Cha Tou茶头 or ‘tea heads’ (or nuggets, lumps, etc.) is a well-known and readily available type of dark (shu)Pu’er in China, which occurs spontaneously as a result of pressure and heat on the bottoms of tea piles during the process of ‘wetting piles’ .
At the end of this post-fermentation process, the tea is sorted by size and quality. These spontaneous clusters of leaves from the lower parts of the piles, which are relatively larger and heavier than the rest, are then very easily sorted.
Most pu’er producers collect them in a targeted manner (sometimes several years in a row) and then sell them separately, in bulk or pressed form.
