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“I would say this is way biased but it started more than few days ago. First, somehow I didn’t finish two decades old liu bao in work last Thursday. Mad idea, knowing that will be back today, just...” Read full tasting note
“Gong Fu! This one is weird because it’s from the sort of “limbo” period between when I was feeling really sick and when I was feeling a lot better (though still not 100%). It was a really nice...” Read full tasting note
uangxi Wuzhou tea factory were established in January 18, 1953. Factory is located in Wuzhou City, Guangxi, close to Yuanyang river. The plant is surrounded by mountains, verdant forests, the environment is very suitable for Liubao tea processing and storage. TF has its own stable base of raw materials, can effectively control pesticide residues to ensure that products meet national standards. “Three Crane Brand”, “Hegang brand” is their registered trademark.
This liubao tea is composed from 2006-2008 light fermentation material. This tea is made from selected broken leaves and tender buds, tightly pressed into this 500g brick in 2009, package and go on sale in 2011. The factory use the packing date replace production date to print on the wrapping.
Broken leaves material are stronger in taste, but is nothing similar (for example) with rubbish pu-erh teas which are often pressed to mini tuocha. Reddish and clean tea soup with nice aroma. Strong, thick, nutty, sweet aftertaste.
This tea is perfect for long term aging!
Manufacturer : Wuzhou Tea Factory, Guangxi
Packing Date : 10/05/2011
Weight : 100g ZIP pack (original weight of brick is 500g)
Company description not available.
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ChawangshopI would say this is way biased but it started more than few days ago. First, somehow I didn’t finish two decades old liu bao in work last Thursday. Mad idea, knowing that will be back today, just le n thermos. That means drinking cold first thing in the morning while waiting on blend of shu minibrick and gotu kola to brew. Worse, grabbed sugar free grape fanta in local minimarkt. On top of that, kvass offered by eastern European colleague. Then packages started coming in. Two liubaos, sample of shu, and then this. It was intense. The only shous i really was drawn to procure were either bricks or loose. If this was my first liubao, I would have been scrambling for the wrong one, probably would have stumbled into green brick and maybe hubei one. But looking forward to drop a chunk of it into mirror glazed thermos tomorrow morning to see if I was just having detox aftershock trembles. The trouble is, the lastbtea I got today was Sichuan brick and I left it brewing in thermocup as had to leave work earlier than expected. You can’t plan these things, it will be cold in the morning, then thermos grandpa brew of what is being reviewed and then 2nd gonat Sichuan. If I don’t make it thru the day, the autopsy will be inconclusive. That’s the best legacy.
Gong Fu!
This one is weird because it’s from the sort of “limbo” period between when I was feeling really sick and when I was feeling a lot better (though still not 100%). It was a really nice session, and after nearly 48 hours of being stuck in bed, sore, and quite sleepless I found the routine of brewing Gong Fu quite calming and peaceful, and the tea made me feel very relaxed.
I’m still very new to Liubao/Heicha in general and I’m dipping my toes into this new area of tea fairly slowly – but this seemed a lot different than the few other kinds of heicha that I’ve tried before. It’s very tightly compressed into a brick shape but steeping it broke apart so quickly (after like infusion two!) in the little glass Gong Fu teapot I was using and basically was this highly broken up sort of CTC looking grade of leaf. I’m glad I did choose to use a teapot with a strainer in it, because this leaf was pretty fine! I don’t generally use a strainer as part of my Gong Fu set up, so I imagine with a gaiwan this would have really gotten into my Cha Hai and cup…
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BwVaGWiHKX5/
You can see how fine the leaf was in the final image/video…
Still pretty earthy, but also surprisingly sweet and fruity. I don’t 100% trust my taste buds from this session though because the finishing note for nearly every steep was reminding me heavily of sweet blackberry leaf and Fuzzy Peach candies; which is certainly strange. Probably better to retaste this when I feel completely fine…
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDZkdkPHQ00
(Good music for calm, slow evenings – and when you’re feeling sick and kind of hazy…)
Had a good and very different experience with some liu bao Togo sent me, so I bought a few each of some liu bao, liu an and fu zhuan to try out.
I’ve yet to venture into Heicha outside of Liu Bao – that was what was recommended to me by someone on instagram who is VERY into heicha that I trust quite a bit with recommendations. I’m sure I will at some point, but I like the idea of getting very comfortable with one type first before jumping into others. Where did you purchase yours from?
(Also, we should totally swap at some point!)
The liu bao and fu zhuan came from YS and the liu an from Yunnan Craft. I will keep you on my swap radar :) Have about 50 swap samples to make my way through until I’m ready.
It sounds a lot more sweet and fruity than any version of Liu Bao I’ve ever tried, but then I’ve only tried a half dozen or so, all on the mineral and earthy side. A 2012 Three Cranes version had too much off storage flavor to be a fair representation, but after close to a year of airing out that faded.
We will hope it isn’t as drastic to require an autopsy!