Tea exchange, and exploring Liu Bao through a Malaysian friend

I tend to talk to random people online, often about tea, or sometimes other subjects.  One online contact--or friend; let's just go with that--is Malaysian, a very well-spoken individual who also loves tea.  He's the one that offered those well-developed thoughts on "gan," related to exploring hui gan in a post.


We will exchange teas.  The format he insisted on is that he gives me some tea as a gift, and I can return the favor with a second gift if I choose to.  Or that's per my own understanding, at least; I'm still sorting out the part about evening up the balance and sending some tea to him.  It's nice when online social interactions help restore your faith in humanity, not that I'm in a crisis related to that.  I'm an optimist, so I can't ever completely lose that faith, especially since I also retain it for the benefit of my children, but sometimes things can seem negative, related to all the bad news and killing.

Death has been a main theme this year; almost always a bad subject to be on.  As I write this initial draft it's the funeral day of the former Thai King, as beloved a human being as ever lived.  He died a year ago, so this ends a long mourning period, but if someone means a great deal to you the loss is never completely resolved, you just get on with accepting it.  Of course there was a public shooting in the US recently, but I won't get into all that.  We lost a cat this year too, to me a death in the family, not just any cat but the most personable cat I've ever met, who was very close to my daughter.  But the comments sections of most internet posts is really more what I was talking about related to negativity.




This really has to circle back to tea.  He sent a lot of Liu Bao (more than a pound of it, it seems), and also a sheng pu'er cake.  It's too much, but it will be nice to be able to drink a lot of that tea, and to be able to share some.  Two other tea exchanges are currently in the works, and with a lot of that tea parting with even 50 gram "samples" wouldn't change the overall amount.



He mentioned a source shop for the Liu Bao, and even though it probably wouldn't be helpful to anyone outside of Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) I'll mention one contact anyway, a Facebook page for the Kong Wooi Fong shop

Review

The tea smells nice, a bit earthy of course, but in a pleasant, complex, mineral intensive sense.  It doesn't have as much molasses sweetness as some shou tends to have but the scent is rich and clean.

After a rinse I went with a relatively longer infusion time than I expected to provide optimum results, to jump right into experiencing a strong version of the tea, versus a more typical easing in by way of an initial light infusion.  I guess that related as much as anything to curiosity.  Later I'll experiment with different water temperatures and brewing techniques.  My friend mentioned that he often uses "grandpa-style" brewing, as we now call one version in Western tea circles, leaving a relatively small amount of tea in water for an extended time to "brew out."

The tea is nice, interesting, and definitely complex.  It has a lot of the earthy mineral range I'd expected but there is a bit more of a certain kind of structure to this version that I didn't expect.  It's not as soft and limited across feel range as those other versions I've been trying.  One might initially think that's because this is younger, and those have had time to mellow, but two of the last versions I was drinking were from 2014 and 2015, not aged for a long time.  It will be hard to describe what that part of the feel is like, and the related taste.  It's sticking with mineral range not far off slate, as those did, so in essence tasting like a blackboard smells (chalkboard, if one would rather).  Of course that's only going to work as a partial description, and it's hard to assign a mouth-feel to a blackboard.

I expect that the tea would be better brewed a good bit lighter, and that it will transition to soften a little across another infusion or two, but it's still very nice as it is.  Someone would have to like an earthy range of tea to appreciate it, of course.  Beyond slate peat also comes to mind as a taste description.  I'll expand on that more as I keep trying it, but I'll also check in with his own description of the general range:


In many aspects, almost indistinguishable with Pou Lei, but distinct and different at so many levels...  The tea tasted like decaying dry wood or tree branches as its elementary characteristic, with layers. At certain times, it is like the smell of tree bark. On numerous occasions, it tasted like the oh-so familiar of biting the '叉燒' or 'Char Siu', thus the similarity with Pou Lei. However, this tea, it is the additional smell almost associated with the smoke emanating from the burning of the dry leaves and old tree.

Luk Bou also evoked the feeling of one surrounded by furniture made of '酸枝木' or 'Shuin Ji Muk'. Sometimes, it is like walking into a room with old books lining the shelves, not exactly moldy but dry with warmth and inviting, not the secondhand bookstores with a mixture of acerbic feel and unforgiving.

There is this intrinsic 'old-time' quality, an almost antiquated attribute about Luk Bou, not found in Pou Lei. These are the layers of characters, making Luk Bou lavish in its character, but a constant not 'in-your-face' taste that neither scream for one's attention nor being intrusive, when drinking this tea, of which I believe the uniqueness of Luk Bou. Also, the fact that I am partial to Luk Bou.


That probably works as a full review, really, but I'll keep going anyway.  He's using the Cantonese term for Liu Bao instead, Luk Bok, if I've got that right.  I didn't mention that he's at the opposite extreme related to English language use than I'm accustomed to living in a foreign country, a couple of levels above simply being fluent, but then quoting him in that hui gan related post had already conveyed that.

brewing in a gaiwan; not as black as I expected

The next infusion, a shorter one, is softer.  The first one wasn't musty or "off" in aspect range but this one is a bit cleaner (possibly due to just being brewed lighter).  It's funny how old books and furniture really can describe a clean, positive taste, and I'm even relating to the barbecued pork description (the char sui).

Maybe more than the burning of dry leaves I'm reminded of the smell of a pile of autumn leaves, a very familiar smell from my childhood, being from a very wooded area in Pennsylvania, a name which itself means "Penn's woods."  We would pile up those leaves and jump in them, or stuff clothing with them to make a type of scarecrow, for no real purpose other than to play.  Those were simpler times.  There is really a range of scents that autumn leaves can express, related to different trees dropping them, to moisture level, and the scent varying for being in the deep woods or in an open yard, but I don't intend to try and narrow that down related to this tea.

autumn leaves in Pennsylvania (photo credit)

The flavor transitions a little the next round but it's not that different.  That feel aspect I mentioned falls into a really nice balance, fitting in well with the rest of the effect.  It was a little strong initially to integrate well, probably as much from going a bit far with infusion strength as from transition.  The aftertaste is a different aspect but the two seem to pair together, to overlap, so that you are tasting the tea and feeling it after swallowing it, in equal measure.  It's not the same as the experience that other local friend described as being "hui gan" in that Yiwu sheng tasting, when plain water tasted after drinking that one tea seemed very sweet, but I tried the same practice of drinking water after, to see how the effect changed that experience.  The water didn't have the same intense taste as it had then but the effect definitely continued and became a part of tasting that water too.


Those same aspects shift a bit in relative balance across other infusions but the tea doesn't really change.  Some teas do transition a lot across infusions and some don't.  For some that do it's about the best aspects fading out in the early rounds, but in some cases teas just express an interesting range of character that keeps changing.  This just softens, and slightly sharper mineral tones give way to warmer earthy range.  I suppose in a sense it comes across more like coffee, after the first 7 or 8 infusions (prepared Gongfu style).  It seems like one wouldn't miss that much for preparing it Western or "grandpa" style, and sometimes that can work out in positive ways that you don't expect, it can somehow be even better, for stacking up more of the aspects range in one go.  I'll check on that.

brewed leaves; not entirely blackened by fermentation and age transition

It goes without saying that this tea experience wouldn't be for everyone.  I like it, and I think a lot of people could relate to it, especially in a version like this one.  It is probably the best version I've tried yet, or at least on par with the other favorite of the set of three I've tried.  It's possible I like it better because I'm more used to the type, since I've been drinking it, and because the tea means more to me as a gift, so I'm biased in judgement.


I'll have to check the age on this tea, to see if that's a factor.  It didn't seem as black in color as the others, or as fermented, related to that and overall effect.  It could be younger, or both factors could work together, I guess, and it could have been fermented less.  I don't get the impression this is even supposed to be "great Liu Bao," if that's even how that tends to work, just a nice version that's typical of the type.  I've already tried the sheng too, and like that as well, even though it also seems to be a pleasant version of a modest "everyday drinker" type of tea.  But all of that is another story.