Pu-erh iron cakes
Pu-erh iron cakes are hard compressed Pu-erh cakes and is a product of 70's. It is a relatively newer product - product of machinery manufacturing instead of the traditional stone compressing.
The concept iron cake is taking some time to be digested and accepted by Pu-erh drinkers, mainly due to the believe that their post-fermentation requires air, space and moisture. It is however now believed there are some advantages of being tightly compressed like iron cakes:
- the cakes are not affected by their environment as much as the normal cakes due to the lack of space between the leaves;
- the conversion of the cakes are slower due to the lack of air and moisture, they therefor retain many internal substances and subsequently the aroma better than the looser cake;
- They are particularly suitable for long term collection, especially in areas where it is hot and humid.
