Bought this with my last Yunnan Sourcing order. This is an interesting tea. It has a note that I seem to get in all the Liu Bao teas I try. This one is basically new so I don’t think it’s a storage note. The best way I can think to describe it is as bamboo. It is almost wet storage taste but not quite. This one had it for the first few steeps I noticed. I don’t know if their is a better description for it. I may put some of this in a yixing container and see if it improves. I only gave this six steeps as much because of the caffeine as the bamboo taste. There is a slightly negative taste I have pretty much gotten from every Liu Bao tea I have tried. I am guessing that this bamboo taste is the equivalent to the fermentation taste in ripe puerh. I don’t remember how much of this the 2002 liu bao I drank recently had.
Once you get past this taste it is a fairly decent tea in general. I have yet to be really impressed by hei cha in general. Although I did like the tian jian I drank recently. For me they just don’t taste as good as puerh, whether ripe or raw.
I steeped this six times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec. If I wanted to continue I could get a lot more out of these leaves and the next time I try it will have to give it a proper amount of steepings.
Flavors: Bamboo
I’m guessing the bamboo will fade given time.