This is a little unusual as liubao goes - it was produced by Liang Rui Sheng (a company in Ipoh, Malaysia) around the late 80's. Instead of being packaged in a bamboo basket, the leaves were compressed in a single 40kg cylinder and wrapped in white sacks with a pink inner ticket
The leaves were unfermented initially (giving the name Qingcha - with the Qing (raw) character stamped on the bags). This tea has needed a long time to reach maturity - it tasted a bit raw for a long time, almost like a roasted oolong, but with decades of storage in the heat and humidity of Malaysia it has now reached a good depth, with nice deep aged flavours and good vibrancy remaining.
This particular basket has been in our own storage for more than a decade and we've decided to slowly release it for sale.
