Liu bao and shou puerh are both dark teas fermented by piling damp leaf, and each has shaped the other's history. Liu bao comes from Guangxi, is made from a medium-sized leaf, dried over pine fires and aged in bamboo baskets. Shou comes from Yunnan's big-leaf trees, is piled deeper and is pressed into cakes and bricks. In the cup, shou is darker and thicker; liu bao is redder, lighter in body, and tastes of betel nut and a little pine smoke.
Are liu bao and shou puerh the same kind of tea?
They belong to the same family but are different teas. Both are hei cha, which translates as black tea but does not mean Western black tea. In Chinese terms, what the West calls black tea is red tea (hong cha), which is fully oxidised. Hei cha is tea fermented by microbes after it has been made. Liu bao and shou both get there by wet piling: the finished leaf is dampened, heaped, and left to ferment.
Everything around that step differs: the trees, the province, the microbes, how deep and long the pile goes, and how the tea is finished and aged.
Where does each tea come from?
Liu bao is named after Liu Bao township in Cangwu County, Guangxi, in southern China. The name means six castles, possibly after old forts in the area. The hills are misty and the soil loose. The local trees carry a leaf between the big leaf of Yunnan and the small leaf of eastern China, so it is often called medium leaf.
Shou puerh is made in Yunnan from the big-leaf assamica trees that also give sheng puerh. The leaf is larger and the local microbes are different, so the same basic technique produces a different tea. The two have to be piled differently for that reason.
How is each one made?
Liu bao is wok-fired to stop oxidation, rolled, dampened and piled to ferment, then dried in bamboo baskets over pinewood fires. That fire is the source of its faint smoke. The tea is steamed again and packed tightly into large bamboo baskets. Traditionally the baskets were rested for one to three years before sale, in cool, damp tunnels or warehouses.
Shou is sun-dried puerh leaf piled about a metre deep, watered, covered and turned for 45 to 60 days, then steamed and pressed while still slightly damp. The fermentation is heavier and faster than older liu bao.
From the 1980s, many liu bao makers began piling deeper, wetter and longer, closer to shou. That newer liu bao often carries a camphor note. Methods vary by factory and decade, so the word traditional on a liu bao label needs defining for each tea. Our post on what liu bao is covers the eras in more detail.
Which came first?
Liu bao, by a long way. Records list it among China's notable teas by the Jiaqing reign, 1796 to 1820. It was sent downriver to Guangdong and Hong Kong and on to Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Shou dates from the 1960s and 70s, with commercial production licensed in 1973.
When Yunnan's factories were developing shou, researchers studied liu bao and other dark teas, then adapted the piling to their own leaf. The influence later ran back the other way: the deeper piling in 1980s liu bao came from shou. For the Yunnan side of that story, see sheng vs shou puerh.
How do liu bao and shou taste different?
Brew them side by side and the differences are clear.
- Colour: shou is dark brown and nearly opaque. Liu bao is a clearer maroon or deep red.
- Body: shou is thick and heavy. Liu bao is thinner, though a good aged liu bao is silky.
- Flavour: shou leans to earth, leather and dates. Liu bao's signature is betel nut, also called areca, with pine smoke and a woody sweetness.
- Finish: liu bao often has a faint metallic edge, which comes from the larger, older yellow leaves (huang pian) it includes. Shou with a lot of big leaf can share it.
- Overall: shou is bold and full. Liu bao is softer and steadier.
Smell the empty cup after drinking. Pine smoke there points to liu bao.
Why is so much aged liu bao stored in Malaysia?
Because that is where it was drunk. Cantonese workers in Malaysia's tin mines drank liu bao every day, traditionally to clear heat and damp from the body. Mining companies bought it in baskets of 40 to 50 kilograms and stored it by the tonne, because it kept improving with age. When tin prices fell in the 1970s and 80s and the mines closed, much of that stock was left to sit.
Malaysia's steady heat and humidity aged it evenly. For decades it was a cheap alternative to aged puerh, sometimes called poor man's puerh. That price gap has narrowed a great deal. Much of the aged liu bao we sell has spent a long time in Malaysian storage. The Ma Bao, for example, has been stored there since the 1990s. The full range, from everyday tins to 1950s baskets, is in the liu bao collection.
Should you brew liu bao and shou the same way?
Mostly, yes. Both like it hot. Use water straight off the boil, a pre-warmed pot, and a quick rinse to loosen compressed leaf. A starting point is about 7g of leaf in a 120ml pot for either tea.
Shou will take long infusions and stay sweet. Liu bao gives up its flavour sooner, so brew it a little lighter and lengthen the infusions earlier in the session. Both are also traditionally boiled, which suits a long cold afternoon. In Chinese medicine, older liu bao is described as cooling, while post-1980s liu bao and shou are described as warming. That is tradition, and we pass it on as such. For the method itself, see how to brew gong fu tea.
Brew them together once, same pot, same weight of leaf, and you will not mix them up again. Questions about a specific liu bao? Write to us.