Quest for the real Tai Ping Hou Kui

[Salsero]

Wow, I've never seen such beautiful Hou Kui leaves before! Looks like this is indeed a "must try" tea.

[Chip]

Beautiful leaves! TPHK is a wonderful tea, it is ashame it is an exploited name ... and that it is such a drain on the wallet. But these 2 things are forever tied together. A more expensive tea is going to have more knockoffs.

[emeraldrobot]

I've had tai ping hou kui from Teance, and I can say that its really good tea. I've met the owner a couple of times, she goes to china like twice a year and goes to all of the various farms and stuff to try all the tea before she buys any for the shop. I know she also only goes to small teamakers as well. The prices aren't so bad either, so if you're looking for something else to try it might be an idea.

[Oni]

I have tried Jingteashop and Teaspring, the latter has a very good example of this tea, if I neglect the price, Hojo was the best but all are worth their asking price, if you try this tea, it must have a complete leaf structure, flowery taste with very long finish and hui gan, the aftertaste is as long as an oolongs, but the body is missing, generally only gyokuro has body, it is silky and comfortable on the mouth and throat, I only need to try funalliance, I recently sampled a few of their teas and Kam is one of the best when it comes to price vs quality, if you want to start your jurney with chinese tea, start with funalliance, except puerh, ...
As a last thought, I sampled with almost each TPHK order som Lu an Gua Pian, from the same shops, except Hojo, he doesn`t have on and Huang Shan Mao feng, because I want to get a clear picture about Anhui green teas (most were organic, that is great...), and these 3 teas are also members of the famous top ten chinese green teas, so I can say I am trying those out, sofar there are 4 I have explored, TGY, LGP, HSMF, TPHK, and I also tried a few DHP, so there are only 5 left to try out, but those I will try next year.

[JRS22]

After reading through all references to Tai Ping Hou Kui that I could find on Tea Chat I ordered 25 grams of the 2010 Cha Wang Tai Ping Hou Kui from Teaspring. I've tried brewing it a number of different ways but I always seem to end up with a smoky flavor that conflicts with the sweetness and floral notes. My only basis for comparison is a mix of 2008 Tai Ping from Harney's mixed with the remains of a sample of 2009 Tai Pink from Tea Trekker. The Teaspring did not win the comparison.

Is the tea supposed to have smoky overtones?
I'd appreciate with brewing parameters from people who were happy with their Tai Ping from Teaspring or elsewhere.

[Chip]

JRS22, definitely NOT.

I had the Cha Wang TPHK from TS several years ago and did not experience any smokiness. It was a crazy good Chinese green, and I liked it more than their standard grade TPHK which was also good. The experience vaulted it onto my fave 5 Chinese greens.

Unfortunately I have not had it this year. Have you contacted TS and asked if there is a smoky character this year?

One other possibility is cross contamination with a smokey tea.

[JRS22]

JRS22, definitely NOT.

I had the Cha Wang TPHK from TS several years ago and did not experience any smokiness. It was a crazy good Chinese green, and I liked it more than their standard grade TPHK which was also good. The experience vaulted it onto my fave 5 Chinese greens.

Unfortunately I have not had it this year. Have you contacted TS and asked if there is a smoky character this year?

One other possibility is cross contamination with a smokey tea.

The tea was shipped in a foil packet and then placed in a clean cannister so the cross-contamination would have to have been there before packing. I'd like to try brewing it again before contacting Teaspring. Any advice on that?

[Chip]

For brewing. This one is always fun, kind of like making spagetti in a pot that is too small.

I remember weighing this since it was a precious leaf, I did not want to mess it up. I went anywhere from .75 to 1.0 grams per ounce water, but you can use less. It would be pretty hard to equate this amount of leaf based on volume of leaf, but it is a lot. I likely went 160-170*, a bit on the cool side. I bet you could brew even cooler. 1-2 minutes for the first steep.

Too hot or too long might, maybe, contribute to the smoky sensation you are experiencing.

You can also grandpa style brew it in a taller glass, this works quite well due to leaf size.

[teaskeptic]

TPHK shouldn't be smoky.

Don't be too shy to blame the tea. I mentioned this somewhere else: I loved the long jing from TS last year, but this year I'm getting similar mucky, roasted flavors to what you're describing with the TPHK.

Although we are talking about different teas, the vendor is the same and I would guess both regions suffered similar weather problems.

Does the tea look suspicious? My long jing certainly looked a bit off.

[britt]

About two weeks ago I received the the 2010 Tai Ping Hou Kai from Jing Tea Shop. I am very happy with it and there is absolutely no smokey taste or smell. It is very light and refreshing. This is the first time I've tried this tea and it won't be the last. I do not keep it in the refrigerator, but well-sealed inside a large can (100 grams of this comes in two 100 gram sized bags due to the huge leaf size). I have only brewed this in a procelain gaiwan. Glass should also be good; in fact, I think Hojo recommends brewing this in a tall unadorned glass. The leaves are somewhat restricted in a 4 ounce gaiwan, but I still thought it came out exceptionally well. It is definitely one of my favorites!

[JRS22]

I started a tea notebook to keep track of the OTTIs so I know that I tried to brew this tea at 160 degrees for 2 minutes. I'm going to test the other 2 teas before I complain in case the other teas have the same issue. And in the meantime I'm going to check out Jing Tea Shop's web page.

Thanks for all the advice.

[debunix]

Partly inspired by reading this topic just before a trip to the shop, today I'm drinking my first Tai Ping Hou Kui, by Wing Hop Fung

This is a weird and wonderful tea. The leaves are gigantic, wide, flat, long. Not as spectacular as many of those pictured above.

First try with this tea was 30 seconds infusion at 160 degrees, about a gram of tea in 2 ounces of water in a small porcelain gaiwan. It is sweet, spicy, vegetal, floral.

So far, the 9th infusion is still very similar, very very nice: the vegetal flavor is weaker, but there, but the sweetness and spicy is still present. And this is not a super fancy version of this tea: I only paid $39.99/lb for it. The ends of the leaves are broken, so it’s not fully intact, but given the size of the leaves, a break or two in each does not seem to be making anything bitter.

Even after 5 infusions, the sweet/spicy scent is still there in the wet leaves.

It reminds me most of the Anji white tea I’ve been getting from WHF, but this one is a fraction of the price. I will definitely keep this one in regular circulation. Thanks for the inspiration!

[debunix]

And of course, a few photos:

[Oni]

Hojo`s TPHK is the kind of tea that you can serve to any visitor with pride, it was the kind of tea that I remember and I would order more, but it is out of my regular price range for chinese greens, teas that are close to 100 $ / 100 grams are to expenceive, I only tried all of these super expencieve TPHK teas because I wanted to know what made this tea so famous eversince the 1918 Panama tea exhibition, I found out after drinking many great examples of this style of green tea, that it is unique, it is diffrent from any other tea, and sofar the best I have tried, and I tried all An hui green teas from these vendors, but many examples have nothing to do with the real thing.

[debunix]

I'm sufficiently inspired by the version I got from WHF to think I might like to try the superfancy and pricey version at least once, but not until the cupboard lightens up a bit again.