Ten Lei Yen's 3.78 g, 18.9 g and 37.8 g cordyceps packs are not arbitrary metric roundings — they are exact fractions of the tael, the traditional Chinese weight unit long used for dried goods, gold, and precious ingredients. A tael runs about 37.8 grams, so 18.9 g is exactly half a tael and 3.78 g is exactly a tenth of one.
- A tael is a traditional Chinese unit of weight equal to roughly 37.8 grams.
- 18.9 g = half a tael; 3.78 g = one-tenth of a tael.
- The same tael system has long been used to weigh bird's nest, gold, and other dried goods, not just cordyceps.
- Each pack size fits a different cooking pattern, from a single trial cup to a full family gathering.
- Ten Lei Yen sizes packs to the tael by heritage, not to a rounder metric number.
What a Tael Actually Is
The tael, called liang in Chinese, is a traditional unit of weight that predates the metric system in East Asian trade and has been used for centuries to weigh silver, gold, spices, and dried culinary goods. Its exact value has varied slightly by era and region, but the commonly used figure across Hong Kong and much of the overseas Chinese trade is about 37.8 grams (37.799 g to be precise). That figure is where Ten Lei Yen's largest cordyceps pack comes from directly.
How the Three Pack Sizes Map to the Tael
Once you know the base unit, the math on Ten Lei Yen's cordyceps packs is straightforward. The 37.8 g pack is one full tael. The 18.9 g pack is exactly half of that, a half-tael. The 3.78 g pack is exactly a tenth of a tael — a small, traditional fraction rather than a rounded gram figure like 4 g or 5 g. None of the three sizes were chosen to hit a clean metric number; all three were chosen to hit a clean traditional one.
Which Pack Suits Which Cooking Pattern
The 3.78 g pack suits a single trial cup or one light double-boil for one person — enough to judge aroma and texture before committing to a larger amount. The 18.9 g half-tael suits a small household cooking across a few sittings, or one modest pot shared between two or three people. The full 37.8 g tael suits a larger double-boil meant for a gathering, a multi-generation table, or stocking a kitchen for several cooks over time without needing to reorder.
Why Tael-Based Sizing, Not Round Metric Numbers
Dried, precious goods in Chinese culinary and trade tradition have been weighed in taels for generations, and cordyceps sits squarely in that category alongside bird's nest, ginseng, and other high-value dried ingredients. Sizing packs to the tael keeps that heritage intact and makes the pricing easy to scale in a buyer's head: a half-tael pack costs roughly half of a full tael, gram for gram. Bird's nest at Ten Lei Yen follows the same logic — see our companion piece on what a tael is and how bird's nest has always been weighed for how the same unit applies there.
Alina @ TLY
Related reading: What Is a Tael? How Bird's Nest Has Always Been Weighed, Why Wild Cordyceps Is Sold in 4 g and 8 g Packs, and How Wild Cordyceps Is Graded. Browse cultivated cordyceps.
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