The aim of our tea trips is to give a deeper undersanding of the tea making process that is unique to Puer tea. And from this, a deeper appreciation that the method of cultivation and production significantly affect the final outcome. The tea.
Here are some photos from a pressing factory in Jinghong which makes cakes using traditional stone pressing methods. This is medium scale factory. Some are much smaller than this one. Some pressing factories sun dry the cakes when possible, others use a low temperature oven. In this factory the cakes are dried in an oven.
The tea, having already been sorted, is weighed - in this case- a little more than 357grams - and then place in the container for steaming. The tea is only steamed for a few seconds - enough to soften the tea - and then it is placed in a bag and formed into a round disc shape. This is then thrown to the next person who further works the bag of tea into a disc shape and then places it under the presing stone. It is left there for several minutes, then placed on a rack to cool before removing the bag.
Click here to see a map of Xishuangbanna Prefecture.
