The excellence of any good Liu Bao tea always consists in three factors: a fine raw material is the base; a right technology guarantees the quality; a proper aging process further improves the flavors. Therein, the key point of aging is storage, and cellar storage (窖藏) is a method that only exists in Liu Bao production. The tea cellar is a type of brick houses with stable conditions throughout the year (temperature 22℃-28℃, humidity 75%-85%), that can be often found in Liu Bao town. The function of tea cellar was discovered accidentally. Until the early 1950's, even the tea factories didn't pay much attention to how a proper storage could greatly improve the quality of Liu Bao tea, they just stored their tea in wherever available they could make use of, including in the bomb shelters, which is the prototype of tea cellar. The cool temperature and high humidity inside the bomb shelters provide a perfect environment for the microorganisms that form the final flavors of a newly fermented and steamed Liu Bao tea; thus, cellar storage finally becomes an effective process which nowadays is often applied in the production of many Liu Bao teas.
 
However, the temporal high percentage of humidity in the tea cellar doesn’t mean that it is a humid storage in the traditional sense. During the aging process in the factory (at least 180 days, according to the national standards), the tea was removed to a low-humidity wood storage, then to a drying storage, before it was packed and came out in the market. Therefore, in spite of being a tea just aged for three years, this 2019/2021 Cellar Stored Liu Bao #6166 already has some slight aging aroma, and doesn’t have any unpleasant odor of fermentation that often exists in many young Liu Bao teas.  Being a tea made from first grade tender harvest, it provides a very smooth and flavorful liquor, and indeed is one of the most economical products of high quality that you can find on the market.