Pu-erh tea cakes vs Pu-erh tea bricks

Differences between Pu-erh tea cakes and Pu-erh tea bricks

Apart from the most obvious – their shapes, there are a few other differences between a pu-erh cake and a pu-erh brick:

1. Ingredients: pu-erh tea cakes are made of full tea leaves; Pu-erh tea bricks use tea leaves, stems and sometimes even limited amount of tea powder.
2. There are various types of pu-erh tea bricks, such as: black pu-erh bricks, green pu-erh, engraved pu-erh bricks and pu-erh Fu bricks. The various pu-erh tea bricks use slightly different ingredients: different tea leaves in volume and variety, with or without stems, the amount of the stems ets. The common feature of all pu-erh tea bricks is that they are all ‘steam compressed’, which means they are all ‘steam cooked’ while being compressed into the bricks.
3. Different Pu-erh tea bricks have various flavours depending the source of the tea leaves, making skills, aging length etc. It is up to the consumers to try and pick the personal favourite. The bricks are generally speaking soft, smooth, with a special floral aroma from processing the tea leaves with the right skills.
4. The main focus of Pu-erh tea bricks is in their additional health benefits, especially the ones gone through a process called Fa-Hua. Fa-Hua process produces a special micro-organism called (Eurotium cristatum) or Jin-Hua (金花) in Chinese. The organism not only facilitates the natural post fermentation of the pu-erh teas, but also activates many enzymes in the tea leaves to convert certain natural ingredients into health beneficial compounds. As a result, Jin-Hua has become a subject of interest by many scientists in the world, especially in Japan and Korea, apart from China. Jin-Hua however grows only under certain specific conditions, Pu-erh tea Fu brick being a main one.
5. Pu-erh tea bricks are known to be more potent than others in reducing body fat deposit, lowering blood cholesterol levels, aid digestion and contain certain vitamins and essentials needed for good health.