1980s Sun Yi Shun Liu An

Highlights:

• Great clean Taiwan storage (very rare on this type of tea)
• Thick, rich, dark and clean
• Strong calming Qi, moves through the body clearing it
• One of the most refined old teas you can find
• Truly elegant in taste, Qi and aroma

I love old Liu An a lot – but it’s nearly impossible to find a basket that has all three of: good leaves material, good storage, affordable pricing – I’ve been trying so hard for many years to find one and finally I found some

Clean storage is particularly hard to find for this type of tea (most have been in HK for too long), and after that the second difficulty it’s price – the market price for an average quality basket with so-so storage is higher than what we’re selling it for now.

In terms of taste it’s such a lovely, sweet, rich and elegant brew with a good long aftertaste – not powerful but rather so comfortable. It’s not quite like old puerh, hard to describe but so worth to experience.

In terms of Qi, it also must be experienced to get it, but you can think of it as profoundly impacting you. A (very expert) customer who tried this tea described as “strongest Qi I ever had”, and I can agree in some senses – of course it doesn’t have the kick of a new lao ban zhang but rather a much deeper “in the body” Qi that leaves one feeling really comfortable.

Like all tea of the period, it spent it first years in HK but the storage has not been too wet and it’s not really perceivable, it drinks very clean. The little dust you see on the leaves is not from the storage comes from insects eating the bamboo leaves, it can be brushed off and gives no taste to the tea (some people say it’s very healthy even).

There were only 10 baskets available, almost half are gone already.

Introduction to Liu An

Liu An is the closest Heicha (“dark tea”) to Puerh, and Sun Yi Shun is arguably its best producer. A refined tea made in Anhui, it needs to age at least 25+ years (in our opinion) to be consumed, is a bit more explicitly medicinal and refined compared to Puerh.

Hong Kong tea houses had a saying “Puerh downstairs, Liu An upstairs” signifying how Liu An would be reserved to the most exclusive guests (admitted to the private upstairs part of the tea house).

1970s and earlier Liu An are really magical both in taste and Qi, 1980s are great, and 1990s are pretty good too. The bamboo leaf, of which a small piece can be added to the tea when brewing, gives it some of it’s unique, powerful, medicine qualities when it’s aged enough.

Liu An quality standard were all pretty high, while this is a great tea to drink now (we do drink it now very satisfactorily), it can also be aged further.

I conclude with a quote by Chan Kam Pong (emphasis mine):

“As a tea collector, it is no doubt that aged Liu-an (六安) is one of the best collectible items which can be brewed whenever I want. Apart from its sweetness and pleasant aftertaste which are the basic good tastes of well aged tea, most importantly, aged Liu-an offers an overall balanced performance which provides relaxation and status of comfort. Drinking such kind of tea is not to pursue the strong taste or very powerful aftertaste. On the contrary, tea connoisseurs are pursuing the satisfaction, relaxation and comfort from the cups of aged tea.”

Very big 500g (17.6oz) baskets nominal, weight loss over the years because of aging.