Learning how to identify gu shu & make maocha - The Tea Urchin

„I had heard from other puer buyers that Ma Hei farmers now use pesticide & fertilizer to boost yields. But as we stood there critiquing this batch of Ma Hei tea, a large, multi coloured beetle crawled out of the leaf pile. “We call this guy the tea boss” Mr. Gao explained. “If he’s around, it’s a good sign!”“

„tong; 筒 - Literally a barrel or barrel shaped object. A tong in Yunnan tea culture is a bundle of 7 tea cakes wrapped in the outer skin of bamboo which naturally sheds from around the base of the bamboo stem. Each cake weighs 357grams so making a total of 2,499 gm. Said by some to have been calculated in order to remain under a specific legislated weight of 2.5 kg. There were originally said to be 8 cakes in a tong. The 8th being paid as a levy. An earlier unit of weight in China was the liang. A cake of tea weighed 7 liang and 7 cakes in a tong made 49 liang. “