TeaChat

Some have asked me to look for Liu-An, so I have gone around researching/tasting them. In short, not all Liu-An are pleasant to drink. Some are really disgusting (especially new). Today I tasted 5 types of Liu-An.

Unknown year, most probably new Not nice. Greenish awkward taste. Yuck.





90s Greenish, but at least sweet. Not nice.





80s Taste much better than the first 2. Pleasant aroma. A bit woody taste. Acceptable to drink but the time is not right to enjoy yet.





70s I am not even sure there are 70s Liu-An (cause I thought it started to produce back in the 80s), but it was written there as 70s. Ignoring the year... taste wise... very much enjoyable. Nice aroma and Woody taste. Sweet. A bit medicine taste. This is shortlisted as one of the good Liu-an that can be enjoyed now. I am getting seniors to confirm the taste. May introduce this as KLP.





Liu An Sticks 1920s I have wrote about this before. It is still very very very extremely good. So good that even 2g is enough to be drank and enjoyed up to 15 brews. The woody has turned into medicine (ginseng) taste. So sweet. Ahhhhh.... too bad... no more stock.





After many brews... it was boiled, cause we don't want to waste it. Taste is oh so very good

At least I have 18g



Only for smell, not for drinking. Opening up the canister and smell is good enough to melt

2011 Local Brand Raw Bulang Early Spring

This shop's tea are quite popular in malaysia and taiwan branch among their customers who appreciate single estate old tree tea. The owners will personally go to the farm and select their own raw materials. Only the best to their standard would be introduced. Early spring harvest and also traditional processed. They have been doing this since 2004. I have heard a few times from their customer saying 'After drinking their pu, there is no turning back'

This is an Early spring harvest in one of the Bulang area. 500 years old tree. Fresh. Tasty. Light. Good aroma. Not bitter. Not astringency. Ready to drink.

2011 Local Brand Raw Bulang Early Spring - Another product of this year. IIRC they introduced about 7, and this year all are from Bulang different area.



According to them, all taste differently. This is also from early spring harvest. 500 years old tree. Fresh. Tasty. Light. Good aroma. Not bitter. Not astringency. But smoky taste is quite obvious. The smoky is very acceptable to drink. The aftertaste is good. Saliva keeps flowing out.

Day 2 of HouDe's 2003 Hong Kong Henry 7542. Taste of young sheng. Piney. Intense. I'd give it 15 more years in good storage.
It is beginning to even out around brew # 10. I'd swear this has some Liu An thrown in!

I always thought that was a gentle 7542...

According to the magazine it says Liu-An has stopped production in 1943 and starts production back on 1988. There are many years in between missing and some said there shouldn't be any productions in between.



Someone explained it to me that there are many factories producing it, so it is very possible to have liu-an in between the years non production as per the magazine list of factories.



So guys, if you have any input... do share

shah82 wrote:I always thought that was a gentle 7542...

Hi Shah,
What other 7542's would you compare it to? I have not had much young 7542.

I haven't had very many either. I just never thought it was anything other than an easy-drinking slightly wet-stored 7542. I really liked the dense taste and aroma of pine and musk, but thought that the power was really lacking. My sample was certainly lacking in qi, compared to other 7542 I've had, and it didn't have too much in the way of huigan...

2011 Dayi Pu Zhi Wei Raw - Revisit. When the 1st time I drank it, it gave a unique taste. Today not much unique but smoky. For the price we get for preorder, it is very worth the price for such a taste.

2007 Xiaguan 8613 raw - The shop found one box of this in their warehouse. It was a forgotten stock. So they took out and sell. It tasted flowerish. Smokyness has gone away. Very cheap cause they said they are selling it at year 2007 price without market up just to get rid of the stock.

2009 (IIRC) Xiaguan Daughter Tea Raw - Extremely cheap. Taste and forget.

I've been drinking YS 2010 Gedeng and Big Snow Mountain for the last few days. The Gedeng is the better tea, with wonderful mouthfeel and texture. Big Snow Mountain has some nice bitterness, though.

Here's my setup nowadays. Doesn't get much simpler than this.

nickE wrote: Here's my setup nowadays. Doesn't get much simpler than this.

I'm beginning to learn that you don't need much more than that.

the_skua wrote:

nickE wrote: Here's my setup nowadays. Doesn't get much simpler than this.

I'm beginning to learn that you don't need much more than that.

+1

The rest is just expensive accessories that act like "ripples on the surface of a pond."