Harvest Date: Late April
Harvest Location: Huangshan, Anhui
Cultivar: Shi Da Ye
Elevation: 660m (2,165 ft)
Estate Name: Kou Keng Tea Garden
 
Tai Ping Hou Kui is one of the Chinese Top Ten Famous Teas.
 
It is one of the few Chinese green teas which are made by grown tea leaves, instead of tender tea buds and leaves. It is produced in the Taiping County of Anhui.
 
Tai Ping Hou Kui was first discovered/created in the early 1900s. Tea farmer Wang Kui Cheng 王魁成 (nicknamed Wang Lao Er) who lived in Monkey Hill (Hou Gang 猴岗) of Taiping was a very smart and experienced tea maker who was trying to satisfy the demands for high-quality tea from Shanghai, Nanjing, and Yangzhou.  He decided to use the high-quality tea leaf from Monkey Hill (Hou Gang 猴岗) in Taiping, where he lived.  He selected tea leaf from the highest elevation tea garden in Monkey Hill called Phoenix Peak (Feng Huang Jian 凤凰尖) with an altitude of 750m (2,460ft). He plucked the tender long shoots – carefully picking one bud three leaves. He used all his talented tea-making skills to process the tea and the result was a truly exceptional tea.
 
His customers called this tea Wang Lao Er Kui Jian, which means Wang Lao Er is the champion (In Chinese, Kui 魁 means the top champion. And the same word/character “Kui” happened to be in his original name.  
 
Later, because the main locations where this tea was grown were Monkey Hill (Hou Gang) and Monkey Hole (Hou Keng) and the inventor’s name has the word/character Kui, the tea was named Tai Ping Hou Kui.
 
Sorry to disappoint, but it was not because that the tea was plucked by monkeys,  as the legendary story tells.