Taiping Houkui

Long strands of emerald green with a fragrance so fresh, it would make one believe they were picked this very morning. Made from young leaves of the Shi Da Ye cultivar, a tea plant cultivated in the North of Anhui province known for its remarkable leaf size, Taiping Houkui gets its characteristic shape from being pressed instead of being rolled like most contemporary green teas. This particular tea is handmade, as evidenced by the less uniform shaping of the leaves. While both handmade and machine-processed teas can show small mesh imprints, handmade leaves are typically pressed more gently and irregularly, rather than being compressed into a uniformly flat, paper-like sheet.

The alluring appearance of Taiping Houkui is a familiar sight to many tea drinkers, but it’s not all looks. As its leaves stand tall and expand while steeping in a glass, almost blooming as they get soaked with water, they exude an aroma that is fresh and vegetal on the one hand, calling to mind raw spinach leaves and pods of fresh snow peas, and deeply floral on the other, with the intoxicating scent of budding orchids. Upon imbibing, these fragrances mix with the subtle taste of water chestnut in a tea soup that carries more weight in the mouth than one would expect at first. It’s smooth and feels fuller than other green teas, all the while maintaining its sensation of freshness. An intriguing and engaging companion for a myriad of tea moments.

Written by Sigi