Liu An 2006

Unlike the wintery cure-for-all thick woolly blanket that is Liu Bao and / or Golden Flowers, this tea is more akin to drinking a raspberry lemonade out in a log cabin, which I suppose is an all-season form of entertainment. Wet leaf aroma is that of a young, peppery pipe tobacco, while the taste is exactly that of a cinnamon lychee (which, yes, is a thing, yes).

The 2006 edition not having much in the way of fermentation flavour, black tea (hongcha) serves best for a reference. The spice aspect made me wonder if this tea embodies what Assam should really taste like, but I lack data at that point. In actual fact An Hui is geographically related to Qimen / Keemun, which I suppose should have been a pointer for the familiar fruity black-tea aspects instead.

Qi-wise I gambled I’d be looking at a gentle evening tea, and indeed I suppose it won’t keep me from sleeping tonight. The tea is actually compressed together but not too tightly, so as it didn’t expand as much as a I had expected, I under-pitched a bit (even for my standards).

Had a decent little piece of bamboo leaf in it though – Sander in his video establishes that this mellows out bitters, so maybe it would have been a bit less civil without. At any rate, I’m glad of having access to this tea.