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Tea China version right, in all photos (both are so dark, right?) |
I'm reviewing a Tea China Liu Bao tea, from a set that I've already tried a 7542 from (Dayi sheng pu'er). Of course the 7542 was pretty much what I expected, except for it seeming to pick up a bit of smoke somehow. I should add that this tea was a sample sent for review; many thanks for that.
This version I'm using for comparison, from Legend of Tea, I've reviewed before, a "Hilltown Tea" producer version, reviewed here. It's quite good, so this isn't supposed to be an easy challenge, for the other to compare well to it. There are other Liu Bao versions in the Legend of Tea set I haven't got to yet; I've fallen a bit behind in reviews.
The earlier Tea China information was a little limited, but then for it being Dayi 7542 it didn't need that much introduction. This is what this tea is:
2022,GuYun01 Aroma Aged Liubao Tea
This sells for around $20 for 100 grams, or $30 for 200 grams. It seems better to bump volume, given that discount rate. 20 cents a gram is a bit for Liu Bao (with pricing always varying along with quality and availability), and 15 cents a gram naturally sounds better. Their description:
This aged aroma Liubao Tea GuYun01 is an exclusive product of Teayucafe Teachina, is steeped in heritage. Hailing from the very birthplace of Liubao dark tea, this 2022 vintage has been aged gracefully for 3 years to develop its remarkable character. Has enormous potential for aging
Taste Profile
It boasts a rich, earthy aroma that is characteristic of well-aged Liubao tea. The infusion presents a deep, reddish-brown hue, reflecting its quality. On the palate, it offers a smooth, mellow taste that lingers, embodying the classic “red, thick, aged, mellow” traits.
I'll add a spoiler here and mention that it's a more pre-fermented version of Liu Bao. That can be a very good thing, depending on results, but I suppose personal preference always factors in. To me, related to my own preference, young, harsher Liu Bao is generally not so nice, and it takes 10 to 15 years for versions that are more "raw," more matching sheng pu'er in that vaguely related divide, to mellow out and soften.
This is Legend of Tea information:
Chun Xiang 031 Liu Bao 10G | 100G | 250G | 1KG ($65 for 250 grams, available as a 10 gram sample for $4.16)
Lovingly matured for 19 years, this tea has mellowed out with a rich and velvety profile. A true testament of its age, its tea liquor is bold deep red accompanied with an enchanting aged aroma upon steeping. The taste is a harmonious blend of smoothness and depth, leaving a satisfying aftertaste. Over time, the tea's character intensifies, becoming even more full-bodied and mellowly sweet, making it a prized addition to any tea collection.
That's 26 cents a gram, but again it's a different kind of thing. It's actually from 2004, now 21 years old. It's problematic for vendors to cite age like that in their descriptions because they'd need to go back and edit that page every year to keep it accurate. Not a big deal though. It may not be that we can call this completely fermented, or fully fermentation transitioned, but 21 years is a good start on that.
Review:
Legend of Tea 1 (a rinse, really; I'll taste it, write notes, and discard most): definitely in Liu Bao range, heavy on that one set of minerals, a touch of pine, and medicinal herbs. It's good. It might "clean up a little" over the next round or two; it's not really musty, but there's a less clean sort of range sort of adjoining the mineral tone. Mineral is like slate, I guess, or alternatively and less positively you could describe it as like cement block or still-curing cement. It's fine though, not bad, not negative at all.
Tea China version: interesting! Flavors are less intense, but there's a depth to this. I thought that it would probably not stand up well in comparison, and that may still be the result, but so far so good, even though flavor is less intense. Tones are warmer. This is probably more pre-fermented? Or it could be older; the other I think is a 2011 version, which I'll confirm by checking the Chinese language packaging image later. It's presented in a small box, which does list Hilltown Tea Company, Liu Bao Tea, and a packing date of December 2024, but that's not the tea production date. [later edit: I was remembering the wrong date, from having looked up a version that it turned out not to be during that first review; it's from 2004].
I think this is the shou / shu pu'er equivalent for Liu Bao tea, which is fine. I could be clearer on how close the processing steps are to sheng for the less pre-fermented Liu Bao versions. It's definitely not the same, but it's a gap in what I've researched before. Or actually I have read a bit on it, but not everything sticks in my mind now. I skimmed through a good reference in an older Global Tea Hut magazine, which I should have already mentioned elsewhere, but that I can link to again here.
That December 2017 Global Tea Hut issue is here; I really need to read through that.
Legend of Tea #2: I'm brewing these fast because I'm using a really high proportion, brewing the entire 7 or 8 grams both vendors sent as samples. Using half as much would be fine for Liu Bao, stretching out times a little. Or maybe better.
The picture for these I used as the initial image, and it's really dark, even though these brewed for not much longer than 10 seconds. Later it turned out that this Legend of Tea version really is from 2004, so it aged a good bit to darken brewed liquid appearance, and the Tea China version really is more pre-fermented, more "ripe." The Legend of Tea vendor is based in Malaysia; that could be a huge factor. Teas ferment much, much faster here in Bangkok than when stored pretty much anywhere in Yunnan, and Malaysian climate is pretty close to here.
That distinctive set of flavors is pronounced in this, in a well-balanced and pleasant form. This is Google AI's description of that list, which I'm forgetting part of:
Traditional Liu Bao tea flavors include the distinctive betel nut aroma, along with woody, medicinal, honey, jujube, fungal, ginseng, and pine smoke aromas. The unique "golden flower" (a healthy mold) can also contribute a sweeter taste and is considered a sign of quality.
I'm not so sure about the golden flower part; that seems to come up more in other hei cha. Betel nut was what I was forgetting; that's hard to place because I've never tried it. Maybe I have some limited idea of what that's about from trying teas described in that way, or maybe not. Jujube is quite familiar; that's Chinese date, usually referenced as the dried version. It's great. That's a part of my favorite Chinese originated desert here, a mix of dried fruit and beans with ground ice and longan juice. Candied lotus is especially pleasant in that, and the beans are better than they sound.
Pine is definitely present, and mineral herb, which I guess could be in the ginseng range (that's familiar, but I've not had the brewed root version for quite awhile). Wood, I'm not sure. Mineral one could go on about, trying to narrow down. It's not completely different than the warm, odd flavor of golden flowers, one part, which includes a yeast sort of flavor, and other range.
Legend of Tea: this tastes a lot like shou / shu pu'er. I'd guess that it's Liu Bao, tasting it blind, so not exactly like that, but much closer than the other. The whole list I've just described for the other one might identify as secondary supporting elements, so it's complex. But that distinctive warm and rich tone of shou is present, and earthier sort of range, like peat, or dark wood. This is fairly clean, balanced, and complex, better than I thought it might be.
Lots of Liu Bao versions are edgy, heavy in mineral, a little too far into cement range. The complexity can be limited, and a mustiness can enter in. These warm tones are only present in more fermented versions, which I think can relate to pre-fermentation. Even though the other is from 2011, probably, that warmth hasn't developed to that level yet, and maybe it never will [later edit: it's from 2004; being 21 years old it seems even more likely that the tones will only ever become so "warm."]
Legend of Tea #3: not transitioning too much, but then I'm using fairly fast infusion times for these, just a 10 second or so brew. It's probably brewing more within the still damp leaves between rounds than during that 10 seconds, and it's just long enough to get the somewhat dissolved solids to extract out.
What to add? This is clean, complex, well-balanced, and it has good depth. Sweetness is fine; it's not really a sweet type of tea, but there's enough for it to balance. The flavors list is right, in a type-typical range. Feel is rich, and it expresses some aftertaste. It's clearly pretty good.
It's hard for me to put Liu Bao on a scale, as I could with some other types, but I've kept trying it over the last decade. I've drank about a kilogram of it in that time, probably, even though it's not really a personal favorite. It's a great tea to have with food, and sometimes you just feel like certain experiences. And a friend passed on a lot of it, a Malaysian pen-pal friend I've mentioned lots of times here. I should check in with him again.
Tea China: this does transition a little; that dried fruit note is coming out, as close as anything to jujube (dried Chinese date). I'm surprised that this essentially holds its own with the other version. I didn't lack faith in Tea China's sourcing, it's more that Liu Bao is often not this good. It's standard to run across harsh-edged, less fermented versions, that are fine after 15 years of settling. Unless I'm way off, which could happen, this has been pre-fermented, so it wouldn't need nearly that long to shine. But if Liu Bao is like shou then it would need 2 or 3 years for the funkier range flavors from fermentation to settle back out, a range that can vary a lot (peat, petroleum, etc.).
I tried a standard brick version of a factory shou once that tasted unusually strong of petroleum, thinking that it was ok, but not the best experience, and then a couple of years later that dropped out, and it was creamy, rich, complex, expressing flavors across a different earthy and warm range. Then that vendor had went out of business, a Tae Tea / Dayi outlet, selling some other range, so I couldn't buy more. I don't think that was Dayi or CNNP (Tae Tea or Zhong Cha); another producer instead.
It's hard to judge if this completely different range is better or worse. It's just different; I think that kind of subjective interpretation would relate to preference. Quality is pretty good for both. The first definitely matches what one might expect of Liu Bao better, but a shou pu'er drinker would probably love the second more. It's not as if there is no pine, related mineral edge, and medicinal herb in this, it's just focused more on warmer range, now into dried fruit.
This has been a lot of tea to drink. I threw out half the first round, treating it as a rinse, but still 5 cups of relatively intense Liu Bao is a lot. I broke form and ate a relatively neutral pastry along with these, which I think is a natural fit for Liu Bao, to have it with food. Anything with strong flavor will throw off a tasting, but it can definitely help your stomach to either eat first or along with the tea. I'm rushing reviewing now, trying to "catch up" a bit.
Completely another tangent, I just started eating (or drinking) the infused goji berry I have every morning, another part of that Chinese dessert I mentioned. It would be a natural segue way to say that one of these teas tastes like this, but the second really is closer to Chinese date (jujube). So why mention these berries? There's a chance that I'm typing this out not wearing reading glasses, which I don't need or use, because of the dietary input of zeaxanthin and beta carotene from those berries, in part (since I'm pretty far into middle age now). Lutein is also associate with eye health, but then I already eat a lot of leafy green vegetables, which is normal in Thailand.
Conclusions:
Most of it is already in the notes. It's interesting that the comparison version is that much older than I thought, 21 years old now. This Tea China version is 3; it might settle and improve more over the next 2 or 3 or so, but I wouldn't expect it to change that much in the decade after that. That's just a guess though, and I've not drank that much "ripe" style Liu Bao for it to be a good guess.
It might seem like as a sheng pu'er drinker I would strongly prefer the first, from Legend of Tea, for being closer to that in theme, if not aspects and style. I might have liked it a little more, but it was pretty close, for me. I just don't love Liu Bao enough for that type-typical, somewhat aged range to really stand out to me. It's good; that seems clear. I can appreciate it. But I'm more on a young or moderately aged sheng pu'er page just now for main preference. That's a complicated subject, and it makes it sound like I'd prefer 10 year old sheng, which of course is not true at all, related to a very different set of transition patterns applying to sheng pu'er.
I tend to emphasize value, in some posts, and then let it mostly drop in others. These two seem to be priced fairly, for what the teas are. The other being older, and a "raw" type version seems to probably relate to a natural higher selling point. It's not so easy to find good "ripe" Liu Bao versions, per what I've experienced (which of course is a bit random), but unaged teas tend to sell for less, given the opportunity and storage costs of keeping a tea around for 21 years.
This comparison worked out better than I'd hoped. I was just worried the Tea China version might not compare well, because the other version is pretty far up the scale for Liu Bao experiences I've had, but it turned out to be different in style, and also quite pleasant.
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