Yunnan Pu'er tea is a major characteristic product of Yunnan, beloved by many. Besides its taste and health benefits, Pu'er tea has another distinctive feature - almost every cake is 357 grams. Why is Pu'er tea cake 357 grams? Many people don't fully understand the origin of this 357-gram standard for Yunnan Pu'er tea cakes. If you're completely unfamiliar or only partially aware, read Taya Pu'er's explanation. The 357-gram weight applies specifically to cake tea, while loose Pu'er tea, tuo tea, and small cake teas have different weights.

Historically, Pu'er tea flourished two thousand years ago among ancient people and peaked during the Qing Dynasty among royalty. Pu'er tea cakes, also known as Seven Sons tea cakes, each weigh 357 grams. The reason why Pu'er tea cakes are 357 grams dates back to ancient times:

In ancient border trade, to reduce disputes over weights and measures, the government implemented mandatory standardization measures aimed at facilitating statistics, taxation, and transactions. For example, ancient round tea (Seven Sons cake) weighed 7 taels per cake, seven cakes made one tong weighing 49 taels (16 taels equaled one jin, 49 taels equaled 3.06 jin at that time); 32 tong made one yin (weighing 98 jin), close to 100 jin. After the founding of the People's Republic, the weight of seven sons cakes was set at 357 grams, making the weight per tong and per basket closer to whole numbers: "one tong weighs 7 pieces × 357 grams/piece ≈ 2.5 kg; one basket weighs 12 tong × 2.499 kg/tong = 29.988 kg ≈ 30 kg." This way, originally fragmented numbers became integers when summed up, facilitating the inventory and sales management for Pu'er tea manufacturers.