Steaming hard pressed puerh
Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2020 7:37 am
The method of steaming hard pressed tuochas, jinchas, bricks, cakes etc. to break them apart has been circulating around for a long time and has been a bit of a controversial topic. For example, TeaDB writes "... I would caution most inexperienced people to avoid this. Just live with some leaf breakage like the rest of us." While i agree with this advice, sometimes i don't follow even my own advice. So i thought i might share a bit of my experience.
First some remarks:
- Steaming pressed puerh to break it apart is not a reversal of the original steaming to press the leaves together, it's nothing like that: unless the pressing is light, in which case there is no reason to do this, it is very hard for the steam to penetrate inside.
- The goal is not to try to separate the leaves using steam. This could take several hours at the end of which the tea would likely be completely ruined.
- The goal is to moisturize the leaves a little bit to make them less brittle, perhaps even slightly pliable, so that less leaf breakage occurs when one tries to break the mass with a pick.
The tea: 2007 YQH Jincha - well known for its hardness, it would probably cost more if it were more lightly pressed in a cake.
Method:
- First i use a pick to carefully separate as much material as i can without too much breakage. The leaves near the surface run in layers parallel to the surface, and with some patience quite a lot of the material can be separated in nice chunks. I manage to get about half of the material this way. I stop when all i'm getting is just small broken bits.
- Now comes the steaming of the core. I bring some water in a pot to boil, turn off the heat and wait until the boiling stops. I don't want to scorch the leaves with boiling steam, nor do i want the tea to become dripping wet with condensation. I want a very slow gentle steam, more like what one would use to steam one's head to open sinuses. I leave the core in a strainer inside the covered pot for about 15-20mins. Then i proceed with the pick as before. The leaves are moisturized to maybe about 1cm deep an i manage to take of most of the material in nice layers (what looked like a complete mess reveals to still have a bit of layered structure). The dry bit that is left could be resteamed, but it is too small to bother so this time i just break it in half with a brute force.
- The dry chunk are placed in a mylar bag with a small boveda pack, and the steamed ones are dried overnight (the appartment is dry so it dries fast) and placed in another mylar bag with a small boveda.
Test:
Two months later i compare the dry and the steamed material. It's not a fair test since the outer layers and the core had different levels of compression and likely aged a bit differently. Also the teapots i use are not identical. Anyway, I'm not detecting any obvious difference (i have a slight impression the steamed material is a bit smoother, but not to the point to be meaningful). I will likely proceed to mix the two parts together.
How is the tea: It has a good thickness and leaves a strong lasting aftertaste at the back of the throat. The energy is pleasantly invigorating and feels very nice. It's not a high end stuff, but at $95 for 300g the Jincha beats easily most of its mid-grade competitors (such as 2013 XG Love Forever, or the 2001 Zhongcha Huangyin from TWL,... ), but this is of course a completely subjective valuation.
In the picture: the jincha, and the steamed chunks of tea from the core.
First some remarks:
- Steaming pressed puerh to break it apart is not a reversal of the original steaming to press the leaves together, it's nothing like that: unless the pressing is light, in which case there is no reason to do this, it is very hard for the steam to penetrate inside.
- The goal is not to try to separate the leaves using steam. This could take several hours at the end of which the tea would likely be completely ruined.
- The goal is to moisturize the leaves a little bit to make them less brittle, perhaps even slightly pliable, so that less leaf breakage occurs when one tries to break the mass with a pick.
The tea: 2007 YQH Jincha - well known for its hardness, it would probably cost more if it were more lightly pressed in a cake.
Method:
- First i use a pick to carefully separate as much material as i can without too much breakage. The leaves near the surface run in layers parallel to the surface, and with some patience quite a lot of the material can be separated in nice chunks. I manage to get about half of the material this way. I stop when all i'm getting is just small broken bits.
- Now comes the steaming of the core. I bring some water in a pot to boil, turn off the heat and wait until the boiling stops. I don't want to scorch the leaves with boiling steam, nor do i want the tea to become dripping wet with condensation. I want a very slow gentle steam, more like what one would use to steam one's head to open sinuses. I leave the core in a strainer inside the covered pot for about 15-20mins. Then i proceed with the pick as before. The leaves are moisturized to maybe about 1cm deep an i manage to take of most of the material in nice layers (what looked like a complete mess reveals to still have a bit of layered structure). The dry bit that is left could be resteamed, but it is too small to bother so this time i just break it in half with a brute force.
- The dry chunk are placed in a mylar bag with a small boveda pack, and the steamed ones are dried overnight (the appartment is dry so it dries fast) and placed in another mylar bag with a small boveda.
Test:
Two months later i compare the dry and the steamed material. It's not a fair test since the outer layers and the core had different levels of compression and likely aged a bit differently. Also the teapots i use are not identical. Anyway, I'm not detecting any obvious difference (i have a slight impression the steamed material is a bit smoother, but not to the point to be meaningful). I will likely proceed to mix the two parts together.
How is the tea: It has a good thickness and leaves a strong lasting aftertaste at the back of the throat. The energy is pleasantly invigorating and feels very nice. It's not a high end stuff, but at $95 for 300g the Jincha beats easily most of its mid-grade competitors (such as 2013 XG Love Forever, or the 2001 Zhongcha Huangyin from TWL,... ), but this is of course a completely subjective valuation.
In the picture: the jincha, and the steamed chunks of tea from the core.