Alchemy/ Old Tree Liu Bao

This 2019 old growth Liu Bao from Wuzhou, Guangxi, China comes from an ancient tea grove and it’s vibrancy blows me away!

One way that you can recognize it’s vitality is that you can feel the liquor dance on your tongue even after you have swallowed a sip. It also has a very long-lasting flavor in the mouth, or hui gan!

The tea plant (Camellia sinensis) has one of the deepest tap roots of any plant in the world, so when a tea tree is allowed to grow to be 100 or more years old, it is able to access rare vitamins, minerals and primal energy found deep within the earth.

Liu Bao is one of the most ancient styles of tea and was enjoyed by nobility in Guangxi as early as the Tang Dynasty (600 -800 CE) for health and beauty. The development of Shou Puerh in the 1970s was inspired by the processing technique for Liu Bao, so the two styles of tea hold many similarities in taste and flavor. Both are processed into a raw tea and then wet piled for fermentation. During the fermentation process, the acquires beneficial bacterias that aid digestion as well as rich flavors and a creamy mouthfeel.

Liu Bao is very unique in the world of tea in that is energetically warming and cooling at once. This adaptogenic property means that if you are warm, it will cool you. If you are cold, it will warm you.