I’ve been busy ordering tea, chasing a few interesting leads.

I first heard about Liu Bao tea in this video featuring Master Lin Ping Xiang. Liu Bao is a fermented tea (“dark” or “black” tea – Hei Cha in Mandarin) from Guangxi, and so belongs in the same class of tea as Pu-erh.

Although somewhat similar to shou Pu-erh in processing, people say Liu Bao tastes quite different. Factor in all those tales of Malaysian tin mines being unable to recruit workers unless they could offer their employees Liu Bao, and this meant that here was a tea I had to try.

I googled around a bit and discovered that well known on-line tea shop Yunnan Sourcing stock Liu Bao. This was interesting, because they also stock Pu-erh tea paste, something I’d wanted to try ever since reading about it in a book I bought. A couple of clicks later and some Jing Mai Mountain instant Pu-erh and a 100g cake of 2013 Three Cranes “0207” Liu Bao was heading my way.

Oolong Owl is an excellent blog, one I really enjoy reading. Char recently reviewed White2Tea’s 2016 Daily Drinker sheng Pu-erh, and it sounded right up my street. Now in the mood to splash some cash, I headed over there to place an order.

While I was there I couldn’t help but notice a tuo (“bowl” or “nest“) of sheng Pu-erh from 2004. The description of the tea as “…ideal for the budget minded drinker…“, but “…still very strong in flavour and character, with burly wood and tobacco notes…” was too good to resist. In the cart that went, too.

So, all being well, this coming week I’ll have a couple of packages arriving, and four new teas to sample.

Watch this space, etc…