Aged Liubao

[cuppa]

Just have a question about old liubao. How to distinguish by taste if liubao is young ( 1-3 old ) or old (10y+ ) . Any particular notes I should experience to find a difference? I was drinking some liubao which supposed to be 15y old and it tasted like some wet dirt. Not sure if this is the right taste, but seller claimed this was high grade stuff. I didn't buy it because high price anyway.

[jayinhk]

Just have a question about old liubao. How to distinguish by taste if liubao is young ( 1-3 old ) or old (10y+ ) . Any particular notes I should experience to find a difference? I was drinking some liubao which supposed to be 15y old and it tasted like some wet dirt. Not sure if this is the right taste, but seller claimed this was high grade stuff. I didn't buy it because high price anyway.

Where did this happen? Old liu bao CAN be very wet tasting because it is traditionally warehoused in basements a la pu erh in HK. If it doesn't taste good at all, though, it might be low grade/spoiled tea/fake.

[cuppa]

My friend took me in some tea shop in BJ. I understand the wet storage, but don't understand the age difference in matter of the taste. He gave me 2 teas , I could taste they are different but coudn't say which one is older, simply because I still don't know how old one should taste like.
Thanks for your answer anyway. It seem like people here don't understand liu bao much either , or just not sharing the experience? Is there any other site I can get more info about liu bao? thanks again.

[nada]

It really depends - different factories have different production methods and house styles. These also vary at different periods, so once you gain familiarity with those it helps with judging age. The storage will also have an effect of course too.

At 15 years, the fermentation flavour should be greatly reduced.

Even in Malaysia, lots of people don't understand Liu Bao and mis-selling common. In China it's much more prevalent. High prices, poorly stored tea and exaggeration of the age is very common.

I think my only advice would be to sample, sample, sample - get to know the style of different factories - Wuzhou Tea Factory and Duoteli/Zhongcha in particular - you can forget the others for now at least. Begin with young teas and work your way towards older ones. Try to find vendors you can trust so you have solid examples you can rely on. It's the only way to learn

[John Sung]

It really depends - different factories have different production methods and house styles. These also vary at different periods, so once you gain familiarity with those it helps with judging age. The storage will also have an effect of course too.

At 15 years, the fermentation flavour should be greatly reduced.

Even in Malaysia, lots of people don't understand Liu Bao and mis-selling common. In China it's much more prevalent. High prices, poorly stored tea and exaggeration of the age is very common.

I think my only advice would be to sample, sample, sample - get to know the style of different factories - Wuzhou Tea Factory and Duoteli/Zhongcha in particular - you can forget the others for now at least. Begin with young teas and work your way towards older ones. Try to find vendors you can trust so you have solid examples you can rely on. It's the only way to learn

I don't have much experience in them. What is your recommendation for a start?

[nada]

As a vendor, I'm biased of course - but our website

www.essenceoftea.com

would be a good pace to start. Begin with the younger teas in our selection and get to know them first. I try to filter out the rubbish that's prevalent in Liubao and find the teas that are well priced and good quality.

[john.b]

I bought some five year old Liu Bao last year that was really musty, tasting a lot like it had been sitting in a root cellar for awhile. I sat it off to the side for the better part of a year (9 months, I think it was), opening it now and again to give it limited air contact but not much. It tastes like ordinary Liu Bao now, not great, but not musty. I wouldn't expect it to turn into fantastic tea over the next 5 to 10 years but it's ok, quite drinkable.

[12Tea]

I got Teasenz' liu bao tea (https://www.teasenz.com/liu-bao-tea) a while a go. The taste is good and the quality of the raw material is much better than I had before, but still lacks the aged flavour and the thickness that I seek. It's around 5 years old now, and I think I'm gonna wait and try in another 2 years.

[DrJacoby]

I'd echo Nada's comment--EoT has a lot of reasonably priced examples of varying ages available and you can buy in small quantities. The EoT branded Liu Bao is also great, and I believe is more "traditionally" processed, though I'm not sure precisely what that means!

[bagua7]

+ EoT stuff. They definitively don't source rubbish or 'sangria' kind of teas, for sure.

YS used to sell very decent 90s Liu Bao but they no longer carry it (sold out). No idea about the 2002 one. Probably good too.

[kuksa]

I have a question for connoisseurs. Where do you prefer to buy such types of tea? Are you using special delivery or do you just know a good local supplier?

[friso]

chawangshop has the largest selection of Liu Bao I know of in the online market. It would be a good start, unless you plan to travel in Guangxi! Otherwise YS remains a good option.