Puerh teas are easy to prepare. As a general rule of thumb the water should be boiling. Use the first infusion just to rinse the tea and then pour the liquor over the other utensils, such as the cups/pot or gaiwan, to warm them.
A good Puerh tea to start with is a small Puerh Xiao Tuo (the tiny cakes wrapped in white paper) as these are a perfect one-serving size.
Remove the paper and place the mini cake in your chosen tea pot/gaiwan.
If using a large (200 gram or 357 gram) cake, you need to carefully break some of the tea off using a knife before placing the piece in your teapot or brewing vessel.
Judging the weight will mean either using scales to weigh out the tea (5 - 8 grams) or judging it by eye!
The best way to break tea pieces away from your Puerh tea cake is to insert the knife from the side of the cake and lever it upwards. The aim is to separate the leaves from the cake as whole as possible.
For newcomers to Puerh tea, we recommend letting the tea infuse for around 1 to 2 minutes to start with.
It is important that you drain off all the liquor for each infusion to prevent the next infusion becoming stewed or too strong.
All Puerh teas are very good for multiple infusions, subject to your personal preference; they can be infused up to 10 times.
More details about preparing Puerh tea can be found in our Tea Brewing Guide.