Taiping Houkui, a Floating World
Known as the best of Anhui province's pointed green teas, taiping Houkui is a delight both to drink and to look at.
It has the flavor of orchids, although it is not strictly a scented tea. Or, rather, the leaves as they open are
naturally scented by the myriad of wild cymbidium orchids that blossom all over the mountains just
at that time. During infusion, the dark green leaves unfurl like colorful floating flowers, with
a reddish center vein and pink side veins. To ensure that the leaves create this beautiful picture,
sorting standards are extremely high, and all abnormal, incomplete, or discolored leaf sets are picked out
by hand.
Its name, taiping Houkui (Houkeng Leader), comes from a place in Taiping county. Since its gold medal in the
first rank at the 1915 panama Pacific Exposition it has become world famous.
The leaves are processed through de-enzymizing by heat-drying, which takes a great deal of expertise.
The processed leaves are straight, taut, and heavy, and pointed at both ends. They are noted for their ability
to stand up through several infusions.
Taiping Houkui grows on the northern slopes of one range of the Huangshan Mountains, whose peaks
crowd together like trees of a forest. Rain half the year and mist and clouds the rest, along with the
shade of the northern slopes, provide ideal conditions for tender tea leaves.
As for the orchids, the higher the slope, the better they grow. Experimetns have even shown that the presence of
the orchid flavor in the teas from orchid regions is in direct ratio to the altitude of the platations.