Puerh tea balls and minis are compressed teas that can brew enough tea for a single session. Unlike puerh cakes or bing cha, they do not need to be pried loose or broken apart before steeping.
Tuo cha refers to tea, usually puerh tea, that is pressed into the shape of a bell, bowl or dome. Tuos come in all sizes including single-serving mini tuo cha. Larger tuo cha must be broken apart like tea cakes before making tea, but mini tuos can be brewed like puerh tea balls without using a tea knife or puerh pick tool.
How to Brew Puerh Tea Balls or Puerh Mini Tuo Cha in a Gaiwan or Teapot
Most vendors list the size of their puerh tea balls (sometimes called dragon balls) and mini tuo cha, which can help you decide what size gaiwan or teapot to use. A word of caution, these minis may appear small, but they expand a lot. Most western-style tea infusers won't have enough room for the leaves unless you break the ball or mini in half before steeping.
Because tea balls or minis are intended for a single tea session, you don't need to pry off leaves or measure out portions. The session starts with rinsing the tea ball to help the leaves expand.
Tea balls and other minis can be more stubborn to open up compared to full-sized pressed tea cakes. The solution is to use boiling water and don't be bashful. Submerge the mini for 10-60 seconds, watch it closely, discard the rinse water, then repeat if needed.
When you can no longer see air bubbles escaping and the ball or tuo cha is visibly expanding or the rinse water is getting darker, you can proceed to brewing.
The normal gongfu parameters apply - start with shorter steeps of about 1-10 seconds, increase or decrease next steep time according to taste, repeat until you've extracted all the tea goodness. You may find your initial steeps need to be longer depending on how fully the tea ball or mini tuo opened during the rinse.
What to Do with Oddball Sizes of Puerh Tea Balls or Mini Tuos
Tea balls and mini tuo cha come in various sizes like 4.5 grams, 10 grams or 12 grams. This is in contrast to our usual recommendation to use 6-7 grams of tea for a 100 ml gongfu session. You can break apart the tea balls to achieve the desired weight but you're likely to get lots of tea crumbs and dust instead of intact leaves.
Instead you can use your normal gongfu brewing vessel and either increase or decrease your steeping times - depending on whether you've got less or more leaf than usual.
We use math and numbers to talk about gongfu style brewing. These guidelines are helpful to dial in your experience as a beginner. Experience usually leads to a more intuitive understanding of how to best appreciate a tea. white2tea advises you to relax and break the tea rules when you have an odd-sized mini.
If there is a total mismatch in your brewing equipment (example: 12 gram tea ball, 80 ml gaiwan), grandpa style tea is a good alternative method. Grab a medium or large mug or cup and chuck the tea ball into it, rinse once with boiling water, discard the rinse, fill it up, let it steep, sip, refill as needed.