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“Edit 7/13: I rechecked the Three Bears site and it looks like they’ve restocked. Not sure I can recommend as wholeheartedly at the current price point (nearly double the previous price if I’m...” Read full tasting note
This aged “farmer style” raw/sheng liu bao tea was produced in the late 1990s by farmers in Heishi village. Heishi is considered one of the best, if not the best, sources of liu bao tea because of the village’s remote location, higher elevation, traditional production methods, and older “semi-wild” tea trees, with the local heritage tree estimated at 700 years old. This tea was produced from tea trees supposedly around 100 years old.
Tasting notes
This older tree tea offers a rich, mellow woody taste with a thick mouthfeel and sweet aftertaste unlike the punchier teas from Wuzhou Tea Factory/3 Cranes. Aged on wood boards to give the sought-after “betelnut” flavor, this is an excellent example of raw liu bao made and aged by traditional processes. It’s easily the best example of aged liu bao that we currently carry.
Storage history
Storage is clean, with no moldy flavor or aroma. It was aged naturally in Heishi until 2015, then in Wuzhou until 2019, then in Seattle, Washington. Heishi and Wuzhou have a humid subtropical climate with an average relative humidity of 60-80%. Heishi is somewhat more temperate than Wuzhou.
What is “farmer style” liu bao?
Farmer style liu bao comes from a more traditional or old school process compared to how liu bao teas are typically created and graded today.
To understand farmer style liu bao, you need to know a little about how liu bao is produced and graded.
Liu bao tea is graded using a standard system, where “top grade” (特级) and “grade 1” (一级) include only bud tips. As grade numbers increase, leaves from farther down the bud stem are included. Grade 2 includes very little stem. Grade 3 includes larger leaves and tender stems. Grade 4 can include stems that aren’t tender, i.e., small woody sticks. I have seen some labeled grade 5 and 7, where 7 was mostly mature leaves (called 黄片, huangpian, “yellow pieces”, based on the color these leaves turn when dry, compared to the rich green of more tender bud leaves) and sticks.
Farmer style liu bao is produced with the entire bud stem and doesn’t fall easily into the grading system, but averages about grade 3, with tender stems and large bud leaves, but little to no sticks or fully matured leaves. This is the household tea of small farmstead owners, stored and aged in the family’s own wood board sheds.
In addition, farmer style tea typically does not undergo wet piling, and is instead kept “raw” (生). Wet piling is the controlled fermentation process used to produce most factory liu bao teas nowadays, and is similar to the process for how “cooked” pu’er (aka shu pu’er, 熟普洱) is made.
Company description not available.
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Yunnan SourcingEdit 7/13: I rechecked the Three Bears site and it looks like they’ve restocked. Not sure I can recommend as wholeheartedly at the current price point (nearly double the previous price if I’m remembering right), but worth trying I suppose. I’ll probably ration the rest of my tiny bag.
Late 1990s “Farmer Style” Heishi Mountain Large Tree Aged Raw Liu Bao
Reviews that are already on Three Bears’ site from the likes of legends such as Phyll Sheng should be enough to convince people (swung me enough to purchase a 50g pack since the larger sizes were out of stock even when I balked initially at why any Liu Bao should cost so much/g), but I’ll add my two cents here anyway. (I’ll also note that I’m a sucker for silly novelties/trivialities like having tea that’s older than I am.)
6.0g, 100 mL gaiwan, a mix of Poland spring and brita filtered water, 212f
dry leaves have a light dry stored smell, but that’s it. Lots of stems in here mixed in with the curled leaves, which was initially a bit offturning.
tea in prewarmed gaiwan didn’t enhance much in terms of aromatics
2x 5s rinse, plenty of saponins in the first so I did a second when I usually do just one. Smell of rinse has a strong medicinal hint, maybe angelica root/female ginseng (当归, something I remember my mom sticking into a bunch of broths at home)?
wet leaves have taken on a more medicinal hint, but I can’t fully place it either
gaiwan lid has a distinct warm sandalwood note (if I am to believe that the Tam Dao bottle I have represents true sandalwood), that I have never smelled in a tea before
7s: woody medicinal, almost something bitter, but not quite. Something lightly sweet that lingers. A slight cooling taste that lingers and fills mouth
10s: hint of something charred, but otherwise similar to before. something about this tea makes me want to sit and enjoy it slowly forever. not sure if it’s because it’s finals season and I’m just tired of everything though
15s: something about the lightly sweet, woody medicinal taste is deeply pleasant in a way I’ve never felt about well, drinking something ostensibly like a TCM concoction rather than for fun. words don’t quite do this justice.
20s: similar to before
30s:pleasant. a slight menthol lurking, leaving a soft peppery feeling in mouth
48s: lightening
1 min: sweeter, but losing deeper depth
2min: similar to before. still pleasant nonetheless.
3 min: light medicinal sweetness
thermos: grainy in that way of thermos’d aged sheng, with a hint of smoke and faded florals. Also woody medicinal notes, with the medicinal notes lingering slightly.
I don’t know if this is for everyone, since I doubt I would’ve enjoyed this particularly when I first started exploring teas and thought everything darker tasted like smoke and medicine (I was also in the terrible first time puer experience party where people end up avoiding puer for a long time afterwards due to trying bad puer initially). But generally, likes are harder to explain than dislikes, and this is likely the case here too. I can’t quite fully express why I feel this tea is so good, it just is. Definitely worth a shot if you like aged teas with a bit of depth in the woody medicinal notes.
Sounds good to me! And a vendor I’ve not heard of :)
@derk https://www.teaforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1996 A little blurb about it here and r/tea is how I found out about it! Three Bears specializes in Liu Bao, so definitely something a smaller subsect of even the much more than average interest in tea Westerner knows about/cares for. I emailed Jason the other day and he said he’ll likely be adding some new teas this weekend, but bigger sizes of this LB in particular probably won’t be until late June/July. I’ve tried most of the things I have from them now (have yet to try the Betelnut, medicine, and the two new LB samplers; fwiw, IK others reviewing on the site have had plenty of good to say about other options, but I thought the rest I’ve tried ranged from okay to good but wouldn’t repurchase), but this is the one I’d definitely recommend trying out of their catalog.