The whole process of pressing Fuding white tea cake

Why is white tea pressed into a pancake shape?

Is pressing white tea cakes unnecessary? Of course not.

Previously, some people in the tea industry questioned that white tea and loose tea are made with pure and natural craftsmanship, original flavor, and abundant nutrients, while cake tea has an additional step of high-temperature steaming and pressing, which is not as good as loose tea.

Some people even directly pointed out that good tea is not pressed into cakes, and white tea that is willing to be pressed into cakes is just a waste. In fact, it’s not like that.
Loose tea and cake tea each have their own advantages.

After pressing the cake, some cells of white tea break through the wall, causing the cell fluid to overflow and adhere to the leaf surface, which can directly come into contact with the air.

Therefore, the fermentation of white tea cake is slightly faster than that of loose tea with intact cell walls. Specifically, it is characterized by a rich and mellow flavor, a strong and robust broth, and a high probability of producing fruity aromas. The jujube fragrance that everyone likes is one of the fruit aromas.

What are the advantages of making tea cakes from white tea?

In summary, there are the following advantages:
·More unique in taste, with a mellow and sweet aroma;
·It also has a honey fragrance such as jujube aroma that is different from loose tea;
·In the long river of future years, it will transform into a rich medicinal aroma;
·Through steaming, pressing, and pectin overflow, it is easier to show fruit aroma;
·Cake tea is easy to store, hygienic and safe, and has a low possibility of absorbing impurities;
·Convenient transportation to avoid too much loss;
·The round round beauty of the round moon cake tea symbolizes beauty;
·Mature technology and inspiring recommendations for pressing Pu erh tea cakes;
·The historical beauty and inheritance of traditional dragon and phoenix cakes can be traced back to the Tang and Song dynasties in Chinese history, when tea was the ultimate form;

Another benefit of white tea pressed cake is its convenient storage. White tea processed by withering and drying, with fluffy strips, requires sufficient storage space if you want to stock up on tea in large quantities.
Especially for white teas like Shoumei, which have distinct buds, leaves, and stems, most people choose to stock up on pancake tea.
After pressing the cake, the gap between the leaves decreases, making it more suitable for storage.
So, white tea pressed cake is not only not useless, but also has many benefits.
As for whether there will be a loss of intrinsic quality, it can be confidently told that as long as the tea leaves are originally rich in intrinsic quality and processed properly, white tea cakes will still have sufficient nutrients.

The process of pressing white tea cake

The pressing process of white tea is actually consistent with that of Pu erh tea, but there are slight differences. Each process has its own emphasis and years of exploration to explain the pressing process of white tea cake:

1. Awakening Tea

Any tea, like humans, requires a process of adapting to the surrounding environment. Moreover, some tea factories have separate storage areas for loose materials and cake pressing, which is even more necessary.
Pour loose tea into a large space, either on a cloth or sieve, and gently flip or let it stand before pressing. This is like warming up before doing anything, making it more relaxed.

2. Removing tea powder

During the storage and transportation of white tea, due to its extremely high dryness and low moisture content, it is prone to breakage and has a large amount of debris.
At this time, many tea factories and merchants may skip the step before pressing the cake, because although this step is small, it can save a lot of costs for tea merchants.
If a large amount of pressure is applied, the amount of tea powder produced will also be significant. Many unscrupulous tea merchants will save money, which will result in more tea powder in the cake, affecting its appearance and taste.
In the past, this situation may have been more common in old white tea cakes because there was not yet such a strict process of removing the tea leaves. This is a development experience and pain, which is understandable.

3. weighing methods

Place the loose white tea on the tea processing table and weigh it. The most common white tea cake currently is six taels, which is 300 grams, and requires 315 grams of raw materials. There will be losses during the pressing process.

4. steamed soft

Cover the weighed tea measuring tube with a cloth and place it on the steam engine to blow and soften the tea leaves.

5. packs of kneading

Steam the softened tea leaves, invert the measuring tube, and put the tea leaves into a kneaded cloth bag. This requires an experienced master to follow the trend, wrap one end of the cloth bag, then rotate both hands, gradually press and tighten the other end of the bag, and form a ball, which then becomes a smooth surface cake with beautiful shape and loose edges. This process is called ‘kneading’.

6. pressure type

Put the kneaded tea cake into the cake mold of the press machine, set the pressure, and press it into shape.
This process is a great test of the master’s experience. The pressure is tight, making it difficult to dry later and difficult to disassemble when drinking. If it gets loose, it will collapse and scatter in a few years, which is not conducive to later storage.
This process also resulted in the presence of black lumps and stripes in the heart of the white tea cake. Because the core of the cake is under the greatest pressure, it is not due to aging as some tea lovers claim, resulting in a black color.

7. stalls for tea leaves

Place the well formed cake on a water sieve, let it air dry, remove moisture and heat, and let it dry for a while.

8 Dry Tea Cake

Put the dried cakes into the drying room and dry them slowly at low temperature, but not for too long. During this period, people cannot leave casually and must keep an eye on them at all times. For example, if there is a power outage or a machine malfunction, it needs to be dealt with immediately to prevent the cake from getting stuck in the box and emitting a bad smell.
Drying too quickly or too slowly is not good, it is up to the master to flexibly control the weight and elasticity of the pressed cake.

Next, when the cookies reach the required moisture content, they should be left to stand, wrapped in cake paper, packed in a cake tube, sealed and converted.