I got my box from Jing Tea Shop today. Since I'd never had a Liu An before, I decided to start with the sample of the '95 liu an. I wasn't sure what to expect, as the descriptions I had read were pretty varied, from earthy to beet like.
I used water around 190F and something similar to Mikes wrong fu method. Aproximately 2 tsp to 2 oz of water, starting with very short steeps in the
5-7 second range. My first impression was loamy soil and chocolate, with a very thick mouth feel. A very interesting combination. There was a sweetness, but it wasn't like the sweetness I'm used to in pu-erhs. It was more of a mild sweetness in the hint of chocolate than a flavor of it's own.
As the steeps continued, it started to remind me of an aged oolong I had purchased last year. It was an oolong that was supposed to have been reroasted each year for a number of years. While they were similar, I wasn't real fond of the oolong, but liked the liu an. It held up to many steeps before the flavor and mouthfeel began to thin out.
It's not a tea I would want to drink everyday, but was a nice stop on the tea journey.
Blues
Drinking 1999 Raw Xia Guan Bao Yan Jin Cha and listening to the rare So Cal Rain.