How to Brew a Raw (Sheng) Teacake
Sheng Pu’er is made by taking single batches or blends of saiqing maocha (could be different vintages or different regions blended or a single-origin), weighing the tea leaf and putting the tea leaf into a cloth, steaming the leaf bundle, then compressing the tea leaves to form a cake, brick, mushroom, pumpkin, or a multitude of other forms. The compressed tea is then dried in a sauna-like room. The steaming and re-drying process serves to re-activate the enzymatic activity within the leaf. This is possible because the tea was dried in the sun during the shaiqing process. The sun-drying is what kept the enzymes intact for re-activation. The result is that sheng pu’er tea can age by means of post-oxidation. Meaning, the enzymatic activity in the compressed form allows the tea to slowly oxidize.
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