I got some of this tea with my order from The Chinese Tea Shop, along with a lovely yixing pot and little carp teacup. Love the pot, love the cup, do not love the tea.

The first Liu Bao tea I ever had was from Chawangshop, a tea that I nicknamed “Liubao Dirt Tea” for its singularly undrinkably feculent flavor and aroma. I donated it to a curious teahead on r/tea, warning them that the tea tasted like dirt, and not surprisingly they too deemed it undrinkable.

I was encouraged to try a better Liu Bao by my fellow Steepsterites, before writing it off entirely. So I got this. Reputable tea company? Check. Aged enough? Perhaps not. Now, some people say a Liu Bao has to age for at least twenty years before it’s any good. And maybe that’s what the problem is. Or maybe I just don’t like Liu Bao. Maybe on my tongue, what is a magical earthy elixir to some is just dirt water to me. Bitter dirt water.

Ever watch the crazy survivalists on the television show Naked & Afraid, deep in the jungles of places like Borneo and This Place Will Kill You, bodies covered in insect bites, bleeding, wracked with malnutrition and dysentery? To fight off dehydration, they dig a hole in the mud and wait for it to fill with water and parched as they are, when their raking thirst is finally quenched by that murky liquid, the look on their faces always looks to me as if they’ve just drank Liu Bao.

Into the crock this goes, and I’ll try to post another review in about nine years.

AllanK

I think Liu Bao in any form is an acquired taste. I have only had one Liu Bao that I thought was incredible and it was from Fang Gourmet Tea in Flushing, NY. I forget exactly what it’s called and I think they are long since out of stock.

curlygc

I really, REALLY love shu, so I thought that liking Liu Bao wouldn’t be much of a stretch for me. But, they are absolutely not the same.

Rasseru

lol. not for me then

boychik

Love the review lol .

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AllanK

I think Liu Bao in any form is an acquired taste. I have only had one Liu Bao that I thought was incredible and it was from Fang Gourmet Tea in Flushing, NY. I forget exactly what it’s called and I think they are long since out of stock.

curlygc

I really, REALLY love shu, so I thought that liking Liu Bao wouldn’t be much of a stretch for me. But, they are absolutely not the same.

Rasseru

lol. not for me then

boychik

Love the review lol .

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For many years I drank cheap asian market-bought oolongs because I really didn’t know what was out there. For the last year or so I’ve been educating myself and making a foray into better quality teas. During the course of my journey I have fallen hard down the puerh rabbit hole – it started with young sheng, but now there’s another even deeper hole in the aged category, and I may be careening down this particular rabbit hole forever. I do still find time for aged oolong, a good wuyi yancha, and the occasional aged white.

I stopped rating teas awhile ago. I guess the numbers stopping meaning anything after awhile. For a long time I was pretty good about keeping my cupboard up to date and reviewing teas, mostly to help me keep track and remember what I like. I’ve gotten lazy about that for the last several months.

The tea addiction has also spawned a new addiction to throwing pottery, and I have become mildly obsessed with making tea cups, shibos, and teapots.

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