Breaking up tea.

[SilverToy]

I am breaking up some samples of Pu-erh tea, and I am trying to keep the leaves as whole as possible. Some of the samples are extremely hard and I do not want to just make them into powder! Can these be lightly steamed to loosen them up? Or what are some of the methods used? Thanks for any information.
Ken

 

[Maitre_Tea]

I find using a pick of some sort works better than a knife, and I think it's just a matter of being patient about prying off whole leafs. Of course, at the end of the day you have to accept that there will be broken leaf no matter what you do, and besides, a lot of pu-erh is already made of chopped leaf so it's not that bad. Just put the dust/fannings into a small container, and call it your home-blend pu-erh

 

[SilverToy]

Thats what I have been doing so far, so I guess I'm on track. I have been keeping a little jar of "Home brew" that is from the dust and smallest flakes. I thought I had read about doing a light steam to soften the leaves. Thank you for the help.

 

[Maitre_Tea]

Light-steaming is something that I have mixed feelings on. It definitely helps if you're going to consume a tea within a few months or so, but it changes the original flavor/aroma of the tea, for better or for worse. Since it's samples, you're trying to find out what you would want more of, and steaming could possibly make something really bad taste decent, or vice versa.

 

[SilverToy]

That makes sense, Good info to remember.

 

[netsurfr]

Light-steaming is something that I have mixed feelings on. It definitely helps if you're going to consume a tea within a few months or so, but it changes the original flavor/aroma of the tea, for better or for worse. Since it's samples, you're trying to find out what you would want more of, and steaming could possibly make something really bad taste decent, or vice versa.

Maitre -
While I have not not used the steaming technique, I am wondering why light steaming would change either the flavor or the aroma. Not saying it does not... just trying to understand. Thanks.

 

[Maitre_Tea]

I'm not sure about the exact details, but I figure that a light steaming might mitigate some off-flavors or aromas, so in some instances light steaming isn't a bad thing, if you're going to be consuming something in the short run. As the steam softens up the tea leaves it might also help some off-flavors "steam off" from the tea as they become airborne, so they're no longer "bound" to the tea itself.

If you were going to taste samples to see which ones are good aging candidates than light steaming might get rid of off-flavors/aromas that you would want to taste that you might want to know about...