Compare two teas
Side by side across seven dimensions. There is no verdict and no winner — the purpose is to understand the difference, not to be told which to buy.
TeaHQ has written about this pair
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.
- Category
- Liu Bao: Dark tea — wet-piled and then aged.Liu An Gua Pian: Green tea.
- Province
- Liu Bao: Guangxi.Liu An Gua Pian: Anhui.
- What the name means
- Liu Bao: Six Forts, a place name in Guangxi. No relation.Liu An Gua Pian: Melon seed tea from Lu'an — for the flat oval shape of the pieces.
- What is unusual about it
- Liu Bao: Wet-piled like shou pu-erh but from a separate tradition, with its own pile technique and a long basket ageing after it.Liu An Gua Pian: Made from mature leaf alone: no bud, no stem, each leaf de-veined by hand.
- What it tastes like
- Liu Bao: Areca, damp wood, dried longan and old books. Smooth and sweet with no drying edge.Liu An Gua Pian: Toasted chestnut and charcoal over sweet grass — unusually deep for a green tea.
- How to brew it
- Liu Bao: Boiling water, and it will take a great many infusions.Liu An Gua Pian: Green tea temperatures. It is more forgiving than most greens because the leaf is mature.
- How it ages
- Liu Bao: Ageing is the point, and it is sold by year.Liu An Gua Pian: It does not. Drink it fresh like any green tea.
In summary: Nothing links these two teas except a syllable. Worth knowing because a search for one returns the other constantly, and because Liu Bao is the more interesting answer to 'what else is like shou pu-erh' than most of the teas usually offered.
Point by point
| Dimension | Liu Bao | Liu An Gua Pian |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Dark tea and pu-erh · not applicable · post-fermented (wet piling then ageing) | Green tea · unoxidised |
| Production | In order: Withering → Kill-green (fixation) → Rolling and shaping → Drying → Wet piling (wo dui) → Ageing and storage. spring harvest. | In order: Leaf separation by hand (ban pian) → Withering → Kill-green (fixation) → Roasting → Drying → Pulling the old fire (la lao huo). light roast, mature leaf and spring harvest. |
| Origin | China | China — Lu’an |
| Flavour | woody, earthy, sweet and fruity. smooth, full bodied and silky in the mouth. Aroma: areca, damp wood, dried longan, old books. Layered in character. Moderate in intensity. | roasted, nutty and sweet. medium and smooth in the mouth. Aroma: toasted chestnut, charcoal, sweet grass, melon. Moderate in character. Moderate in intensity. |
| Brewing | Gongfu brewing (gaiwan): 5–7 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 10s of 6 authored. Boiling and decoction: 0.5–1 g/100 ml at 95–100 °C, first steep 600s. Gongfu brewing (Yixing pot): 5–7 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 10s of 6 authored. Western brewing (teapot or mug): 1.5–2.5 g/100 ml at 95–100 °C, first steep 180s. Boiling aged and dark tea (zhu cha): 0.8–1.5 g/100 ml at 98–100 °C, first steep 300s. | Western brewing (teapot or mug): 1.5–2.5 g/100 ml at 80–90 °C, first steep 150s. Grandpa style: 0.5–1 g/100 ml at 75–85 °C, first steep 180s. Gongfu brewing (gaiwan): 3–4 g/100 ml at 75–85 °C, first steep 20s of 4 authored. |
| Cultural context | Not recorded for this tea. | Not recorded for this tea. |
| Who may prefer it | Someone who wants presence without being dominated and wants to enjoy it on the first cup. It tolerates an imprecise brew. | Someone who wants presence without being dominated and wants to enjoy it on the first cup. It tolerates an imprecise brew. |
Nothing above is a recommendation. The last row describes the drinker each tea suits, using each tea’s own authored fields and the same sentence structure for both, so neither can be framed as the safe choice.