Taiping Houkui is an unusual green tea because of its long leaves. Wonderful to brew in a narrow tall glass. It tastes like a green tea but it is somewhat softer to drink than other green teas which are usually more grassy. The tea has a sweet aftertaste.
The Taiping Houkui is a unique tea because of its long leaves. Taiping was developed about 100 years ago and is now a highly regarded tea. Brewing in a tall glass is a beautiful sight.
The tea is made from a variety of the tea plant with large long leaves, the Shi Da Cha Zhong. The tea is picked a little later in the spring, in late April when the leaves are a little more mature but still tender. Two to three leaves are picked.
The plants grow on Yellow Mountain near the beautiful Taiping Lake. The plantation is located near Hou Gang village, Yellow Mountain city in Anhui province. The production method of this tea is very unique and is mainly done manually. Picking, roasting and lining up the leaves to be pressed.
This pressing, however, can be done either by machine or by hand, in either case between linen cloths. Machine-pressed gives a wafer-thin result with a distinct lattice pattern. The disadvantage is that the structure of the leaf is not preserved as well, so the tea becomes bitter a little faster. Also, because of the pressure, more juices are squeezed out of the leaf so the taste is also slightly reduced.
