Liu An Gua Pian

Where it grows

The districts recorded against this tea, all of them in China. Elevation is given as the band the district is recorded at, not a measurement of the garden this leaf came from.

• Lu’an — 100–800 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Leaf separation by hand (ban pian) — Separates leaf blades from the bud and the stem of each fresh shoot by hand, and sorts them by position, producing a batch of uniform single leaves before any heat is applied.
2. 2. Withering — Reduces water content, softens the leaf for later handling, and permits early enzymatic and aromatic development.
3. 3. Kill-green (fixation) — Denatures polyphenol oxidase and related enzymes, arresting enzymatic oxidation.
4. 4. Roasting — Drives off residual moisture and drives thermal reactions in the finished leaf, deepening colour and building toasted aromatics.
5. 5. Drying — Reduces residual moisture to a level at which enzymatic, microbial and oxidative change effectively stops, stabilising the leaf for storage.
6. 6. Pulling the old fire (la lao huo) — Applies very high radiant heat in repeated brief exposures with redistribution between each, taking the leaf to a low final moisture without holding it long enough at temperature to scorch.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Single-leaf charcoal-fired green tea (Liu An Gua Pian) — The only Chinese green manufacture with no rolling in it at all: each leaf is separated from its bud and stem by hand, fired in two pans, and finished over a white-hot charcoal fire.

  Where it is practised: Lu'an in western Anhui, and chiefly the Dabie mountain townships around Qishushan and Jinzhai. It is not made anywhere else, and the labour the hand separation requires is the reason.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

• Leaf separation by hand (ban pian)
  • lowers Caffeine
  • lowers L-theanine
• Withering
  • creates Geraniol
  • creates Linalool
  • creates Linalool oxides
  • creates Theasinensins
  • raises Methyl salicylate
  • raises Nerolidol
  • raises Soluble sugars
  • lowers cis-3-Hexenol
  • lowers Green-leaf volatiles
  • lowers Leaf lipids
• Kill-green (fixation)
  • locks 2-Phenylethanol
  • locks Anthocyanins
  • locks Catechins
  • locks cis-3-Hexenol
  • locks Green-leaf volatiles
  • locks L-theanine
  • locks Leaf lipids
  • locks Methylated catechins
  • locks Theogallin
• Roasting
  • converts Free amino acids
  • converts L-theanine
  • converts Soluble sugars
  • creates Pyrazines
  • raises Beta-ionone
  • lowers Glutamic acid
• Drying
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
  • raises Beta-damascenone
  • raises Thearubigins
• Pulling the old fire (la lao huo)
  • creates Epimerised catechins
  • creates Melanoidins
  • creates Strecker aldehydes

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

History

A tribute tea under the Qing dynasty, and unique among famous Chinese greens in discarding both bud and stem to use a single mature leaf. The practice is labour-intensive and was nearly abandoned in the twentieth century before being revived commercially.

TeaHQ synthesis — TeaHQ's own reading of well-attested general knowledge, with no single source behind it.

Brewing

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 80–90 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Grandpa style

  0.5–1 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Open in the brew assistant

• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)

  3–4 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 4 authored infusions

  Needs: Gaiwan

  Open in the brew assistant

Common mistakes

• Brewing it as gently as a bud tea, which leaves it hollow

When the cup goes wrong

Written against green tea as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order. 37 apply to the category; the first 6 are shown.

• I bought a big bag to save money and it was stale before I finished it — A large quantity bought at a good unit price faded well before it was drunk, so the saving turned into waste.
• I bought a water filter for my tea and it changed nothing — A filter jug or tap filter was bought specifically to improve the tea, and the cup tastes the same as it did before — with the same dullness, the same film and the same scale in the kettle.
• I have too many teas open and most of them are going stale — A dozen or more packets are open at once, three or four get drunk regularly, and the rest fade quietly on the shelf until they are thrown away.
• Leaves stick to the cup, the pot and my teeth — Fine leaf clings to the inside of the vessel, comes through into the cup, and ends up in the last mouthful.
• My bamboo whisk is losing tines — Fine bamboo tines snap off during whisking and turn up in the bowl, and the whisk feels stiff and splayed.
• My cold brew tastes like faintly flavoured water — After a night in the fridge the jug is pale and tastes of very little, with none of the sweetness cold brewing is supposed to give.

Every diagnosed brewing problem

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

Compare this tea with another

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison. Each one is a written page with the points of difference argued out.

• Liu An Gua Pian vs Liu Bao — A green tea from Anhui and a dark tea from Guangxi whose names collide in English transliteration and nowhere else. They are about as far apart as two teas can be. Put the two side by side