What HeiCha are you drinking

Puerh and other heicha
slipshod
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Wed Jul 20, 2022 3:01 pm

debunix wrote:
Tue Jul 19, 2022 11:27 pm
Seeking flavor elements to describe it for thinking of another tea to compare it to?
no, rather trying to recall what type of tea it reminds me off. could be a mix between rougui and tianjian
slipshod
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Wed Jul 20, 2022 3:07 pm

wave_code wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 3:43 am
Trying to fight back against the heat this morning with some HK stored Liu an. Good tea for lazy slow brewing- comes out smooth and rich even with lighter water. 20 years has given it a nice typical ginseng and wood note and mellowed it out, though it still has some energy and a pleasant bitterness early on. Gets a good sweat going without being overpowering.

slipshod it's a nice tea for sure. I have only had one or two sessions with it so far so I'm kind of still figuring it out - maybe that will be my afternoon project today. I feel like its a tea that is at an interesting transition point- its clearly getting older, but still isn't quite there yet- you can tell it is late 90s rather than early 90s tea. Given another 10 years and I feel it would be super nice and mellow and wish it could see the storage it already was in for that time, but it is also still really nice for drinking now. The price point on it though is really nice and it gives a nice chance for us with less market access to be able to taste an aging liu bao to get a sense of when/how these teas really change from middle to older tea and what happens both in terms of flavor and feel. I've certainly paid more for far lower quality material with not nearly as nice storage.
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to me this is confusing. it is like my first heavily roasted oolongs with some very mild heicha. the only unusual liubao I had was 35035 from ys and I can see it was offered as part of sampler that is out of stock, I would wonder now how that one would age.
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teatray
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Fri Jul 22, 2022 8:15 am

Tried my first Liu Bao, 2005 Four Gold Coins Liu Bao via Essence of Tea, a few days ago. I have now sufficiently recovered to write about it :mrgreen:.

Dry smell was shocking but also intriguing (I eat weird aged cheeses and stuff, I only stop at natto beans). Soup smell in my gaiwan was off-putting and intense, so I rinsed three times. Taste was of red beets and intense musty storage, a mold bouquet that wasn't my thing at all. I've encountered beets in other heicha before (not a fan, even though I like the vegetable). I googled "liu bao beets" to check how typical it is. First result was @klepto's post on this forum, which I believe refers to the very same tea (he mentions it further up the thread)? If so, he also finds it very well balanced and sweet, however, with a relaxing energy. My mind, on the other hand, spent the rest of the day trying to forget that taste. It seems that part of the tea world is closed to me. Maybe I'll give it another try after a long while. Though I wonder how varied Liu Bao teas are, and if there is something completely different that I might like.
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wave_code
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Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:13 am

@teatray oh no - sorry to hear you found it so unpleasant. I love that tea, and assuming it is from the same batch and storage I found that one to be quite nice. But, the profile of that tea can be really intense compared even to other liu bao since its a heavy and humid Hong Kong recipe. On the whole it may not be your thing but don't give up yet, there is variation out there! Also if you have some clay pots try it out that way too - it might help round things out for you a bit.

I actually had some 80s Malaysia stored Four Gold Coins yesterday. It still has the overall character the younger versions do, but everything is mellowed and smoothed out quite a bit- you get more underlying sweetness and more of an aromatic wood character than petrichor and wet wood. A bit of pleasant smokiness but nothing overpowering. Nice clean and clear energy but nothing that knocks you upside the head. All in all a pleasant tea and one I'm glad to finally get to try, though I think for its age and price I was a bit underwhelmed. I'll revisit it soon see if maybe it strikes me more dramatically on a different day - after a week of high heat I don't know if my senses are totally in order. If I had to pick a favorite of all the ones I have tried though the batch I had from 1999 is my favorite.

If you want to try something a little more umm... subtle try out a couple Three Cranes teas, especially ones that have some decent years on them and haven't been in humid storage, or Duoteli's non-boxed teas . They tend to be lighter on the fermentation and on the cleaner side - not a hard fast rule but I find they usually are sweeter than a lot of CNNP teas tend to be too. For either one though if you want lighter fermentation then I'd also advise trying either their brick teas or those sold on to vendors still in bigger baskets - unless its higher grade material I find tinned and small box liu bao is usually focusing on higher fermentation levels.
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teatray
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Fri Jul 22, 2022 11:39 am

@wave_code Thanks for the suggestions! I'm thinking of giving 3 cranes a try. Do you think Yunnan Sourcing is a good source for these? They've been hit or miss for me (mainly miss), but probably that was just me being lost and unable to select for my tastes from their extensive catalogue. Their oldest 3 cranes are 2012 & 2011. The 2012 looked promising ("The wet storage conditions in Wuzhou have fast aged this tea, but at the same time the tea is not funky or moldy.") but it's out-of-stock. The 2011 was only brought to dry storage (Kunming) in 2020, so might be funkier, but I guess that's what I can easily try (2011 Three Cranes "15010" Liu Bao Tea from Guangxi).

I have some clay pots but.... I'm afraid of putting L.B. in them right now, hahah.
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wave_code
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Sat Jul 23, 2022 7:40 am

Their higher end liu bao can be alright, but it really isn't their specialty. and given what I can gather from your tastes you don't want stuff that spent a long time in Guangxi, or at least without considerable time elsewhere. probably not what you are after.
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teatray
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Sat Jul 23, 2022 8:21 am

@wave_code Thanks, much appreciated. I'll be on the lookout for some differently stored L.B. to give this tea another chance at some point.
slipshod
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Sat Aug 06, 2022 4:26 am

another accidental find. I started panicking a month ago about EU stocks going low and energy costs causing further disruption in September. so I placed order with dragon teahouse for t8663 to Belfast. nothing happened for a week. probably getting stock in. I chose 6 USD shipping and it took yanwen a week to delivery which is astonishing. of course, with Taiwan exports of tea on hold, lots of high end teas will go at knock down prices until mainland stocks are cleared. amazon opened warehouse in Ireland. I checked and 7452 comes from Taiwan. but to the meat of this post. I recalled Chen sheng hao opening in Canada. checked and "tea tracks" dutch company has nice selection. blog seems to be newish.
slipshod
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Wed Aug 24, 2022 8:50 pm

Quick note on Taiwan situation. Years ago, it took forever, in comparison to China, getting packages from Japan. Unless it is express courier thru rakuren. Reason, there is no preferential customs agreement with e.u. My immediate concern with Taiwan was, short term, good, high end tea unable to leave China for that high end market and will be available to mere mortals. Medium term, disruption. But it took a shipment from Taiwan to reach Ireland in two days. 48 hours, yes. Meaning there is green light. I was nearly expecting Europe to lift all duties/ customs but shorter transit time is a better deal to me. Not advertising anyone but the only seller came up on British amazon when looking for 7572 was "kingfa puerh monopoly". No reviews, shop only opened in June. Not sure about american storefront.
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klepto
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Tue Aug 30, 2022 3:35 pm

Had a very nice surprise while drinking some 1985 Liu Bao from @YeeOnTeaCo.

I had never tried LB that had been aged to this degree but it was well worth it to try it. I've had four gold coins LB, with others and had a good idea what too expect. The aged LB didn't have the bloody liquor that I've come to expect from LB, and the betal nut flavor had matured and instead of being very strong it was lightly sweet and comforting. The liquor was thick and went down with ease like oil. To be quite honest I really liked it and plan to get more of it. i tried their 1980's CNMP 7542 raw puerh and the qi was dynamic. It took and hour for it to slowly fade away. Thanks to Yee on Tea Co for allowing everyone to enjoy mature teas.

It was an eye opener!!
Andrew S
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Fri Sep 23, 2022 8:04 pm

It's a cool, breezy day here, with the occasional sprinkle of rain and a bright blue sky peeking through the clouds; perfect for enjoying my 'spider-infested' 70s liu an... A very potent old tea.

Andrew
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slipshod
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Wed Oct 05, 2022 7:10 am

“Three sips” have 2001 and 2005 liubaos and they kind of reminded me of 1815 brick and 2020 (2016) 200g golden flowers jar
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wave_code
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Thu Oct 06, 2022 3:58 pm

I've been sampling a lot of different teas over the last 6 months, and unfortunately hit a lot of duds along the way. Three really solid and great offerings I can recommend from all of that sampling though were the liu bao from @Teas We Like. I won't name names here, but almost all the western facing buyers I've had samples from particularly selling non-factory liu bao samples from have been either undrinkable or very low quality for their price point at best. Often I've run in to terribly dry storage, low quality and absolutely mangled pfannings of so called leaves, or outright gross tasting junk. while a lot of modern liu bao
factory productions can often be characterless steel vat fermented teas they are often at least drinkable given some time to sit around- stepping outside of that in to aged teas and traditional processing is much more difficult for those of us who don't have more local market access. Anyone looking to try some liu bao that either have some age and/or have more traditional/craft processing style would do well to check out what Teas We Like have on offer for actual solid examples of such teas to see how they should be.

Quick rough notes for these...
the 80s village liu bao is a nice example of an older big basket tea, showing that even what were very modest teas in their time of production can evolve in to something very nice with time. Very big chunky dried leaves with some smoke on the nose but no off-putting storage notes. when brewing in my green label pot it has a medium but nice body, starting off with a nice chestnut color. some pleasant smoke but also quite sweet in a soymilk type way. shu puerh like sweetness with a sheng type complexity and overtones - feels like there is something floral buried under the age and smoke. nice relaxing feeling. would be a very good choice for slow simmering or big pot brewing over sustained heat.

the 90s Malaysian commission immediately brought to mind another tea I've had a lot of which followed traditional double steam processing. initial pine and camphor/eucalyptus flavors and immediately brews up thick and dark almost with a bit of grit to it but with a smoother and more matured characteristic and longevity than the younger traditionally processed similar tea I had from Chanting Pines. as it lightens in later steeps the more intense notes fade revealing some woody incense like notes one finds in 803 and similar Heishi traditional processed teas.

2012 Rustic... smoke, pine, wood, camphor... medium fermentation and nice intact leaves and stems with a strong dry aroma. a very clean but lighter color liquor with notes of smoke but also sweetness. minty and cooling in the mouth with a touch of pleasant astringency. very pleasant and long lasting aftertaste. basically tastes to me like if Xiaguan made liu bao - in my book that is a win.
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friso
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Fri Oct 14, 2022 8:58 pm

wave_code wrote:
Thu Oct 06, 2022 3:58 pm
I've been sampling a lot of different teas over the last 6 months, and unfortunately hit a lot of duds along the way. Three really solid and great offerings I can recommend from all of that sampling though were the liu bao from Teas We Like. I won't name names here, but almost all the western facing buyers I've had samples from particularly selling non-factory liu bao samples from have been either undrinkable or very low quality for their price point at best.
Any opinion about threebearstea? When I heard there was a western, liu bao specialist vendor, it really made me curious (of course). I'm thinking about trying them out.
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wave_code
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Wed Oct 19, 2022 3:06 am

@friso I haven't tried their whole catalog, but I got a few samples I've been slowly working my way through. They aren't bad tea, totally drinkable, but none of the ones I have tried so far struck me as being particularly good or interesting for the price.
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