Do you prefer tight pressed or loose pressed Pu'er cakes?

In raw puerh I generally prefer pressed puerh cakes. With ripe I sometimes want loose. If I am in a hurry in the morning I sometimes brew loose ripe puerh in the western style. I never brew raw puerh when I’m in a hurry so I generally prefer cakes of raw. Also, I think cakes are better for aging but am not really sure.

When you buy something to be a daily drinker and want to shred up 100g of it at a time to put in a jar, it’s nice to have one that just sort of falls apart when you put the pick into it, which is what I’m finding with the one I recently got.

I most certainly prefer loose compression. It’s easier to break apart while keeping the leaves intact and breaks up better when steeping. I hate having to snap off a chunk of a tight pressed cake knowing I’m breaking many leaves in half, then I have to wait until the 7th steeping before the chunk will actually open up in the tea pot… so annoying. So, put me down for loose compression.

I prefer loose compression because it keeps the leaves intact more. Heavy compression is supposedly better for long term aging but I lack the patience for that :P

I prefer loose. Tight opens up quicker. It also leaves the leaves in one piece, as Nicole was saying. And at the moment, my neck and shoulders are injured, so the tight ones are a little painful to break up!

I think loose is better for storage in drier climates so the humidity can get in. The tight shapes are great for more muggy areas of the world.

This is awesome, thank you all for the input. We have done loose always, and thought about trying a production with real tight pressing for a change, but we will not now that you all have shared your preferences.

Thank you