Liu Bao 2019

I decided to try my hand at some hei cha, so this is the first installment to get a feed for what a good, newer Liu Bao smells and tastes like. I've got some older Liu Bao to try after this, so I'm using this 2019 one as a reference point before getting into those.

The smell of the wet leaf on this 2019 Liu Bao brings out an incredibly strong rye bread. It almost smells like a furniture store or a woodworking shop and departs from what I'm familiar with so far in ripened pu-erh. The liquor looks nice and dark with a deep mahogany. The first infusion was very roasted in flavor with various breads and woods.

The wet leaf on the second infusion smells much more floral and aromatic in the base of woods and bread. More bittersweet chocolate up front, with a pleasant bitterness that ends in a woody note. To me, this is sweater-weather tea for sure. Would do you well on a cold night.

The third infusion is much more rounded out without the bitter side of the bittersweet in the prior two. Much stronger on the chocolate side. An awesome compliment to more earthy meals like chili and cornbread. This is becoming more similar to a woody, clean ripe. Modern Liu Bao is increasingly following the wet-piling footsteps of shou-making, so there's definitely wiggle room in the Liu Bao style, and I assume older Liu Bao may vary more starkly.

Fourth is incredibly smooth with woody notes in the sides of my mouth. This is making me realize I don't know how to pick apart a lot of different wood smells and I should get into another expensive hobby like woodworking or something. Definitely earthier but not the heavy, rolling in the soil kind of earth flavor - drier and more woody.

The fifth has a funky little spice note to it, perhaps something like cardamom. Still very smooth.

The sixth has a bit of a paper flavor and is hollowing out but still quite enjoyable. Much sweeter without any bitterness.