Brew liu bao hot. Use water at a full boil, give the leaf a quick rinse, and start with less leaf than you would use for shou puerh. Gong fu brewing in a small pot gets the most from an aged liu bao, boiling suits everyday tea and spent leaf, and grandpa style in a glass or mug is the easy daily option. Choose the method by the tea in front of you and the attention you have to give it.
What water temperature does liu bao need?
Use water at a full rolling boil, or as close to 100°C as you can keep it. Liu bao is fermented, dried over fire, steamed and packed tightly into baskets. The leaf is thick and it opens with heat. Water at 85 or 90°C gives a thin, flat cup that tastes more of storage than of tea.
Keeping that heat is most of the work. Warm the pot and cups with boiling water before you start. Put the kettle back on the heat between infusions. Choose a clay pot with thick walls over a thin porcelain gaiwan if you have both. The essence of making good tea is retaining heat, and liu bao shows it more than most teas.
The exception is young, green-style liu bao, sometimes sold as sheng liu bao. It has not been piled, so it can turn harsh in boiling water. Try it at 90 to 95°C and keep the infusions short.
How much liu bao should you use?
A good starting point for gong fu is about 5g for every 100ml of pot volume, so 7g in a 145ml pot. Liu bao gives up its flavour quickly and can be brewed lighter than most dark teas and still taste full. If the first cups are heavy or sour, use less next time. If they are thin, use more.
How many infusions you get depends on the tea. Everyday liu bao fades sooner than a good puerh. A well-stored 1970s or 1990s liu bao can run for twenty or more infusions if you keep the heat up. Sources disagree here because they are describing different teas. Judge the leaf you have, not the category.
Try brewing with more tea. Then less. Write down what you used and what you liked, and the right amount will settle within a few sessions.
How do you brew liu bao gong fu style?
Use a small pot, boiling water, a rinse, then short infusions that lengthen as the leaf opens. For one or two people, a pot of 100 to 150ml is plenty. A round, full-bellied shape suits liu bao because the leaf is loose and bulky and needs room to move. Thick zini clay holds heat well. Our Duo Qiu Hu 150ml is a good size and shape for it.
- Warm everything. Fill the pot and cups with boiling water, then empty them.
- Add the leaf. Break up any clumps gently with your fingers. Do not grind it.
- Rinse once. Cover the leaf with boiling water and pour it off after about 5 seconds. Aged tea that smells dusty or strongly of storage can take a second rinse.
- First infusion. Give it a little longer, around 15 to 20 seconds, to wake the leaf.
- Next two or three. Pour off almost as soon as the pot is full. These are the flash infusions and often the sweetest.
- Then lengthen. Add 10 to 20 seconds each round as the tea thins out.
If the liquor runs strong, bitter or sour, pour faster. If it is thin, wait longer. A timer helps at first, but the colour of the tea in the cup is the better guide. Some brewers skip the pitcher and pour straight from the pot to the cups to keep the tea hotter. Try both. Our guide to gong fu brewing covers the method in more detail.
How do you boil liu bao?
Simmer a small amount of leaf in a kettle or pot that can sit on the flame, then pour straight from it. This is the old way. Liu bao was once boiled, dried and boiled again in Malaysian restaurants and shops, and it is still one of the hardy teas that takes the treatment well. Never put a Yixing teapot on the heat. Use a clay kettle, a glass kettle or a stainless pot.
- Bring about 1 litre of water to the boil.
- Add 5 to 8g of leaf. Stir the water first and drop the leaf into the centre so it sinks and takes the heat at once.
- Keep it at a gentle boil. Pour the first cups after a minute or two. They will be light.
- Keep going. The tea deepens the longer it boils. Top up with water as you pour and add a pinch of fresh leaf now and then.
A very small pinch of salt every couple of boils thickens the liquor. If you can taste the salt, you have used too much.
Keep boiling for everyday liu bao, not for a 1950s vintage. There is one good use for fine tea, though. When a gong fu session has run its course, put the spent leaf in a kettle and boil it. Old leaf gives a sweet, thick last round that steeping cannot reach.
Can you brew liu bao grandpa style?
Yes, and it is one of the easiest teas to drink this way. Put 2 to 3g of leaf in a 300 to 400ml glass or mug, pour boiling water over it, and drink once it is cool enough. When a third of the tea is left, top it up with more hot water. The leaf sinks, so there is nothing to strain.
Liu bao suits this because it has little bitterness, so it does not turn harsh as the leaf sits. In Guangdong it has long been said that brewed liu bao does not go sour when left overnight, which is part of why it became a working person's tea. Use an everyday tea for this, such as Yuan Bao or our 500g traditionally processed liu bao. Save the older vintages for a pot.
Which liu bao suits which method?
Match the method to the age and price of the tea. The older and rarer the tea, the more it rewards small-pot attention.
- 1950s to 1970s vintages such as Fu Hua or SSHC: gong fu only, in a small pot, with full attention. Boil the spent leaf at the end.
- 1980s and 1990s teas such as Si Bao, Ma Bao or VIVE: gong fu, or a slightly larger pot for three or four people.
- 2000s and everyday liu bao: any of the three methods.
- Green-style young liu bao: gong fu with cooler water and short infusions.
The full range is in our liu bao collection. For background on the tea itself, see what is liu bao tea?
What if the tea tastes flat, musty or sour?
Most problems come from heat, leaf quantity or a tea that has just travelled. Fix them in that order.
- Flat and thin: the water is not hot enough, or the pot lost heat. Reboil and warm the pot again.
- Musty: rinse twice. If a new tin has just arrived after a long trip, open it and let it sit for a week or two before judging it. Aged tea often tastes muted after a change of climate.
- Sour or heavy: too much leaf or infusions that are too long. Use less, pour faster.
- Harsh: usually a young, green-style tea brewed too hot.
Start hot and start light, then adjust from the last cup. Questions about a specific tea? Write to us.