A tea master’s answer to sample storage
For Gao Liuzhou, the tasting bench is a laboratory. Over decades of evaluating hundreds of samples a season, he grew frustrated with mismatched jars and lids that leaked aroma. He wanted a set that was as transparent as his own tasting process — literally.
In 2025 he sat down with a family-run glass studio in Beijing’s Shunyi district, where three generations have blown laboratory-grade borosilicate. They settled on a 100ml format — large enough for a proper visual assessment, small enough to keep a week’s worth of rotation without the tea going flat. The walls are thinner than commercial jars, which reduces weight and makes the colour of the leaves pop under the adjustable lamps of a cupping table.
The stoppers arrived later. Gao tested silicone, bamboo, and metal before returning to Portuguese cork, chosen for its micro-porosity that allows the slightest breath while blocking outside odours. Each cork is cut slightly oversized and shaved down by hand until it seats with a soft pop — a sound he considers part of the morning’s quiet pleasure.
The bamboo tray was designed to match. Its wells are spaced exactly so that six jars sit without touching, and a low lip catches any stray leaf fragments. The set has since become standard in Gao’s own training workshops, where students learn to store sheng pu-erh samples next to delicate green teas without cross-contamination.