When buying Pu'er Tea, should you choose loose tea or brick tea? Objectively speaking, both loose and brick teas have their advantages. Loose tea stored for two to three years, then pressed into bricks for sale, generally offers a faster improvement in taste and aging compared to contemporaneous brick teas. It eliminates the need to pry apart tea cakes, making it convenient and quick to use. Loose tea can be ideal as daily Drinking Tea.

For daily consumption and frequent hospitality uses, the convenience of loose tea becomes apparent. Daily drinking tea typically doesn't require exceptional quality, so there's no need to overly consider long-term transformation effects. Since it transforms quickly, you get to enjoy it sooner. Although the aroma and flavor may dissipate over time with loose tea, this effect is not significant within just a couple of years, while the acceleration of aging is quite noticeable. Therefore, it is recommended to consume loose tea within three years, or repress it into a cake; otherwise, the tea will become bland over time.

Tea can be divided into brick tea and loose tea based on whether it has been compressed.

Pu'er loose tea refers to sun-dried tea leaves that remain in their original loose state without being pressed into any shape.

Pu'er brick tea is made by steaming loose tea and then compressing it into a cake shape, which can also include other shapes like bricks, balls, and tuos.

Advantages of Pu'er Loose Tea:
1. Preserves original flavor well. Without undergoing high-temperature steaming, it retains a higher level of freshness and more of the original flavor of the tea leaves.
2. Easy to judge quality. The intact tea leaves are clearly visible, allowing one to assess the quality through appearance.
3. No need to pry apart tea; easy to take. Convenient and quick to use, it's easy to measure the amount needed, saving tea and making it suitable for everyday drinking.
4. Faster aging. The larger gaps between loose leaves allow them to come into full contact with air, accelerating oxidation.

Disadvantages:
1. Takes up more space and is inconvenient to store. Loose tea is fluffy, and compared to Compressed tea, the same weight of tea occupies a much larger volume and requires more space.
2. Aroma dissipates quickly. Full exposure to air accelerates not only aging but also the loss of tea aroma.
3. Shorter storage duration. This is due to the fast aging and rapid dissipation of aroma, which limits the storage time of loose tea compared to brick tea.

Advantages of Pu'er Brick Tea:
1. Easy to transport. From ancient times to the present, transporting loose tea would take up more space and result in greater losses during transit.
2. Saves space. Under the same weight, loose tea takes up much more area than brick tea, which, due to its smaller size, greatly reduces the storage space required for tea.
3. Aroma is less likely to dissipate. Compression prevents excessive or rapid oxidation, helping to retain the tea's aroma.
4. Favors later transformations. Compression reduces the surface area exposed to air, allowing microorganisms to better survive, leading to slow yet thorough aging. This characteristic ensures that the tea becomes more fragrant over time.
5. Uniform appearance. With a fixed shape, it is easier to package and commercialize.

Disadvantages:
1. Inconvenient to take; requires prying open. Before brewing, tools like tea needles or tea knives are needed to pry apart the tea.
2. Not as breathable as loose tea.

Based on the characteristics of loose and brick teas, here are my recommendations:
1. For daily drinking and those who prefer a refreshing taste, choose loose tea
For daily consumption, the ease of taking loose tea becomes evident. There's no need to overly consider long-term transformation effects; instead, enjoy it while the aroma and flavor are at their best. Loose tea retains its original flavor and is relatively fresher.

2. For long-term storage and those who prefer a richer taste, choose brick tea
High-quality tea is usually consumed less and stored more, often considering its collection value. The superior transformation potential of brick tea determines that good tea should be made into cakes. Brick tea offers a richer taste.

Ultimately, the choice is yours, based on your needs and the characteristics of both loose and brick teas.