Taiping Houkui (Monkey King)

Green Tea 2024

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Taiping Houkui (Monkey King) quantity

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Tea Origin

Hougang Village, Taiping Hu Zhen, Yellow Mountain City, Anhui Province, China

Tea Bush

Shi Da Cha (Persimmon Large Leaf Tea Bush)

Tea Maker

Wang Shuangxi

Harvest Time

Mid-April

Plucking Standard

One bud, two leaves

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The delicate, flat shape of Taiping Houkui’s (Monkey King) large and intensely green leaves stands out among all other green teas. Because of the particularity of Taiping Houkui’s process in producing this shape, many of its steps can only be done by hand, such as the laying out of individual leaves. While some steps today are done by machine, however, Seven Cups’ Taiping Houkui is still crafted entirely by hand. This wholly handmade version of this famous tea showcases its soft and clean-flavored local heirloom tea cultivar with a signature fresh bamboo aroma and a sea mineral aftertaste.

The unique process of making Taiping Houkui green tea

Farmers must wait slightly longer to harvest Taiping Houkui than is normal for other early spring tea, because this tea cultivar’s relatively large sprigs take longer to fully develop. The harvest begins before April 20th, during the Gu Yu solar period of China’s traditional agricultural calendar. The plucked leaves adhere to a standard of one bud with two open leaves. This particular lot of Houkui was specifically chosen from the earliest harvest in the spring season, when the flavor of the leaves is at its softest. Much Houkui on the market today is made from the more abundant summer harvests. Tea picked in the summer, though less expensive, can have a very heavy flavor, lacking the lightness traditional Houkui is known for.

After returning to the factory, tea makers let fresh leaves wither for a few hours in bamboo baskets to lose moisture and become softer, making them more pliable for processing. Tea makers then fry the leaves at 210°C in an iron metal wok (about 70cm in diameter and 35-40cm deep). They only fry 100 grams of fresh leaves at a time, constantly moving the leaves in the wok for about three minutes at a time. This heat destroys the enzymes in the leaf that cause oxidation, thus allowing the leaves to remain fresh and green in color, flavor, and aroma. This step is known as sha qing (lit. “kill green”).

Next, to begin shaping the leaves, producers drop the temperature of the wok and fry the leaves for a couple more minutes using very complicated hand movements to squeeze the buds and leaves together. The tea leaves become very soft at this stage.

After frying, workers shape each leaf individually and lay out each leaf between fabric sheets and press them into their distinct “bookmark” shape using two layers of fine steel mesh screens. Originally, before these steel screens had been invented, Taiping Houkui makers used sheets of thick paper and the pressure of their hands to press each leaf flat.

After this, the tea is roasted in a wooden four-drawer cabinet-like structure with a charcoal pot underneath as a heat source. Workers carefully adjust the charcoal to make each level of the cabinet a different temperature: the lowest level at 100°C, the second at 90°C, the third at 80°C, and the fourth at 70°C. Batches of leaves are moved between levels of the cabinet, gradually removing their moisture with different levels of heat. The roasting process takes about an hour.

Finally, after shaping and roasting, the leaves are allowed to cool down for a few hours before they are consolidated into large batches and roasted one final time to reduce their moisture content to a stable level. Traditionally, in Taiping County’s gardens, tea makers will wrap the finished Taiping Houkui in cloth or paper and place it in a large ceramic pot. The ceramic pot has powdered limestone at the bottom to absorb moisture. The leaves rest over the limestone on a wooden plank padded with large bamboo leaves.. Today, tea producers most commonly use thick, sealed, foil bags and store the tea in a cool temperature. 

Houkui tea’s origins

 

While Taiping Houkui was invented relatively recently in the early 1900s, it has quickly become well regarded in China, regularly appearing on lists of the country’s most prestigious teas. As with many famous teas, Taiping Houkui is named after its place of origin. Taiping County sits northeast of the Huangshan mountain range. Even though the county resides in a mountainous region, the tea gardens are only about 300 meters above sea level. “ Houkui” is derived from the Hougang and Houkeng Villages where it is made. Hou means “monkey”, Kui was a title given to the “best,” creating its English name, “Monkey King.”

There are two local myths associated with Taiping Houkui. The first is a legend about a benevolent flock of birds who carried the first tea seeds into Taiping County, scattering them amongst hills and crags where they would sprout. When these bushes began growing, the villagers realized it would be too dangerous to pick. The villagers took local monkeys and hung cloth bags around their necks and sent them up the cliffs to pick the tea. While this is a wonderful idea to entertain, we can assure you no monkeys were used to pick this tea!

The second legend also tells of the monkeys of Taiping. As this story is told, when a mother monkey died of grief after losing her child, a local farmer kindly buried the animal on his land. The farmer soon dreamed of the monkey guiding him to a place deep in the forest, where there was a tea garden. Upon awaking, he retraced his dreaming steps to verily discover a hidden garden of tea bushes, which he plucked to make this tea.

No chemical fertilizer, pesticide, or herbicide was used in the production of this tea. Click here to read more about our promise to fair trade and the environment.