Aged Collection

1970s SSHC Liu Bao (sealed)

"Betel Nut Double Star" 双星槟榔香

Cangwu, Wuzhou · Penang storage

Betel Nut · Ginseng · Dried Longan

Made in the 1970s from high mountain spring pickings in Cangwu County, and shipped out of Wuzhou by the state export company to Penang, where it has sat ever since. Fifty years in Malaysian air, which is warm and humid and does to liu bao roughly what time in a cellar does to wine.

The liquor pours amber and clear, and the first thing you notice is weight. It is thick in the mouth, closer to something poured than something brewed, and it goes down the throat rather than across the tongue. Betel nut aroma sits over the top, the note this style is named for, with a deep herbal character underneath it and a cool ginseng sweetness that arrives late and stays. The finish is long and very quiet. Fifty-year-old tea does not shout.

Choose Size:

125gPurple Clay Jar

Variant

$3,100.00

1970s SSHC Liu Bao (sealed)

$3,100.00

Provenance

Exported directly from Wuzhou by the Wuzhou Tea Import and Export Company, the state trading house that handled Guangxi's liu bao in that era, and held in Penang ever since. Malaysian natural storage is the reference standard for aged liu bao: the warmth and humidity push the fermentation further than dry storage does, and the betel nut aroma is what that produces at fifty years.

The Basket

Cha Zhi Ji holds a ceremony they call A Shared Bond, where an intact basket of aged liu bao is opened in front of the people buying it. This tea came out of a 30kg basket, unopened since it left Wuzhou, broken by hand and portioned and sealed the same day. We bought ours at that opening. 125g in a zisha jar, in a cloth-lined bamboo box. When the basket is finished there is no more of it.

Brewing Guide

Water ....... 100°C
Leaf ......... 7g / 120ml
Vessel ...... Clay
Infusions ... 10s, then add a few seconds each round
Yield ........ 10+
Also ......... Boil the spent leaves for a final decoction