A Basket from Liubao: How Amgalan Chin Found This 2018 Vintage
I first visited Liubao in 2019, tracing the old tea-horse routes that carried this hei cha beyond Guangxi. In a small family workshop outside Liubao town, I tasted a 2018 pressing that had been resting in traditional bamboo baskets — the same kind used for centuries to slowly ferment and age the tea. The warehouse smelled of damp earth, bamboo, and time.
The family processes their Liubao the old way: large-leaf local bush is fixed in a wok, rolled, then piled for microbial fermentation before being tightly packed into baskets and stored in a warm, humid room. Over years, the tea develops a distinct character — not like Yunnan pu-erh, but with its own earthy sweetness and a surprising clarity.
I bought a small lot and aged it further in my own cellar, monitoring humidity and turning the baskets every few months. The cross-cultural aging traditions I’ve studied — from Russian Mongolian caravans to Hong Kong wet storage — all informed how I treated this tea. After six years, it had deepened into a smooth, aromatic brew with notes of betel nut, dried fruit, and a clean, cooling aftertaste. The 2018 harvest now speaks with real authority.
This is a tea for sipping slowly, a reminder that dark tea traditions are vast and worth exploring beyond the famous mountains of Yunnan.