Nonpareil Cha Wang Tai Ping Hou Kui Green Tea

What should I have for breakfast… some green tea would hit the spot.

The raw leaves are very long, thin and crisp with dark and medium green tones. Some leaves have criss cross patterns on them which must be from the drying basket/tray, how divine and special. There are no holes, marks or discolouration to mention. They have a strong scent of cucumber, seaweed, flowers and grass.

First steep – 1 minute – Tea soup is light yellow in colour with a gentle floral and grassy aroma. Flavour is a little dry and perfumed with notes of peony, sweet grass, white cabbage and crisp pear.

Second steep – 2 minutes – Smooth and buttery and with a little more depth than the first steep but keeping all of it’s flavour. The dryness is a little more perfumed but still on the delicate side which keeps this tea refreshing and pure.

Third steep – 3 minutes – Floral, sweet, smooth, buttery and very delicate in this steep.

Overall it was delicious throughout and on the perfumed yet delicate side which I found to be similar to Long Jing but this is more delicate and with much more flavour. It does leave your mouth a little dry but also with a wonderful perfumed after taste.

What a treat—I wanted to try more hou kui greens and suddenly I’m finding them everywhere (but you know how that goes—once something’s in your scope of awareness you’re subconsciously on the lookout for it when before you’d just tune it out as unrecognizable).

Some of the longest tea leaves I’ve ever encountered—they stood up like a swirl of matchsticks in a jar, barely fitting in my glass teapot dry! Tickled me. I like how this is a perfect balance of savory and sweet—there’s some soup-satisfying vegetable flavor, can’t quite place it (it’s not the usual suspects like carrot or green bean or snap pea…KittyLovesTea mentions cabbage and I could see how that might be it; it is something more in that family, less green or sugary, rounder and fuller), but also a perfumed sweet element ever present. It feels light and delicate yet it has a lot of flavor and a surprisingly satisfying body. There’s a tinge of roastiness too, really yummy. Now I’m looking forward to the couple of other hou kuis headed my way.

I know I keep saying it but wow, I just can’t get over how much I love straight green tea now when I thought I hated it for like a decade. Turns out I just wasn’t familiar with Chinese ones. Yum!

These leaves are so incredibly long. They are gorgeous but I had no idea how to measure them, so I was never sure if I was making the tea right. It always turned out super light, but the flavor was pleasant, both a bit fruity and a bit vegetal.

Thanks for having that wonderful giveaway a few months ago, Teavivre! I won a few samples and a $5 gift card. Teavivre is awesome like that. The leaves here are the longest I’ve seen, long flattened lovely green leaves, that peak out of my basket infuser while touching the bottom. The scent of the dry leaves is sweet and heavenly. The flavor is too. There is such complexity here: sugar, butter, creamed corn, even strawberries. Strawberries! And even more little flavor notes that I’m sure I missed. It’s like every sip was different. The second steep was a little more muted than the first cup. I can definitely taste the quality in this one, like I usually can with Teavivre’s teas.
Steep #1 // half sample for a full mug// 33 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 27 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Harvest: 2017

Water: 16oz

Leaves: Large long flat medium green leaves

Measuring Spoon: no

Steep: 2m

Aroma: Vegetable

Color: light yellow

Clarity: great

Taste:The first thing i noticed with this tea was the packaging was a dull silver color as compared to the usual shiny silver packets. Upon opening the leaves were long & flat with a vegetable aroma. Since this tea is to big for a spoon measure i went to the website and decided to go with 15 leaves. The instruction were quite different as i pour a bit of the water into my french press first gently swirling it for 30s before adding the rest of the water. The steep was rather short at only 2m. Due to the wideness of the press my leaves didn’t stand up as in the photo. Overall flavor was light i will be going back and making another cup. Before making this cup i had a short Blogilates workout and did a 1m Bad Yogi meditation.

This wraps up my 2016 Spring tea reviews!

Backlog.

Tai Ping Hou Kui is one of those teas that instantly catches the eye because of how stunning it looks but unfortunately, doesn’t have much to offer once you get to know it. Admittedly, I’ve been beguiled more than once by it. The extra long, flat green blades are a sight to behold but they don’t offer much flavor wise. Savory and vegetal with pronounced umami notes. Cold brewing amps ups the umami. It also brings out more briney and marine flavors. I tasted seaweed salad, sockeye salmon, and a bit of gyokuro like meatiness. Not my cuppa tea, that’s for sure.

My first Tai Pin Hou Kui green tea – this tea has an amazing and unique appearance! I always thought it was a dragonwell, but you really need to see it to scale to grasp how cool this green tea looks!

The flavor has some notes that seem unique to this type of green tea – lightly creamy, sweet grassy, straw and cider. I love the cider notes as it has a light acidic/fruity/tang to it. I got 3 good infusions. The cold steep wasn’t as good as it was too light and not as interesting in flavor (just sweet grass/green bean)

Full review (picture heavy because this tea looks really cool) at my blog The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/nonpareil-cha-wang-tai-ping-hou-kui-green-tea-teavive-tea-review/

I’d like to start out by thanking Angel & Teavivre for this wonderful sample. This is the most amazing looking green tea, absolutely beautiful. It looks like fronds of some exotic sea veggie, with iridescent shades of green that I can’t even begin to describe. Dried & pressed into long bud sets, averagine 2 to 2.5 inches long! It’s so beautiful that I took pics & posted them on my FB, for those who might like to see.
https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak
The dry aroma is rich, thick, & buttery. I rehydrated single frond, just so I could watch it unfurl alone, & take photos of it. I gave the entire 5 G sample 1 minute at 180F in my test tube steeper, & the resulting liquor was a pale apricot color, with a sweet, thick, & buttery green taste, delicate & refined.
2min: still rich & buttery, with a yellow taste, bring to mind yellow flowers. As I continue with this cup I also taste saffron & pumpkin seeds.
3min: a little tangy-er, fruity like apricot, but also savory like buttered asparagus. Slightly astringent, slightly bitter.
4min: sweet melon/pumpkin taste.

First there were the two weeks of work craziness when tea consisted gallons of Awake from Starbucks. Then there were two weeks of zero caffeine detox. Now I feel prepared to resume appreciating teas for their flavor rather than solely based on caffeine content. This was my first cup and a beautiful way to drink tea. I had forgotten a cup of tea could calm and not just fuel me. It’s delicate. Deliciously delicate. Savory and sweet – maybe a bit of carrot? Or even carrot tops. Bi luo lovers might like to give this a try.