What HeiCha are you drinking

[faj]

Ever since beginning my loose leaf tea journey, I have only had a few sheng Pu'er teas, and up until recently no Liu Baos (and still no shu to this day). A few months ago, I ordered from Essence of Tea a sheng Pu'er cake (my first!) other members had ordered in search of a reference point, along with a bunch of Liu Bao samples. While the cake I will call a constructive step in my discovery of that category, the Liu Bao hit closer to home. I cannot say whether Essence of Tea's products are good or not (relative to the category in general), but I seem to like the stuff.

I have spent a good part of the afternoon having infusion after infusion of their Four Gold Coins. The last cup I just had is no less enjoyable than the first few, and actually probably more, with better balance while still bringing pleasant aromatic notes. This Liu Bao and the other ones I purchased are not expensive teas, but if they are not half-decent examples of the category, the good stuff is going to be really stellar...

[StoneLadle]

@faj

EoT have been around for a while. I miss visiting their shops since they moved to 100% online and I have good stocks of Liu Pao procured from them over time.

The Four Coins is a classic and I regret finishing off my last bag a while ago. Perhaps it's time to go hunting....

The Landscape box Liu Pao is also doing good right now, especially the 2014 release in 500g boxes and is exceptional value, retailing here at USD25.00/box...

And for the price of the Four Coins, it's possible to get some very very special Malaysian stored basket pressed LP from the 90s...

[Balthazar]

The heicha weekend continues, today with the "2013 Zhu Yun Shan". Hard to find any info about this wild and lightly fermented tea or its producer, but I really like it. It has that characteristic "yesheng taste" but I also note berries and gives a dozen+ steeps before it loses any of its shine.

totally curious as to how you steep your tea for these sessions!

Pretty standard gongfu-brewing, actually. Depending on the fermentation level and taste profile of the heicha in question, I alternate between using a zini and hongni yixing pot (occasionally even a porcelain gaiwan). I probably go a bit higher in the leaf/water ratio than most others. Flash steeps in the beginning, and a gradual prolongation once needed (will vary from tea to tea, usually a bit earlier for loose leaf stuff than bricks/cakes).

...Part of a cake, so it's real Liu Bao,,, it's just not LB if it isn't fermented. The article posted by Balthazar... it's cool, it's a journal, but one can hardly call loose leaf maocha from Guangxi a raw aged LB... LB is a fermented tea. Period. In your case, the tea will benefit from resting and air, if only just to settle down. Also, water in Europe is hard... do you filter or get your water from some secret mountain spring source?... But no matter, give it some air and time and see what happens... i think it will only get stronger....

This (in connection with the shared childhood memories with your grandma brewing liubao, brings to mind this Lin Yutang quote:

What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?

The "correct" definition often seems to be closely connected to one's own culture and upbringing

The article I posted actually didn't say anything about unfermented liubao, though (at least not as far as I could see). It said that what's usually called "raw" liubao is actually just liubao with low fermentation. So still fermented, but significantly less so than the "classical" recipes.

@faj: I agree with StoneLadle, Four Coins (and EoT's liubao offering in general) is good stuff, you could even call the brand a benchmark of sorts for affordable loose leaf liubao. Congratulations on discovering the world of liubao, by the way.

[wave_code]

welcome to liu bao @faj I know after the first time I tried a Three Cranes tea I thought yes, this is actually what I am looking for in tea!
Four Gold Coins is certainly a nice place to start too - while it shares characteristics with lots of other liu bao and to me has some of the best aspects of different styles I've also found it to be pretty unique, at least from what I've had access to.

I still really need to try EoT. While I wish I could get a bunch of those really old samples I'm waiting and hoping some of their less expensive offerings will come back soon or that they source some new ones.

@StoneLadle thanks for the info! While the story of how liu bao came to the region with the mines and all isn't so hard to come by in English you also always get the feeling othat ok, heres the tea lore, but what about NOW, what happened AFTER the part thats easy to romanticize (though as you point to there is something very off and strange about how we frame mining conditions and colonization in the context of tea romance here). While I've heard that liu bao is a pretty ubiquitous part of daily life I was really curious if it actually is, and for who and how they consume it. Also quality wise- I'm guessing if it is that big a part of daily life then there is both excellent liu bao those of us here in the west won't really ever get to have because it stays in local markets, but also that there is probably a lot of lower quality factory productions that just aren't really fit for export - the same way coffee is part of daily life in Europe but the large majority of it is actually terrible if you were to really analyze it.

[Balthazar]

@wave_code If you haven't already, you should check out this edition of the Global Tea Hut magazine (especially the "In Search of Liu Bao Nostalgia in Malaysia" article by Luo Yingyin that starts at page 25). Say what you will about GTH, they have provided a great service to the English speaking tea community through their freely available archives..

Also from GTH:

Processing of Liu Bao Tea
Liu Bao Tea - Six Castles of Bliss

[StoneLadle]

StoneLadle thanks for the info! While the story of how liu bao came to the region with the mines and all isn't so hard to come by in English you also always get the feeling othat ok, heres the tea lore, but what about NOW, what happened AFTER the part thats easy to romanticize (though as you point to there is something very off and strange about how we frame mining conditions and colonization in the context of tea romance here). While I've heard that liu bao is a pretty ubiquitous part of daily life I was really curious if it actually is, and for who and how they consume it. Also quality wise- I'm guessing if it is that big a part of daily life then there is both excellent liu bao those of us here in the west won't really ever get to have because it stays in local markets, but also that there is probably a lot of lower quality factory productions that just aren't really fit for export - the same way coffee is part of daily life in Europe but the large majority of it is actually terrible if you were to really analyze it.

Things haven't really changed much here. Traditional families still make tea for offerings and left in a pot in the kitchen. Grandma is 95 almost now and she makes a small pot that keeps getting refilled thru the day. I go eat at an open coffeeshop, a bowl of noodles say and maybe a plate of chicken, and I will order 'iced tea' which is most likely poured from a vat or kettle of Liu Pao or Shu PE into a glass of ice ...

The GTH issue posted by @Balthazar is actually quite accurate. Here's a picture from last week, massive chunk of meat on the right is a friend of mine and we are having lunch under a tarpaulin roof and the dude on the left is pouring tea into a glass of ice that I'd requested...

MVIMG_20200813_123108.jpg (317.01 KiB) Viewed 6859 times

[polezaivsani]

Ok, i give up folks - liu bao goes onto the hei cha short list In the second position - got to try some Hunan and Hubei specimens.

While waiting for packages from China to thaw from the logistic limbo, i decided to give neighboring Poland a try and snatched a basket of 2002 sun yi shun liu an (btw, the detour it ended up taking was a logistics abomination). I haven't been fond of shu style yunnan offerings before and was more concerned with test driving the teapots. And what i treat it is! First thing that feels rather shabby in porcelain, where the first leaves me thinking whether the bacterias in there might be busy brewing illegal spirits while everybody's sleeping.

And lots of bettel nuts... nah, never seen the thing. Beyond the expected base earthy fermented tone, it feels like sweet coconut with a cinch of vanilla, turning into lilac with some young nuts and general woody taste. Works wonders for me in the twilight. Some steeps do have a noticeable cooling afterglow - reminding me of LB and LA compared as having hot and cold connotations respectively.

p.s. since i'm not restocking vegetable leather tannins from the usual source, i'd appreciate any tips on a hei cha sporting leathery taste.

[OCTO]

Things haven't really changed much here. Traditional families still make tea for offerings and left in a pot in the kitchen. Grandma is 95 almost now and she makes a small pot that keeps getting refilled thru the day. I go eat at an open coffeeshop, a bowl of noodles say and maybe a plate of chicken, and I will order 'iced tea' which is most likely poured from a vat or kettle of Liu Pao or Shu PE into a glass of ice ...

The GTH issue posted by Balthazar is actually quite accurate. Here's a picture from last week, massive chunk of meat on the right is a friend of mine and we are having lunch under a tarpaulin roof and the dude on the left is pouring tea into a glass of ice that I'd requested...

Yeah.... that's what my late grandpa does all the time. LB is a staple in my household when I was growing up.

[wave_code]

@polezaivsani if you got thetea.pl liu an thats a good pick. I'm still learning about it and trying samples here and there, but its far and away the best one that I've had, much more complex than others.

if you want a more leathery liu bao that is pretty budget friendly when you take into account free slow shipping you can give this a shot- https://www.fullchea-tea.com/chinese-te ... p0515.html

I was actually drinking it yesterday, and its taken a while to settle in from shipping but it was much more on the leather/tobacco/vanilla side to me than the petrichor or betel nut flavors.

Thanks all for the interesting info! I should read that issue of GTH- I totally forgot about it, and I think there are even two liu bao issues too. I think I downloaded them and then they disappear into the "to be read 10 years from now" pdf folder.

[polezaivsani]

Yep, that's the liu an i got, @wave_code. Been browsing what else liu an offers i could find and been disgruntled so far, either with lots of stems for for younger ones or lack of money for ones from previous century. Thanks for liu bao tip!

[StoneLadle]

Liu An has long been considered a more refined version of Liu Pao and from memory there's always been stems as part of Liu An , and LP of course...

Liu An often has a subtle energy that just buzzes the spine and tingles the extremities in a most pleasant calming way...

When I was a lad, Liu An was a treat served up by a Grand Uncle who loved the stuff but was super tight with it for good reasons hahahaa

[TeaTotaling]

It's been great reading through the recent posts!

I have a small stash of Malaysian stored 90's Ma Bao, ~140g's. Not sure of the quality as I have only tried it once, and it's the only session I have had with a Liu Bao. I really enjoyed it, and I'm actually going to brew some up tomorrow morning.

It's been over a month since I took it for a spin, and I distinctly remember a unique oily characteristic. I thoroughly enjoyed how mellow it was. For me, I feel like it's a good tea to enjoy later in the day without worrying about disrupting my sleep.

Good times!

[Balthazar]

Drinking 10 grams of a sample of the 2018 Bai Sha Xi Furong Guoli (for my own future reference in case I decide to pick up a brick from JD later on: "2018年白沙溪芙蓉国里"). Bai Sha Xi probably needs no introduction, they're Hunan's oldest heicha producer and offer teas at all price points today.

This one's a heizhuan, a remarkably clean one with notes of dried fruits, vanilla and wood. Pretty hard to describe actually. This is about as clean as heicha will get, it actually reminds me of some white teas I've had in the past (don't take that as a criticism). The only thing I miss is a bit more body, but that's often the case for me with these very, very light heichas.

Currently on steep 10, might boil the leaves after that.

[polezaivsani]

These bricks from around Anhui and Hubei look rather bullet proof! Had an idea of using a pocket knife for the cakes where braking by hand is inconvenient. That was before i noticed a circular saw used to break them in some ad prospects

[wave_code]

You're hitting it with boiling water, and I don't think E coli generates heat-resistant spores like C botulinum does.

Good point. And another reason for a longer initial steep, I guesss.

of relevant interest, I stumbled across this abstract today- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 9119355587

While its outside her specialty I think I'll ask my partner if maybe she has access somehow to the full article, or at least can maybe offer some thoughts on its reliability too based on the journal, etc.