Malaysia Tea expo

I was at a Malaysia tea expo over the weekend. This time, the expo was held in Johor Bahru at a convention hall at Mid Valley shopping mall.  This was an attractive location as this expo was just across Singapore and I needed an hour to travel from home to the expo. 

This expo was a food and Chinese tea expo. The food offered was interesting as many of the food booths were operated by young Malaysians. The food offering was refreshing to see as well.  There was fancy coffee, instant congee and desserts to even organic blended juices. I applaud these younger entrepreneurs that were willing to chase their dreams when the economic outlook remained uncertain. 

Back to tea. The usual suspects were all present. Taetea, Xiaguan and Wuyi Star brands were all represented.  The surprise to me, was that Liu Bao tea was back in the limelight. Nearly every tea booth has liu bao tea.  I was simply spoilt for choice in selecting a liu bao.  

I enjoyed myself at this tea expo.  Xiaguan had a variety pack of six raw tuos for sale with an average age of 8 years  (I bought 2 sets).  I managed to lay my hands on a tong of old pu erh. The bunch of dried leaves and stems in that pix is yiwu raw pu erh carefully processed to keep the leaves and stems intact. The 2 classic boxes of liu bao tea made by China Tea would be fun to drink. The boxes were made five years apart and it should be fun to compare this tea. I completed my purchase by getting some Dayi tea and a few tins of Wuyi Star.  A small haul.  And one teapot.   I am happy. 

Breaking up is hard to do

 

Breaking up is hard to do. 

I am talking about pu erh tea. Pu erh tea drinkers will have pu erh tea in their collection which are extremely hard to break apart. The compression of the pu erh tea cake, brick, melon or tuo can be very high. Dangerous too as a slip of your tea knife or tea pick can hurt your fingers. Xiaguan brand tuos and some iron cakes are some examples. Same for Dayi especially those raw cakes produced around 2005-2006. 

I had suggested that using a plier might help in the breakup of your pu erh cake. It is easier to use a plier on cakes but for tuo, it's another adventure for your fingers. 

Once you have broken up your tea, let the tea rest and your tea would be ready to brew in a couple of weeks time. 

There is still another problem. 

Some of these smaller chunks of broken up tea remain as chunks in your teapot after a few infusions. This may mean that for your tea session, later infusions of the tea may result in a stronger tea. These tea chunks may only start to 'open up' after 6 infusions making your tea stronger in taste. There may be tea reviews on the internet that ignored this phenomena misinterpreting that the tea was still very strong or stronger in later infusions. 

I would recommend to look inside your teapot or gaiwan after 3-4 infusions. Try to pry open the tea chunks with a pick. This would, I believe help you have a more enjoyable tea session. 

This tea chunk issue only occurs in those  pu erh tea that have a high compression.  I hope this observation wlll help pu erh tea drinkers to make the necessary adjustments when they brew super compressed pu erh. 

I looked forward later this year to visit my close Malaysian tea buddy for a meal and a traditional tea exchange.  

My two cents worth.