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Two Tai Ping Hou Kui green teas

Head to head comparison of an inexpensive version from Wing Hop Fung, and a fancier grade from Jing Tea Shop.

2 grams of leaf: Wing Hop Fung on the left, and Jing Tea Shop on the right
Jing’s version has larger, more intact leaves, and the color is brighter and fresher

I reviewed this one in a head-to-head comparison with an inexpensive version from Wing Hop Fung. Full notes with photos are on my web site here:

<http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/TaiPingHouKui2.11.html>

I used 2 grams of tea in gaiwans with about two and half ounces (75mL) of water at 160-165 degrees per infusion, and infusions times of 45 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute, and 90 seconds.

Even though the leaves are quite long, they soften enough to fit in the gaiwans.

The Jing tea is not only lighter in color of liquor and leaf, but cleaner and lighter in flavor, with lemon notes amid the sweet pea vegetal flavors. There is a bit more spiciness in the WHF version, probably a bit of astringency coming out. This was consistent through all of the infusions, the greater refinement and higher quality of the Jing tea being obvious.

silky, sweet, earthy, but still with a bit of bite on an early infusion when I forgot it and left the room for a few minutes. A very nice evening tea with a rich dinner.

Only one tasting note for this tea? I’ve nearly finished my 50g pouch of it. It continues to be a lovely, giving tea, mellow and wonderful, and I expect to keep teas like it in my regular rotation, as long as I can find them. It’s enough of an oddity that I can easily imagine it vanishing.

Another Dan Cong finishing tonight. Fruity sweet and just a little Dan Cong spice, so pleasant and mellow and lovely. This was one of Imen’s recommendations for me getting started with Dan Congs. Mmmm. But this is the last of the pouch.

Sadly finished off this tea tonight, a nice set of last infusions, although the leaf seems to have given up a little earlier than I’d have expected. Sigh.

Have finished or nearly finished a few other Dan Congs from Tea Habitat—soon will be able to justify another order!

Had my best session yet with this tea this morning. I actually started with the water hotter, because I’d been considering starting the day with Dragonwell, and had the kettle already up to 160 degrees, and it was quite full, and I did not want to wait for the water to cool back to 145, or two play with adding cool water to get there. So I used the hotter water, 5 grams of tea in the 5 oz kyusu, and started with one very short infusion (started pouring at 25 seconds); then 20", 1 minute, and 5 minutes. By the time I’d gotten to the last one, however, the water, which was cooling slowly in the kettle, was down to 145 degrees. And all were sweet, fresh young asparagus and peas, very little grassiness, and no astringency or bitterness at all. Just my thing, and one of those accidental brewings that would be very difficult to precisely replicate again.

This is a quite splendid delicate and floral white tea, with a hint of blueberry tartness. I am not typically a fan of flavored teas, but this one was quite impressive.

We used cups holding about 5-6 oz of water, water at 160 degrees, and one teabag per cup, steeping about 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 or 4 minutes, and one last one might have been closer to 10 minutes.

I was expecting an interesting novelty: locally grown! from California! but was quite impressed by this neat little tea. Per the web site, it’s quite pricey (I got this packet as a gift), but worth a try if you live near enough to find some.

Another day, another lovely infusion with this tea. I did manage a less-than-wonderful infusion a couple of days ago when I forgot a steeping, but it was easily rescued with a good deal of dilution. But as a rule it is very pleasant, and many infusions are quite lovely, even brilliant, with just a little care.

It’s climbing up my preference chart bit by bit as I work with it more.

Another wonderful afternoon with this tea. It is not as caramel-rich as the 2008 Yi Wu bamboo puerh from Norbu, but it has rounded notes of caramel and gentle earthiness, and is always a hit when I take it round to share. Today I got my office manager—a dedicated coffee drinker—to take a whiff and a cup, and she liked it a lot. It’s a tea to make friends with and influence people!

Yamakai Sencha – 2010 1st Harvest Shizuoka Sencha

One sniff and I’m already in love: the scent is sweet and rich. 5 grams of tea to my 150mL kyusu, prewarmed, water to 140 degrees per Greg’s brewing recommendation.

Brewing 2 minutes first steep, throwing caution to the wind…and it is sweet and rich.

30 second 2nd steep, delicious and sweet, a bit astringent and nutty too.

For 3 steep, heating the water to 150, just to play a little more, and steeping 1 minute—similar to previous infusion, but a bit lighter in body and richness—really think it’s done at 3.

I may play with it a bit more next time, because I am concerned that the very long first steep took a bit more of the punch that should have been left for the later steeps.

Overall, this is a lovely sencha. Without a head-to-head comparison, it’s hard to rank it other than saying it’s right up there with my top-tier senchas. Lovely for breakfast this morning with toast with honey-butter.