LaoChaTou

Lao Cha Tou is an uncommon type of puerh tea. The name literally translates as old tea head and refers to the aged nature and the shape of these nuggets. These are formed naturally during a step of ripe puerh tea making, known as wet piling or wo dui (渥堆) in Chinese. Wet piling involves heaping tea leaves in a hot and humid environment into large piles to achieve fermentation. In order for the leaves to ferment properly, the leaves from the bottom are moved to the top every few days. This movement of leaves as well as the hot and humid environment results in clumping together of leaves during the piling process. These clumps, or nuggets, are not used in the finished puerh tea so are sometimes sold separately as Old Tea Head puerh.

For this tea in particular, we suggest using a larger weight of tea than normal (about 1/3 more). You can also try to carefully break up the nuggets into smaller pieces to speed up the brewing and produce stronger flavour. This tea is forgiving when it comes to brewing so it can be steeped for longer and with boiling water for a fuller taste. This Lao Cha Tou puerh withstands many infusions and is of course best suited to gongfu brewing! Also boiling it for a while works well and gets out most of the taste.