Hello, I came across a pair of these doughnut-shaped Puer-tea bricks. How does one breakup these very solidly molded items so as to be able to produce actual drinkable tea? They look very pretty in their boxes!! Thhank yoou, Alain
I'm guessing you mean "tuo"-shaped pu'er; often referred to as bird nest shaped. You need to get a good pu'er knife, Mike often says he uses an oyster knife that works just as good, to break apart a small portion of the tea to prepare it for brewing.
I've heard many people say many different things about how to break the tea off. Some poeple turn the tuo upside down and push the knife into the hole in the middle and get the tea that way. Some people try to insert the tip of their pu'er knives into the side of the brick and move in a circular direction to get the tea that way. Still some people prefer to take from the ridge of the mouth of the tuo (circular motion) inside or outside. I prefer the latter; taken from the outside.
Whatever you do, be careful. If the tuo is too strong, you can injure yourself with the knife...and how would you explain that injury to your friends? I did it drinking tea?
heh.
Brick or tuo, I usually just take a paring knife (short blade, easy to control) and slip it into wherever the tea looks "weak" (not solidly stuck together) and flake bits of it off. The "1336th Anniversary of Thai Calendar" bricks come apart very easily when I attack them from the edge this way. For the cooked tuo I got from the nearby Asian market, I usually chip away at the "rim" of the "bowl".
Haven't tried a beeng yet, but I'd probably go at the edge, like I do the brick.
stePH
-- I'll brew another pot of ambiguity.
pliers. I say stay away from pushing knives into hard, brittle objects.
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