Description
 
2010 Private Collection Hand Pressed Liu Bao Hei Cha - Farmer's Wife
 
This 400g cake is handmade by local farmer in Quang Xi. When the yellow leaves are falling in autumn, it is time to cut the old branches and leaves of the Liubao tea tree. These cut old tea leaves are called "Old Cha Po" meaning "Old Tea Wife". The raw and sun-dried old leaves are sweet and they are full of medicinal fragrance when they have been aged for a few years. 
 
It carries the medicinal mineral note like Aged white tea and with the bittersweet of Liu Bao Teas. Light nuttiness and autumn leaf flavour.
 
Here come with a brief history of Liu Bao (六堡), like Puerh is a fermented tea traditionally from Guangxi. It is fermented and dried in a long delicate process in preparation for further aging. Part of the process involves wet piling for several weeks to allow fermentation to take place. The degree of fermentation depends on the amount of time the tea is wet piled and can differ depending on the intended outcome.Guangxi province is located south of Yunnan, neighbouring Guangdong so features average daytime temperatures between 12 -22 degrees and humidity between 70 -85%. Perhaps perfect, with its short, mild winters, and long, very hot and humid summers for fermented tea production.
 
Liu Bao is definitely calmer on the stomach than any of the ripe or raw Puerh I’ve experienced. It is well known to warm the stomach which in Traditional Chinese Medicine is a yang organ and therefore prone to yang deficiency where there isn’t enough heat to process and absorb the qi from the food or yin deficiency where there is insufficient fluid to hold, descend and transform the qi from food. Hence Liu Bao tea that does both in giving heat and fluid is perfect for more delicate stomach constitutions. These virtues are expressed in the Qing dynasty poem attributed to Cheng Yuandao
 
This tea is very intense (strong cha chi), a very short steeping is recommended. Phenolic compounds are very flavorful, as most tea connoisseurs will already know. The unique phenols in this Liu Bao perhaps gives it the well appreciated and unique taste profile that many people describe as sour cereal or woody herbal taste, classically though it is described as having a “betel nut” aroma/flavour. This unique flavour profile is like a black sheep among other teas. It is not everyone's cup of tea but if you fall into it , you will appreciate the unique experience it offers.