Wuzhou sits where the Xun and Gui rivers meet in eastern Guangxi — historically the loading point for liu bao shipped down to Guangzhou and onward to tin miners in Malaya. The style was built for that journey: pressed into bamboo baskets lined with leaves, fermented in pile, then left to breathe in humid warehouses until the rough edges fell away.
Fang Ting selected this lot in late 2023, after tasting through nine baskets from a small Wuzhou cooperative that still ages on wooden racks rather than climate-controlled rooms. The 2018 spring material had been piled lightly — a shorter wò duī than most commercial liu bao — which kept the leaf legible and let the resting years do the heavier work. By the time it reached her cupping table it had cleared the wet-pile note entirely and moved into the betel-nut and aged-cedar register that defines a properly settled Wuzhou tea.
Her background is in Henan oolong and pu-erh, and she approaches liu bao as its own category rather than a pu-erh cousin. “Liu bao asks for patience on the brewer’s side, not the drinker’s,” she notes in her tasting log — meaning the rinse and the first two steeps reveal little, but from the third the tea opens steadily and holds for an hour.
We broke a single basket into 5g samples so first-time hēichá drinkers can meet the style without committing to a whole cake or tong. The remainder of the basket lives at shop.puerh.app under Fang Ting’s selection.
The leaf, brewed
Damp cedar, betel nut, dried longan — settled rather than loud.
dry leaf
Twisted, matte black-brown strands. Aroma of old library wood and a faint sweet-bark note when warmed.
wet leaf
After rinse the leaf opens to soft loam, wet bark, and a clean mushroom-broth lift — no mustiness.
liquor
Deep mahogany, clear at the edge, holds a thin coppery ring against a white cup.
aroma
Betel nut (bīn láng xiāng), aged cedar, a thread of dried date in the empty cup.
taste
Smooth body, gently sweet through the middle. Mineral underside, dried longan, light cocoa-husk. No bitterness, very little astringency.
finish
Cool, woody huígān that settles in the throat. Returns sweet on the second swallow.
Brewing
A method, not a recipe.
Method
gongfu
Ratio
5g / 100ml
Water temp
100°C
First infusion
Rinse 5s, discard. First steep 10s.
Subsequent
8–10 infusions. Add 5s each from the third onward, stretch to 60s at the tail.
Use the whole 5g sample in one session. A thick-walled clay pot rounds it further, but porcelain shows the betel-nut note more clearly.
FT
Sourced by
Fang Ting
Senior Tea Expert (Oolong, Green & Puerh Varieties)
