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Handmade Tai Ping Hou Kui Green Tea harvested from Hou Keng Village
Largest sized tea leaves among all kinds of green teas
Tai Ping Hou Kui, translated as Tai Ping Monkey King, is one of the 10 most famous Chinese Tea, with the longest and largest sized tea leaves among all kinds of green teas. Its name “Hou Kui” means “Monkey King”, as there is an old legend saying the tea is picked by Monkey in the “Monkey Pit”. “Tai Ping” literally refers to its place of origin – Tai Ping country, which is the old name of Huang Shan, Anhui, a famous and excellent tea production area with a long history of tea production. Among the top 10 famous teas of China, Anhui accounts for four of them, including Tai Ping Hou Kui, Lu An Gua Pian, Huang Shan Mao Feng, and Qimen Black Tea, they are all from Huang Shan area of Anhui.
This year, we have chosen this first flush batch of Tai Ping Hou Kui from its core production area – Hou Keng Village. When we take the first sip of it, we were immediately impressed by its apparent and lingering orchid fragrance.This year’s batch has fat tea buds with lots of white pekoe, which greatly increase its umami and sweetness. It taste refreshing and elegant with orchid and light bean and nutty notes, with long-lasting aftertaste. As it is made of mature leaves, it is relatively strong in taste and light in grassiness when comparing with other green tea, but it never show astringency at all, it can be re-steep for many times.
Why do Tai Ping Hou Kui have huge leaves?
It is difficult not to be attracted by its appearance when you first see Taiping Hou Kui. The tea leaves is very long, with 5-7cm long. It is pressed flat and straight, and sharp at two ends. The size of Tai Ping Hou Kui is greatly related to its varietal and plucking methods. The tea tree – Shi Da Cha big leaf varietal has a unique characteristics of big leaves and slow growth. Its tea leaves are fat and large, it will not lose its freshness and tenderness even when it grows to two to three leaves. As the tea is made of mature leaves instead of young buds and leaves, and its plucking standard is one buds and 2-3 leaves, it is usually being harvested in late spring – after middle of April and the harvest period only last within 15-20 days. At that time, the mature leaves will be big enough to make the best quality of Tai Ping Hou Kui.
What is the making process of Tai Ping Hou Kui?
The hand-making process is very complex and time-consuming, after plucking the tea buds with 3-4 leaves, tea maker will need to extract only one bud with 2 leaves, and discard the extra leaves, leaving the stem with around 1cm long; It was then being lightly withered for losing some water content, and then being wok-fired for green-killing. After the step of kill-green, each tea leaves is then being evenly placed one by one on a wooden squared net grid, and being hand-pressed on the grid for shaping. The pressed tea leaves are then being baked several times.
What is the differences between Handmade and Machine-made Tai Ping Hou Kui?
The genuine handmade Hou Kui will have some remarkable grid pattern visible on the tea leaves, whereas the hou Kui made and pressed by machine will not have those grid pattern and is relatively thinner and lighter.
How to brew Tai Ping Hou Kui?
For brewing the Tea, we recommend to use a tall glass, every tea leaves will float vertically.
Glass Style: prepare a tall glass, pre-warm the glass by rinsing it, fill your glass with 80-85°c water, add tea leaves (3g), let it rest for 1 minute, enjoy (Don’t drink the whole glass, left 1/3 of Tea liquor in the glass for resteeping, add 30’s each time)
Harvest Date: 19 April 2024
Weight per pack: 25g/ 50g/ 100g
Tea Farm Location: Hou Keng Village, Huang Shan, Anhui
Varietal: Shi Da Cha Big Leaf Varietal
Tasting Notes: refreshing, orchid fragrance, floral notes, light nutty notes
Dry Leaves Appearance: large, long, flat, green with some pekoe in between
Tea Liquor Colour: bright and clear light yellow-green
