The cork we are going to talk about today may not be known to many people at once, but if we talk about corks for red wine, maybe everyone can immediately understand what it is. Yes, in layman’s terms, cork is actually wood. But today we’re not just going to talk about this, we’re going to have a deep understanding of why there are more and more cork products.
Strictly speaking, cork is not wood, but the bark of an oak tree. Oak is a special tree species, if its bark is plucked regularly, it will not only die, but it will also grow new bark. Oak is one of the oldest surviving tree species in the world, dating back about 60 million years. The main component of cork, the cork fiber, is composed of dead cells, generally in the shape of a 14-sided polyhedron, and the spaces between the cells are filled with a gas mixture almost like air. The vast majority of each cell is also gas, mainly air without carbon dioxide. Under the microscope, cork contains 40 million cells per cubic centimeter, so when people walk on a cork floor, they are walking on 50% air.
