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Tea leaf from Liupao

Liu Bao tea (Liupao)六堡茶

Liupao is a Guangxi dark tea. In the traditional craft, fresh leaf is spread, pan-fired, rolled and partly dried, then piled warm in bamboo baskets for about half a day. The modern craft instead piles the tea in large heaps for far longer, 70 days in one study. Both are then aged, and golden-flower moulds can grow in the stored tea.

Fully documentedTea leaf10 h – 12 h

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe traditional-craft study gives no batch size. A pile studied in the long-pile modern craft held about 2 tons of leaf (Liang 2024).
Fresh tea leaves, one bud with two or three leavesLingyun Baihao cultivar in the study of the traditional craft[liu2024]

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 h – 12 h

Start
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What changes: Fresh leaves are spread, pan-fired to take off the grassy smell, and rolled

Step 1 of 4
Spread, pan-fire and roll the fresh leaf
Time
15 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Aspergillus
Moulds

Output: rolled leaf.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Liupao is a Guangxi dark tea. In the traditional craft, fresh leaf is spread, pan-fired, rolled and partly dried, then piled warm in bamboo baskets for about half a day. The modern craft instead piles the tea in large heaps for far longer, 70 days in one study. Both are then aged, and golden-flower moulds can grow in the stored tea. Made in 4 steps over 10 h – 12 h. The longest step, pile in gauze-lined bamboo baskets (traditional craft), takes 10–12 h (Liu H 2024) and runs at 22–26 °C (Liu H 2024). Aspergillus and Golden-flower moulds: Aspergillus cristatus, A. chevalieri and A. pseudoglaucus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step10–12 hReported[liu2024]Pile in gauze-lined bamboo baskets (traditional craft)
Temperature22–26 °CReported[liu2024]Pile in gauze-lined bamboo baskets (traditional craft)

What makes this one different

The traditional craft piles the warm, part-dried leaf in baskets for only about half a day, far shorter than the month-long piles of Sichuan or ripe pu-erh. The modern craft piles the tea for far longer (70 days in one studied pile), and golden-flower moulds can bloom in stored tea as in Fu brick.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Long-pile Liupao (modern craft)In one study, piles 2.3 m long, 1.8 m wide and 0.5 m high, holding about 2 tons of leaf, were fermented for 70 days.
  • Golden-flower LiupaoAspergillus cristatus and related moulds bloom in the tea.
  • Monascus-fermented Liupao (experimental)Baked green tea wetted with water or Monascus purpureus liquid and heaped at 25 °C and 75 % humidity, turned every 6 days.

Safety

A 2021 market survey in Guangxi found B-type fumonisins, toxins made by moulds, in 9 of 46 Liupao samples, at most 11.00 µg/kg of any one fumonisin. Across the positive tea samples of all types in the survey, no fungal hyphae were seen. The authors estimated that Guangxi tea drinkers' exposure was far below the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Named after Liubao town in Guangxi. It is known as an "overseas Chinese tea", with Malaysia and Singapore among its main markets (Ye 2026). It has a national standard, GB/T 32719.4-2016.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [liu2024] Liu H., Huang Y., Liu Z. et al. 2024, Determination of the variations in the metabolic profiles and bacterial communities during traditional craftsmanship Liupao tea processing, Food Chemistry X 101516paper
  2. [liang2024] Liang J., Wu H., Lu M., Li Y. 2024, HS-SPME-GC-MS untargeted metabolomics reveals key volatile compound changes during Liupao tea fermentation, Food Chemistry X 101764paper
  3. [cui2025] Cui P., Li J., Yao T., Gan Z. 2025, Fungal community composition and function in different Chinese post-fermented teas, Scientific Reports 15paper
  4. [wang2022] Wang Z., Jin Q., Li Q. et al. 2022, Multiplex PCR identification of Aspergillus cristatus and Aspergillus chevalieri in Liupao tea based on orphan genes, Foods 11:2217paper
  5. [ye2026] Ye S., Piao C., Huang H. et al. 2026, Chemical diversity and microbial complexity of Liupao tea aroma, a comprehensive review, Foods 15:2832paper
  6. [zhou2024] Zhou X., Tian D., Zhou H. et al. 2024, Effects of different fermentation methods on flavor quality of Liupao tea using GC-Q-TOF-MS and electronic nose analyses, Foods 13:2595paper
  7. [gbt32719-4] GB/T 32719.4-2016, Dark tea, part 4, Liupao tea (黑茶 第4部分:六堡茶), national standard of China (register entry read; text not read)spec
  8. [qiu2023] Qiu T., Zhu J., Zhang H. et al. 2023, B-type fumonisins in post-fermented tea, occurrence and consumer dietary exposure in Guangxi, China, Toxins 15(9):534paper