What is the difference between Liubao tea and Anhua dark tea? The soup review will tell you!

A few days ago, a tea lover contacted Inspector Tea on WeChat and wanted to talk to us about the differences between Anhua dark tea and Liubao tea. A few days later, we received several dark tea samples from this tea lover. As for the tea inspector, he is relatively Buddhist. After receiving the tea sample, he handed the tea to me, so I will complete this essay written by a tea friend.

Although Anhua dark tea and Liubao tea, members of the dark tea family, have the same characteristics of "old and mellow", they are different due to differences in raw materials, technology, shapes and other details. What are the differences? Let’s take a look.

01 The historical origins of Anhua dark tea and Liubao tea

Dark tea has a long history and has been around since the Tang Dynasty, but Anhua dark tea has a long history with Liubao tea. But there is not much intersection. Anhua dark tea is a "tea sold on the border" and is exclusively supplied to my country's northwest border, plateau and pastoral areas; while Liubao tea is a "tea sold overseas" and is mainly sold to Hong Kong and Macao and exported to Southeast Asian countries. They are two completely different brands. Transportation and marketing of tea.

The only place where they overlap is that the Wuzhou Tea Factory produced Fu Brick Tea in the 1970s.

It was the era of planned economy. The state issued a certain number of mandatory plans to the major tea-producing provinces south of the Yangtze River every year, requiring each major tea-producing province to produce Fu Brick tea according to the formula and technology of Fu Brick. Allocate to ethnic minority areas and border areas to support local production and construction and ensure the daily needs of ethnic minority people for tea.

At that time, the Wuzhou Tea Factory, as a designated tea production enterprise for border sales, used the crude raw materials of Liubao tea and produced hundreds of tons of Fu brick tea using the Fu brick production process, and supplied it to Xinjiang, Qinghai, etc. area and has been generally welcomed by the people in the northwest frontier. The batch of Fu brick tea currently on the market is already a rare commodity.

02 Differences in technology and form

In terms of technology, the initial production processes of Anhua dark tea and Liubao tea are basically similar, but the stacking process is very different.

Anhua black tea can be piled directly without breaking the pieces after the initial kneading, and the pile can be completed in about 1 day; while Liubao tea needs to be broken into pieces 1 to 2 times after rolling, and divided into pieces. The specific time for sifting and heaping depends on the weather conditions and the quality of the leaves. [1]

In terms of form, Anhua dark tea is mainly composed of rectangular brick tea, "three-pointed" tea, and long cylindrical Huajuan tea (Qianliang tea); Liubao tea is mainly It is a large basket of tea of ??30 to 50kg.

03 Taste characteristics

We selected four of the tea samples to make soup to see what the characteristics of each of these dark teas are.

(1) Dry tea

In terms of appearance, these dark teas are more "bold" than Liubao tea, with lush golden flowers, even distribution, and tight bricks. Strong and solid.

If we use Liubao tea as an analogy, 2014 Tianjian tea is equivalent to the second-grade tea of ??Liubao tea, Huajuan tea is similar to Lao Chapo, and the second-grade Tianjian tea has old leaves and thick stems. Similar to Erbai tea.

Objectively speaking, compared to Liubao Tea, Anhei's appearance is thicker and older.

(2) Taste

The tea soup of the four black teas is orange-yellow, and the Fuzhuan tea has golden flowers and obvious fungus and flower aroma, but the taste is slightly sour and the production of body fluids is slightly shallow; 2014 Tianjian tea has a very obvious smell of smoke. It is speculated that it should be dried using a traditional seven-star stove. It is similar to smoked Liubao tea. The tea soup is soft and slightly thin; Huajuan tea is made from thick and old leaves. It has a slightly rough green flavor in the mouth, but the soup is sweet and elegant, just like the old tea lady in Liubao tea; the second-grade Tianjian has a nectar fragrance, which melts into the soup, and the astringency on the tongue is obvious, which can be melted away , although the appearance is similar to Erbai tea in Liubao tea, the aroma is closer to Liubao tea buds.

After a few brews, the difference in texture and taste between Anhua dark tea and Liubao tea is quite big. Generally speaking, the degree of fermentation of Anhei is lighter than that of Liubao tea. The taste style is mainly fresh and refreshing, and the mellowness is not as rich as Liubao tea. The style is more like Liubao tea with single steaming process.

(3) Leaf bottom

The bottom of the leaf is green-brown and yellow-brown. The leaf is soft and has many leaf stems.

Conclusion

We have roughly compared the differences between Anhei and Liubao tea in terms of taste. Of course, this is just a personal opinion, but generally speaking, the degree of fermentation is different. The difference creates a different taste style, which is unmistakable.

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