2017 Maosheng Liu Bao Tea

At the Malaysian Tea Expo in early June 2017, I came across a booth that promoted Maosheng Liu Bao tea.  The distributors promoted this tea by packing this tea in 250g paper boxes made specially for this tea expo and selling them at special prices to visitors of the tea expo.

There was even a manager from Maosheng tea factory at the booth and he invited me to sample their Liu Bao tea (see last pix).  He informed me that their tea factory was located in Wuxi, China and their processing of their Liu Bao tea used modern technology in the fermentation of the tea.  He explained that Liu Bao tea was traditionally fermented on factory floors and the tea was covered with blankets during the fermentation process.  The tea was also 'hand stirred' every few days to ensure a consistent fermentation of the tea.  Maosheng tea factory does the tea fermentation 'off ground'. Their Liu Bao tea are placed in large steel vats where humidity and temperature are controlled to provide 'optimal' formation of the tea.  Temperature and humidity are calibrated throughout the entire fermentation process. This would enable the tea to be fermented to exacting conditions/ specifications of the tea factory.

How did this tea compared to my current stash of Malaysian Liu Bao tea? I  am unable to make a proper comparison.  This Maosheng Liu Bao tea was only produced this year while my current Liu Bao tea is more than 10-15 years old.  If you like traditional Chinese herbal tea (those brewed in South East Asian Chinese medicinal halls), you will like this Maosheng.  The aroma is medicinally herbal.  There were some fermentation scent in the tea but overall the tea is easy to drink.  I bought about 2 kg of this tea and intend to store the tea in a large jar.  I will revisit this tea after some time in storage.

To my American readers, Happy Independence Day.

And to James, of Teadb(link), congratulations on your marriage.  On the tea blog, James and his tea partner, Denny usually drink and review their tea on their site.  They even 'video' their tea sessions with both of them sitting side by side and having a good time with their tea.  I have a friend that is a 'fan' of these guys and she will tune in weekly for their latest episode.  James is a real hardcore tea drinker.  I believed, based on his latest post, he had a honeymoon in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.  It was incredible he incorporated tea drinking sessions/meetups and tea shopping in all these 3 countries during his honeymoon. Wow.