Comparing Liu Bao, one a 2013 version from Liquid Proust

2017 comparison version left, Liquid Proust 2013 sample right

I only have one more sample of tea I plan to review from that earlier Liquid Proust introductory set after this one (an LBZ sample; that could be interesting).  I've ran through the background before on that but I'll include a short version here.

That set / group buy was really designed to introduce people to sheng who aren't familiar with it.  So not intended for me, basically.  I was taking part in the role of a journalist, to help get the word out, and of course I was curious to try the teas.  I've since ordered and received a "Sheng Olympiad" version of a set, which I'll get to next (with background on what that is here).  It didn't sell out right away, that group buy, but I put in an order for it immediately when I saw a notice given how this other set worked out.

Andrew does all these group-buy or introductory sets more in the role of a tea evangelist than as a vendor making a profit.  They're funded by the limited profits from his other sales, per my understanding, and on the whole he's only roughly coming out even.  You have to admire that degree of dedication and idealism, or at least I certainly do.

The point for including Liu Bao along with that is obvious enough; it's not sheng but it fills in another fascinating and closely related look into the world of tea, bridged over from sheng into hei cha scope (so a closer relative to shu or ripe pu'er). 

Given that this is essentially a free sample--I had to talk him up in price to be sure to cover what the shipping would run--all of these teas have been good, and type-typical enough to serve the role, definitely within the range of different conventional styles.  Most were good aside from that concern; just plain good tea. 

"Good" means different things, and the sense I'm using it here relates to being a decent example of a style of tea that shows what that type is about.  I don't mean it as a reference to them being above-average examples that would seem a good value at a higher than average price point; what an experienced pu'er drinker would seek out after developing preferences.  Related to that more specific scale of expectations they're not above average.  Some additional context might help here.

When people ask how others are able to drink sheng when all they try is awful that seems to be a reference to two different causes.  One is that they're not adjusted to the range; even light or moderate bitterness can be hard to appreciate at first, just as people don't always love coffee or beer at first, but later they can come to like it.  The other factor is that below average quality sheng pu'er can be very hard to appreciate or like.  Some aspects really do taste like kerosene, cardboard, or mushrooms, or some are musty from improper storage.  The teas in this set haven't suffered from those degrees of flaws, although unfamiliar taste range can come up with sheng.

A search function post list references other related tea reviews from that sample set.  We'll see where this one stands here.

I'm comparison reviewing it along with a Liu Bao version I've had around for awhile for a few reasons, but mainly because comparisons are what I'm into, and I had a related version I'm familiar with on hand.  Liu Bao character is clear from memory but tasting a second version along with it highlights minor differences and underlying attributes.

Review

Liquid Proust version right; leaf color difference is evident already

2017; a version from a friend in Kuala Lumpur:  this tastes like Liu Bao (or Luk Bok, per the Cantonese name, as my friend refers to it).  It's mineral intensive; it tastes a lot like a slate chalkboard smells.  That actually works; it's smooth and sweet, with decent balance for including so much of one flavor range.  From there one might identify different types of earthiness, like peat, or autumn forest floor, or aged tree bark, or maybe even a touch of charcoal.  It's a lot cleaner in effect than that would sound, and will probably come across even cleaner after a couple of rounds.  I don't expect this will transition a lot but the effect is pleasant for being on the simple side, and earthy in that one way.

I might add that I received and first reviewed this tea in October of 2017, so I'm assuming it may be from 2017, but that's not really a given.  It could easily be a 2016 version, or maybe even earlier.  It was from this KL shop, I think, and the original packaging probably made that clear.  The processing step takes considerable time, per my understanding, and Liu Bao probably isn't necessarily made from spring harvest tea, or maybe it typically isn't, so that timeline may mean this really has to be a 2016 version.  I don't know, and it's not really the point here, mapping out aging-related character difference.  That would only work if the teas were very similar in starting point, and the opposite seems true anyway, which I get around to saying more about along with the second infusion notes.


2013, the Liquid Proust sample:  this is completely different; interesting.  That other range is there, slate with some other earthy mineral, but this version also includes something like floral range, but an earthy version, that sweet character that old furniture can take on.  It's paired with an odd aspect that's not exactly mustiness but is along that line.  There seems a good chance this was stored in a relatively humid environment, based only on that as a factor.  But then it also seems a bit light in character; we'll see.

Aging seems to transition sheng pu'er even more because the starting point is different; it's easy to notice bright floral notes and intense bitterness and astringency shifting to other mellower, deeper toned range.  Liu Bao changes with age and it also mellows, but in a sense it starts out kind of mellow anyway.  I've not experienced the same type of relatively "off" fermentation effect shou pu'er can have, but I suppose that is still possible; the sample count of Liu Bao versions I've tried have been limited.  I've experienced it musty from being stored in too humid an environment and this isn't like that.  One other version took about a year to air out related to that.

This second tea is much better related to being more complex.  Since some of the aspect range isn't completely positive it's not clearly better as an overall experience this round, but I expect its flavor will "clean up" over the first few infusions.  This still seems characteristic of Liu Bao to me but it's unlike any I've tried so far.

Second infusion

again LP version right, comparison sample left (same in all photos)

2017 (comparison):  the flavors did clean up in this but there wasn't much shift to occur; they weren't really musty or muddled in any way initially.  This tea will just be what it is; earthy in a dark mineral tone intensive way.  It's nice though.  I'd expect that given another 5 years of so of age it would develop a mellow smoothness that it doesn't have now, although it's not edgy or difficult to relate to in any way.  It doesn't need age to shed any "off" pre-fermentation flavors.  It's a nice tea for this baseline comparison, to establish what that other style of version is like for direct comparison.

My friend offered it as a nice version of a basic daily drinking tea, and it works as that.  I find it very pleasant, and complex enough that it's not an overly simple experience, although it is a bit basic in character.  It would be great with foods of different types, a good compliment, which is usually how I drink tea.


2013 (LP):  this did transition more, although I expect that the next round will finish more of a move off that one odd set of initial flavors.  The earthy range (slate, dark mineral, touch of peat) and that floral / aromatic / sweet aged furniture range has been joined by a acetone-like aspect, a bit like a perfume base.  That somewhat floral aspect changed in character too, which I'll describe more next round, after a bit more transition, since it's still in the early stages of evolving.  That's all a good thing as transition direction goes.  It's a little cleaner and more positive in overall effect than it had been, still showing a nice complexity, a good range of aspects.

I hadn't mentioned that this older tea version is less fermented.  The aspects experienced would probably tell that story to someone familiar with this type but it seems obvious in the leaf color alone.  It's working backwards for me in this case, related to how tasting usually goes, with those aspects tying back to a known cause (apparent from the leaf color), not only indicating one.

It's interesting to consider that this second tea might have more aging potential going forward, even for being older.  The 2017 version represents aspects already transitioned by a pre-fermentation step that seems to have been carried further, which would be a positive or negative difference depending on how one takes the final effect.

All that works really well related to trying out how Liu Bao can vary.

Third infusion

2017:  this tea is nicer, cleaner and brighter.  The earthiness cleans up showing through a mild floral range, not exactly light in character but light in relation to the depth and intensity of the rest.  I think a lot of people might taste this tea and think I'm crazy to interpret that range as floral, since it still tastes a good bit like licking a slate chalkboard must, but there's a bright, sweet, complex higher note there to pick up too.

The friend who passed this on mentioned a typical range of flavors and effect description for Liu Bao / Luk Bok, which I'd have to cite to draw on much given my memory, but one part was how the charred sweetness can seem comparable to that found in Chinese roast pork (char sui, I think it is).  Thais like that dish too, so it's familiar, and I agree with him about that interpretation.


2013:  lots of transition in this round, and not all what I expected.  A tree-fungus aspect joined in, the flavor that ties directly to the smell of those large white crescent shaped versions.  So it's not really "cleaner" now, as I expected, more just different.  It still has good complexity, with floral tone still mixed in with the rest.  There is an awful lot going on in the experience, in every infusion version, and also tied to changes.  I don't like it more this round though.  It's still pleasant but not exactly improved by that shift. 

Fourth infusion

2017:  I could swear that the "char" effect has picked up a little in this round.  Really this tea isn't about going through a dramatic transition though; it's not far off where it had been in earlier rounds.


2013:  sweetness and what I'm interpreting as a perfume-like floral tone is more pronounced, with that tree-fungus range dropping back.  At a guess even slight shifts in brewed strength would shift how the aspects seem to balance with each other, so some of what I'm interpreting as transitions may just be that.

The feel seems to have a nice creaminess to it; it reminds me of how Guiness Stout feels, and some of that earthiness in that beer type matches too.  The rest of the range is quite different; it's earthier (and like fermented tea instead of dark beer), with sweetness that's perfume-like, and not so far off aged antique furniture range, something different.  With that degree of overall complexity to sort through I'm not going to get anywhere related to isolating which flower the floral range relates to, since I'm not great at that when tea flavors are a lot simpler.

Fifth infusion

2017:  I went really light on the next round, just a few-second infusion, to see how that shifted things.  This tea version is about the same, just lighter.  It works well this way but maybe best just slightly stronger, better at somewhere between a 5 and 10 second infusion, and still ok just beyond that.

2013:  this version works well lighter; the mushroom / fungus integrates better.  I'll try around 10 seconds next round and that will tell all of the story except later round transitions, which I'll skip taking notes on.  Both these teas would go a little long, I'd expect, maybe around 10 rounds.

Sixth infusion

2017:  this version is the best it has been; it's nice when transitions keep a tea improving like that.  It's not so different than before though, more that the floral / perfume like range is balancing better now, standing out a little more.  Char has dropped back but the rest of the dark mineral range is still a clean-flavored base context for both of those.  It's worth pointing out that this tea might be completely different and just as good brewed using Western or "grandpa style" approaches (longer, lower proportion timed infusions, or just leaving it in with the hot water to brew for quite awhile).

2013:  this has improved too; the fungus note drops back, into a better balance with all the rest (which I won't keep repeating as a list).  People might either love or hate this tea depending on how they relate to that one aspect, more so than the rest, or how it balances.  I've been through a lot with tea types and character range, never mind strange foreign foods, so it's fine for me.  I suppose the fungus component has transitioned, off that intense and unusual tree-fungus character more to a milder and sweeter wood-ear mushroom version.  The texture is a little odd for those but the taste is nice enough.

Conclusions

Six relatively fast infusions isn't the end for teas like this; they both had a ways to go, and I could've mapped out later round transitions.  But I did stop taking notes there, and of course I'm not going to describe slight variations based on memory later.  I'm posting this a good bit later, as things turned out; I took a week off work to use up remaining vacation, and had holiday days off for New Years, so I'm still converting tasting notes from then to posts.  I don't have much to add about this experience.

I can say this, that the other Liu Bao I've tried all seemed a bit simple in character related to this Liquid Proust version.  Some with more age on them had an interesting smoothness and depth but that version seemed a good bit more complex than they had tended to be (per memory, which is not completely reliable in my own case).  It seemed like a relatively more limited application of a pre-fermentation stage might've related to that, that allowing that process to run a bit further would've resulted in a more typical slate / earthy / peat / slight char character.  Then the tea would probably be more like the other comparison version.

Both teas were nice, both pleasant to experience, with the differences between the two also very interesting.