Liu An六安

Liu An is a anhui-dark pu-erh & dark tea from Lu'an, Anhui, China. Brew it at 100°C with 6g of leaf per 100ml of water; expect up to 9 short infusions in a small gaiwan or teapot. A quick rinse is recommended.

Tasting notes

Don't confuse this with Lu'an Gua Pian — that's a green tea, nothing alike. Liu An hei cha is the Anhui counterpart to Liu Bao, basket-aged and slow, and it asks for patience. A young basket (under 5 years) drinks thick and a bit rough: heavy earth, a dry-leaf astringency, a touch of barnyard that needs airing out. Fresh Liu An is not the point. The point is what 20 or 30 years in a bamboo basket does to it. Aged Liu An goes quiet and deep — dried Chinese medicinal herb, aged sandalwood, a faint camphor lift, and an almost umami savoriness underneath. Traditionalists drop a scrap of the bamboo lining into the pot; it adds a soft grassy-sweet edge that pulls everything together. Boiling water, a proper 10-second rinse, and slightly longer steeps than you'd give pu-erh. Premium aged Liu An is genuinely rare and expensive. Worth it once you know what you're tasting for.

Flavor profile

A rare basket-aged dark tea often consumed with pieces of the bamboo basket itself. Young Liu An is intense and full-bodied with pronounced earthiness. With age, it develops remarkable depth and complexity — dried herb, aged wood, and a clean medicinal quality emerge. The bamboo basket imparts subtle woody-sweet notes over decades of storage.

Terroir

Mountainous Anhui, traditional bamboo basket storage environment

Brewing

Rinse: Rinse 10 seconds to remove dust from decades of basket storage.

1. Quick rinse — pour off immediately.
2. Steep 1: 15 seconds
3. Steep 2: 20 seconds
4. Steep 3: 25 seconds
5. Steep 4: 30 seconds
6. Steep 5: 40 seconds
7. Steep 6: 50 seconds
8. Steep 7: 60 seconds
9. Steep 8: 80 seconds
10. Steep 9: 120 seconds

Traditionally brewed including small pieces of the bamboo basket lining. Aged examples (20+ years) are particularly prized. Use boiling water — this tea can handle maximum heat.

Aroma & taste

Processing

• kill-green
• rolled
• pile-fermented
• dried
• packed in bamboo baskets
• aged

Sources

• https://white2tea.com/products/2021-liuan-gongjian
• https://white2tea.com/products/2019-liuan-tegong
• https://teadb.org/category/liuan-heicha/
• https://yunnansourcing.com/pages/understanding-anhua-tian-jian-dark-tea