Tai Ping Hou Kui Green Tea

Wow, these leaves are GIGANTIC! The shortest was over 3" long.

The dry leaves smelled earthy, deeply vegetal and sweet. The liquor was a neon green.

I brewed this in my glass bodum coffee press to watch the huge thick leaves swell. The cup was light and pleasant, with a clean fresh feel. No sweetness but no hint of astringency either. I feel like this would make an excellent introduction for someone who’s new to green tea.

I wanted to find out more about this tea and found that Teavivre has added some wonderful information, maps, and history to their site. I found it very interesting, and it’s neat to know exactly where the tea you’re drinking comes from.
http://www.teavivre.com/taiping-houkui-green-tea (It’s under the “more info” tab)

I’m not a big green tea drinker, or at least I never used to be. Black tea was always ‘tea’ in my head. Part of it just has to do with repetition. When you order black tea, you just ask for tea. If you want green tea, you typically have to specify. Or, taken a different way… if a restaurant only has iced tea, it will probably be iced black tea (or ‘sweet tea’).

Long story short, I don’t have a lot of green experience, and it’s all very new and a little weird. I had a somewhat disparaging experience with the Golden Moon Sencha, which served to entrench my belief in the dominance of black tea in a not-insignificant way.

So, bring in the samples from Teavivre! This one was sent to Missy actually (although, she told Angel that we’d both be drinking it… and I think they definitely upped the amount of tea they sent us because of that… so a big thank you to Angel and the Teavivre team!

Opening the bag on this tea… I was a little shocked. The leaves are huge, roughly four inches long (stop giggling). Depending on the size of your teapot and your infuser, you could really have trouble brewing this.

Then we brewed the tea. It smells a little vegetal, but the aroma isn’t strong or overwhelming. Just lightly like stewed plants.

The first sip… wow. There is a really noticeable sweetness to this green tea. It’s a very smooth, buttery, steamed vegetable flavor. It’s very pleasant, I’m not sure if it’s the sweetness or the complete lack of any bitter, seawater kind of flavor. It is a very, very good green tea.

More offerings like this could definitely make me a green tea drinker. Well, not as often as ‘real’ tea, but you know what I mean. For those of you that are really fond of green tea, I would definitely give this one a try.

Thanks again to Angel and the Teavivre team! This tea was delightful.

I have tried one other taiping houkui in the past. I tried it several times with varying parameters. While I learned to appreciate the cup I never really reached a point of deeply liking it. When TeaVivre offered the latest round of samples I wanted this one included. I wanted to know if it was the tea I wasn’t crazy about or the particular version.

The scent is grassy and fresh in aroma. I used the whole sample and steeped for a little over a minute. The resulting liquor was green tinted. The wet leaf made me think ocean and vegetal.

This bordered on bitter and sour but never crossed the line. The taste, to my poorly trained palate, is somewhere between a cross of bamboo shoots and celery leaf. It becomes sweeter as you sip. The aftertaste is long and lingering in a good way.

I enjoyed this without additives sweetener added nothing and really was more of a distraction. You will rarely hear me say that.

I can say once again TeaVivre has impressed me. While this may never be a must have staple in my tea drawer, I did greatly enjoy it and would gladly accept a cup if offered.

Angel from Teavivre approached me via email about trying some tea. Of course I agreed since Teavivre was already on my list of future places to buy tea from. I was pretty excited when I got my box with the little chinese characters on it. I wanted to rush out and try all of them right away, but at the same time I want to make sure I take time to enjoy the tea as well. I believe this is called a conundrum. So enough rambling and on to the tea.

This is a green I could enjoy in the future. With the greens I’ve tried so far, I decided I may be a black tea person. Some times greens just remind me of mushy vegetables, not a flavor I’m looking to keep around. I found this a bit vegetal but not in the mushy sort of way. It’s actually pretty sweet. I wonder if that is that orchid taste I read about. I’m going to have to smell some of those and compare. I found this tea steeps up decently at 1 and 2 minutes. At 2 minutes you get a deeper body but largely the same flavor profile. I’m glad I got the chance to try it. Thanks to Angel and Teavivre.

Teavivre sent me a huge sample of this… so exciting!

I opened up the little foil-sealed package, and the leaves on this are HUGE. At least two inches, and fairly wide, and very very thin. I’ve never seen leaves this big! They’re beautiful, and very bright green.

The liquor is one of those radioactive greens – very bright, very light, very yellow. But it tastes delicious. Sweet and a little vegetal, and there’s definitely a lingering smoky aftertaste. I definitely want to drink more of this :)

Thank you Teavivre for this sample.

Wow some of these leaves are huge! An estimation of 5cm long and 2cm wide, some of the largest leaves I have ever received. Half are large and the others have unfortunately broken in half :( but hey ho. In appearance the leaves are very thin in width but dry and slightly crisp to the touch. They are a mixture of dark and medium greens with a beautiful silver shine that always reminds me of cats eyes (well the way that they reflect anyway). After time to breathe from the packet the leaves have a sweet yet strongly green and vegetal scent. Rather broccoli and grassy in combo.

Using Teavivres steep guide I shall be doing the following:
Teapot – 8oz (roughly 200ml)
Leaves – (7g)
3 steeps – 1m,2m,3m
Temperature – 80ºC/176ºF

First Steep – Once steeped the tea is light yellow with a buttery and mineral green aroma with a little sweetness. Flavour is light and sweet with a floral and green nature. Not quite as mineral as the aroma but almost, like fresh broccoli with sweet flowers and a touch of butter. Light but a very nice introduction to the tea and what it has to offer.

Second Steep – The green mineral flavour is enhanced and very fresh tasting without being bitter, dry or perfumed. The sweetness has been toned down a little or at least blends in better than the previous steep. Still I must say it’s not as floral or strong as I was expecting but again it’s in a good way. As long as a green tea has flavour then it doesn’t matter about it’s strength.

Third Steep – This is the first steep that is so heavily mineral that it is a touch dry in the after taste but only minimally. All that is left after the mineral flavour is a hint of sweetness.

Overall – It’s a nice mineral green tea that remains fresh and light throughout. Another mild green tea hit for me.

I wanted to like this tea because it sounded really interesting when I read about it. Opening the sample pack it seemed promising, smelling of orchids and fresh vegetation pretty equally. I used the whole 5g sample for 200ml of 80C water.

I want to say “1st steep” here like normal, but I didn’t get past that one, and that was for just over one minute. The wet leaf smelled much more of cooked greens with a little bit of orchid. First I noticed a strong and lasting bitterness. Then I could find the cooked greens and orchid like in the wet leaf. And then the bitterness again. And maybe that developed into a mineral-like taste. And then just that bitterness.

I don’t think I did anything wrong here because I used my Breville One-Touch as a variable temp kettle, so the water was definitely right. Teavivre recommended steeps of 1, 2, and 3 minutes, so I didn’t oversteep. I tried all afternoon to make myself want to try for a second steep. I just couldn’t do it. I don’t want to blame the tea, so I’ll just say maybe it isn’t for me. I don’t know if I’ll try the second sample or not.

Another sample from TeaVivre.

Leaves are whole, long as they should be. These aren’t handcrafted premium Taiping Houkui leaves, but quantity-produced, decent looking stuff. Colour varies from fresh grass to darker seaweed, stored properly.

Dry leaves smell like dry grass, I get a surprisingly strong association of Japanese green teas. Something oceanic here.

Taste of the first brew is surprisingly thick, somewhat slimy, or swampy. Not unpleasent, but not something I’d expect from a green tea. I guess it’s because this isn’t exatly fresh anymore. My water was also cooler than necessary.

Second brew, with warmer water, brings more natural results. Fresher, this time I associate vegetality with jungle, rainforest maybe. Still far from fresh orchid garden I expect from TPHK, this is going that direction.

Third brew doesn’t bring anything new out.

Overall, I’m slightly disappointed with this tea. I wasn’t able to get out much more than “usual” green tastes, this isn’t very strong example of Taiping Houkui. Although leaves look fairly well preserved, I’d say this tasted much better nine months ago.

(This sample was generously provide to me by Teavivre. Big thanks to Angel and the whole Teavivre Team.)
Dry Leaf: Has a light vegetal smell with a nice sweet smell that almost comes to the front of the tea.
Wet Leaf: Had a vegetal smell think green bean with a almost slight toasted or warm smell that had a touch of sweetness in the back somewhere.
Liquor: Was a pale yellow with a nice brightness and good clarity.
Taste: Had a light but fresh vegetal flavor.And as the broth cools there was a faint floral note in the distanced background with a lingering sweetness.
My Score/ Over All Opinions: 87, This tea was good but, I want more stronger orchid like fragrances from the smell to the taste. Which is what this tea is known for. I know this tea was produced last year so that may have changed the tea. I am curious when Teavivre gets a fresh batch for this year will the tea be different from my opinions on this one?

I’m not sure how to rate this tea. It has a very clean feel to it, so it is rather refreshing. I find it a bit astringent (more than I’m used to with green tea), but fairly smooth in flavor. It definitely has that vegetal flavor, but not like I’m drinking spinach juice (I’m looking at you, last green tea I tried!). I don’t get much complexity with it, although there is a definite aftertaste. It’s OK, but I don’t find myself likely to go to this one often. However, unlike the previously mentioned tea, I will actually keep this one! I’m not going to give this a number rating because I just don’t feel like I am knowledgeable enough about green teas to judge quality.