Our Wild-Grown Liubao is a large leaf hei cha made deep in the revered and remote Yunnan tea mountains of Wuzhou County, in Guanxi Province.
Liubao is an old-style tea – an example of the historic border tea that was sent from ‘interior’ China to nomadic people living in the border lands located north and west of China. We love its straightforward, earnest style and appearance.
Liubao is a simple, easy-to-like, tasty tea with light oxidation and, in this manufacture, a very light fermentation. This tea shows how its change from the effects of age have been significant – it is now truly mature and delicious, though it may still continue to soften and cohere with even more time. It is a good example of how our 2014 manufacture will develop. The trick is to not let it get too cold nor keep it airtight (wine cellar conditions are perfect)
Once the tea is made, loose-leaf Liubao is packed into 45-kilo bamboo baskets (that is 99 lbs – huge!) for storage and aging, but is then later packed into smaller baskets of about 1.5 kilos of tea for retail sale. The baskets allow the tea to continue to develop and improve as air-exchange / breathing is essential for the tea to age. Our 2002 Liubao was packed in 500 gram baskets about ten years ago, because that is often the size that is purchased at retail in China.
WE ARE SELLING THIS TEA IN OUR USUAL SIZES, NOT IN THE 1.1 LB ORIGINAL PACK BASKET
Liubao is classified as dark tea, and is comprised of large leaf and many twigs. Despite its rough and tumble appearance, Liubao is known for its light mouth-feel, and a rich, earthy, satisfying flavor. The tea liquor is clean and bright, and the taste is well-balanced.
This Liubao was manufactured in 2010 and released for sale in 2013. It is the strongest tasting, earthiest, and generally most mature of our loose-leaf Hei Cha. It has a slight forest-floor aroma in the dry and wet leaf but that character is not off-putting, and does not come through in the taste of the tea liquor.
Despite the shorter fermentation time in the tea factory that Hei Cha receives versus that of shou Pu-erh, this tea is reminiscent of nice, aged shou Pu-erh, and is bolder in flavor and style than many other Hei Cha we have tasted.
This tea is a great value for tasty, everyday tea drinking. We also think this would be perfect to accompany spicy food. It has been stored carefully in dry storage and will provide many cups of good quality Liubao. We feel that it has aged very well and is a superb example of its style.
Think of it as comfort tea for the cold winter months and the damp wet spring weather that follows, as well as refreshing most anytime a hearty tea is appropriate.
Loose-leaf Liubao is similar to the Liubao bricks and beeng cha discs that we sell but offers the convenience of loose-leaf tea.
Want to know more?
New Tea, Rested Tea & Aged Tea