Sold outPre order
Taiping Houkui Spring Tea
Encounter a heart-warming tea container, taking a sip or two of light and elegant tea in the middle of a busy schedule; between touch and vision, clearly comprehend heaven, earth and people of nature and ingenuity.
Frequently Bought Together
Description
- Chinese: tài píng hóu kuí lǜ chá chūn chá
- Translation: Tai Ping Hou Kui Green Tea Spring Tea
- Type: Green Tea
- Cultivar: Shi Da Ye
- Origin: Huangshan, Anhui
- Harvest Date: 2025/04/14
- Storage Methods: Refrigeration, Sealing, Moistureproof, Avoid light
- Tea Master: Liu Laohan
- Taiping Houkui, meaning literally ( the tea ) by Mr Wang “Kui” Cheng of the “Hou” small valley (Hou Kang Village) in the “Taiping” county. The tea that people here used to produce with Shidaya was Jiancha, a tea that is still available today, and sometimes sold under the Taiping Houkui label. Early last century Mr Wang felt he could make a better tea of the particularly strong tea bushes in his farm so he selected the best of his plucks and gave it some additional handy work during the processing: instead of just rolling the leaves lightly to keep them straight as in Jiancha, he pressed them between meshes with a roller during the low fire baking process to make them really thin and straight. This amazing looking tea was born.
- Taiping Houkui (Tài Píng Hóu Kuí, "Great Peace Monkey Chief") - Everything about this tea is remarkable, from the unique cultivar used to its laborious and intensive processing method, down to its name which means “Great Peace Monkey Chief.” Hailing from Anhui province’s famous Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain), Tài Píng Hóu Kuí is one of China’s most famous green teas, and won global recognition by being awarded a gold medal at the 1915 World’s Fair in Panama.
- This is Taiping Houkui, produced by a specially designated tea cultivar, Shidaye, a native of what used to be Taiping county, now part of Huangshan city administration. A small shrub in itself, yet with large young leaves that make this particular tea possible.
- The last of the famous Chinese green teas to be picked each spring, this tea has a very short picking window of around 15 days, which starts from 谷雨 (literally “grain rain”) and runs until the start of summer (立夏). Houkui from the core region is severely limited for those who haven’t reserved theirs ahead of time. Within this period, there are often only 1-2 pickings, which only contributes to its scarcity.
- For starters, Tài Píng Hóu Kuí is the largest-leafed Chinese green tea, grown from a cultivar known as Shì Dà Zhǒng (“Persimmon Big Type”) because its leaves are as big as those of a persimmon (not really, it’s hyperbole). They are processed over more than 24 hours, with picking beginning at dawn and ending once the morning dew has dried. The picking window can be as short as a week or two, depending on the weather, and there is an entire ephemeral village at the top of the mountain that is uninhabited for most of the year that exists just for this brief flurry of activity.
- The freshly picked tea is allowed to rest before being fixed through the Shā Qīng ("Kill the Green") process and fastidiously hand-straightened and subjected to a gradual drying process involving 6 different treatments of charcoal at varying temperatures. The result is instantly recognizable by its huge, flat leaves, full, sweet taste with no bitterness, and vibrant Qi.
- Made from first-picking, local “Shidaye” cultivar bushes in Houcun, this particular tea combines a sugary sweetness with a nice orchid fragrance in the back of the throat. The texture in the soup is full and refined, with an embedded fragrance that makes this tea very cohesive. Compared to other famous green teas, this Houkui truly stands out as perhaps the most elegant among them, not just in appearance but in the soup as well.
-
You can’t escape using a tall glass to make tea with this.
One for its sheer size, two for its fresh green look. It would be a waste to hide it.One great way to render the best taste profile of this tea is by way of the polarized temperature (ice-fire) technique:
-Put a few ice cubes at the bottom of the glass, and then 3~4 grams of the tea for each 200ml of the capacity.
-Slowly, but steadily pour boiling water into the glass, going round the inner circumference.
-Cover and let steep for 6 minutes.
-Use 80°C water for subsequent infusions if you do not use ice. -
Glass Cup Brewing Method:
-The ratio of green tea to water is 1:50, and a glass cup of about 300ml can pour 5g of tea.
-Pour water into the cup (the water temperature is 80~85°C), pour it slowly along the wall of the cup, and let the tea leaves fully infiltrate. The speed of water injection should not be too fast.
-Wait for 3 to 5 minutes, and you can drink the delicious green tea soup. When you drink 1/3 of the teacup, you can refill the water again, usually brewing three times.
Taiping Houkui Spring Tea
$12.77
Sample 10g