安徽绿茶太平猴魁

One of the biggest tea leaves I've seen would have to belong to a green tea from Taiping County in Anhui province of China- 'Tai Ping Hou Kui' (安徽太平猴 魁). The name of the tea literally translates into 'peaceful monkey leader'. Okay. Not very poetic. Green tea doesn't have to come in a powder form, or tiny buds. It all depends on the variety of the tea plants/bushes. Green tea (like white and yellow tea) is non-fermented and will ferment slowly when exposed to air. So it's important to place it in a fridge once you purchase a packet.

At class, I tried out two batches of tea leaves from different sources. One seemed rougher, and the other appeared more delicate. In these differences, even from the dry leaves, the quality is discernible as well. Always, the proof is in the taste test, and wet leaves.

There're many ways of brewing tea. Sometimes, a lid isn't necessary. For the batch of rougher leaves (which were the ones I was really curious about), I decided to use a yellow-Zisha-clay teapot to steep and bring out all its flavors thoroughly, and to cut out all eeky stuff. For the other batch, since I knew it to be decent, I simply pared it down to a simple bowl for maximum efficiency. The leaves were so huge that I needn't worry about it slipping into the cups.

Upon tasting, it was clear which was the better batch. The first sip, the middle and the aftertaste. Distinguishable notes of quality spread across the tastebuds. The delicate-looking ones produced a more complex brew and its bitter-sweet tang lasted four brews.