Verdant Tea

The iconic Houkui style, inspired by Taiping Houkui, these leaves are picked from a more remote, pristine and perfect terroir than their famous namesake. This flat pressed style is all about the beauty of the leaves unfolding and the drama of presenting the tea before brewing. Houkui green tea has always been a famous tribute tea, even in modern business gifting or new year gifting since its value is so stunningly apparent even before the first sip.  The finishing style yields a rich brew that almost leans towards the sweet green flavor of a fine Japanese Gyokuro, but with the restraint and minerality that can only come from hand picking in the rocky mountain soil above Guixi.

We are so excited to finally be representing such a talented family in world-famous Qimen after a ten year search for the right partners. The Cheng family takes their work seriously and the proof is in the tea. Their classic Qimen is packed with sweet, honeyed notes, floral complexity and beautiful malty undertones thanks to the careful picking and slow, small-batch hand-finishing process that Master Cheng uses.

The Cheng Family's pristine, high elevation plot near the famous Huangshan yields nuanced, complex, mineral-driven teas. The Cheng family picks the tender buds for this Ding Gu Da Fang green tea at just the right moment of early spring and instead of giving them a Mao Feng style finish, they carefully press the leaves flat in a wok. Ding Gu Da Fang is arguably China's earliest flat pressed style, bringing out more crisp texture and rocky minerality compared to the Mao Feng form. As it brews, the tea comes to life with unique notes of peony and cherry blossom florals, juicy lychee, delicate green chervil, and complex sarsaparilla root.

This tea is meticulously arranged and tied to blossom in hot water like a flower - a true flex from the Cheng Family to show off the stunning beauty of their Maofeng green tea buds. While most flowering teas are scented, this is purely early spring reserve-level Maofeng green buds, brewing up with soft velvety texture and deep complexity.

The Cheng Family's Qimen Maofeng is picked in the mountains above Guixi Village, in the famous Huangshan region. The buds are delicate and downy, giving the tea a creamy almost fluffy texture thanks to Maofeng style finishing, setting this apart from the Cheng Family's classic Qimen Black. The twisting step gives their Maofeng a unique texture and a balanced flavor that is a classic, genre-defining combination of hot chocolate, marshmallow and cinnamon. The Yuqian harvest season is still very early in the colder mistier climate of Guixi where tea grows slowly, making this the perfect harmony of early spring texture and the later spring aftertaste and aroma.