How to Identify Good Puerh Tea - Zhi Zheng Tea Shop

„The Appearance of Tea
The appearance of dry tea leaves is affected by the form, be it loose, cake, brick, bowl and so on, how much sunlight the leaves have absorbed, the production methods, etc.

If the leaves appear dried out, lifeless or impoverished in some way it is an indicator that there has been a problem with the production or storage of the tea.

Also, picking over the leaves, they should look plump, fertile, with an appearance of abundance. The tips should be delicate with distinct hairs on the leaves and a uniformity to the overall appearance. “

„tong; 筒 - Literally a barrel or barrel shaped object. A tong in Yunnan tea culture is a bundle of 7 tea cakes wrapped in the outer skin of bamboo which naturally sheds from around the base of the bamboo stem. Each cake weighs 357grams so making a total of 2,499 gm. Said by some to have been calculated in order to remain under a specific legislated weight of 2.5 kg. There were originally said to be 8 cakes in a tong. The 8th being paid as a levy. An earlier unit of weight in China was the liang. A cake of tea weighed 7 liang and 7 cakes in a tong made 49 liang. “