buy a zisha vessel, so I might have to improvise. I'm almost sure the breathability might be key in that storage more than the material, so I might end up having to use terra cotta or an old crock, possibly. Somebody, please feel free to tell me if the type of clay will ruin the effect.

Are we going to get a part three, please?

I'm going to break up my whole cake and keep it in the vacuum bag, instead of just breaking off a piece at a time. 💕

@meileaf what do you think about loose leaf pyramids although it’s not the same as loose I find it’s a good way to give people loose leaf that don’t like the storage and brewing requirements of loose leaf. But is it worth having loose leaf tea pyramids if you’ve always had loose? Do you think the quality is better than teabags? And can you still get the same quality with the loose leaf pyramids as you can loose I imagine not but wanted your opinion

Will there be a follow-up on this video soon?

Just curious, the cake that you had that was opened but wrapped…have you been using that cake for the years you’ve had the cake or has it been left untouched (but used) for a few years? Does that question make sense?

Trying this with a ripe, Bling Rock Kingpin.

Awesome experiment. But does this hold up to all types of tea 🤔

Don, usually I can afford to buy only one cake at a time. So I break off what I want to drink, then I rewrap the cake in its original paper wrapping and put it back into its ziplock bag, where it remains (sometimes for a few months). Every few months, I go through all my ziplock bags and open them for a few seconds to let some air in, then I reseal the bags. Doies this practice seem reasonable? - I can't afford storage jars, and don't have sufficient storage space for jars.

Now I'm wondering if this applies to white teas. I have a shou mei cake I like and it's around 4 years old (allegedly but we know how that goes). Now I'm wondering if i should break it up.

Hi Don, I know that you did a video on rinsing your tea, but watching your videos I noticed that you don't do it for all teas. The same is true for the filters that you use, sometimes you don't use a filter, sometimes you use a fine filter etc. I am wondering which teas should or should not be rinsed or filtered (those 2 topics seem related to me, as they change the level of impurities but could also decrease texture) might be cool to have a video on that topic, maybe with a slight focus on the teas that should NOT be rinsed or filtered, as that would be a good complement to the other video.

Does this apply also to cooked puerh? I just bought a ripe puerh from mei leaf, so I store it properly when it arrives. Thank you

@Mei Leaf Will this towel be availible soon?

Yeah mine storage have to change.... dear lord I need to find space🙈🙈

Should I brake up the white cakes as well? I have Jade star 5 and Peony Chirps

I was always taught to keep teas in an airtight dark container

Hi I was wondering if somebody could help me with my query. How can I drink tea e.g. oolongs, matcha and black tea and still maintain healthy body fat and weight? I've always been on the slender side for all my life and have started making changes to this by eating a high healthy fat diet. However, I love my Mei leaf tea's and know that tea is a fat burner. So how can I still enjoy my tea's without burning out all my fat intake? Look forward to hearing back from anyone who would have some information regarding this.

Does anyone know where to buy a nice clay storage pot like Don has? Can't seem to find one anywhere and I'm currently storing my cakes in tea-type-specific dark plastic storage containers with boveda packs.

Will, you carry the clay storage pots?

As so often one answer leads to more questions. I don't own any aged PuErh, but I will try this out with my Cream Bun Scallywag cake. Breaking up about half of it and testing if it makes a difference. So what is the conventional wisdom for Ripe PuErh cakes or Aged White cakes? Storing in cake form or broken up?

You still need to have some clay storage jars made or bamboo canisters or something! That would be nice

Would the same principles apply to shou?

Well, I’m sold. Will this make no difference to young cakes? I have two uncracked tub highnesses in their pouches in my cupboard and I’m tempted to break one up, and then drop it back into it’s pouch. Will it fit? Is it a bad idea? :) don?

I do notice a simelarity in my Weckpots after 1 month of resting with my loose tea

Does this apply equally to ripened peurh?

where did you get your bean pot?

Can it be glass jars instead of clay jars?

What kind of jar is that?

Are you using 50 or 80ml gaiwans?

have. you tried with new cakes yet? 1/7/2022

Oh no. I dreaded this moment. To get my personal experience and hunch verified by an expert. Any ideas for cheaper storage container than a zi sha cha pot? They are way to expensive for me at the moment.

Now repeat this whole experiment from scratch to get a final conclusion.

Hello!! Do you know what is going on with the shipping? I ordered ceremonial matcha around 2 weeks ago. Are you all going to get tins soon? I wish to stock up!

Does that mean you'll start selling broken up cakes now? I think it would work, but it wouldn't be smart to take business advice/ideas from an idiot like me. At least I could see myself splurging on a small 20-30g pack of 5 year old fancy tea rather than committing to a whole expensive cake.

So... How does one go about becoming part of your crew? lol

If I drank Pu'er every day could I finish a cake in a few months?

You're going to need a white lab coat for the next video. Science, baby!

My girlfriend will not like the consequences of these results

Next: eject a quarter of a semi-broken cake into space in a vacuum sealed bag, send one full cake to Mars and place another half cake's worth of broken up yellow flakes in a kangaroo's pouch. Wait for 7 years, try them side by side and see which one has got the most of that dried goosberry skin fragrance the likes of which you dremt about the last time you snorted to much purple matcha.