Chinese green tea: A mouthful of cool summer

Taiping Houkui

In a popular TV-drama Treading on Thin Ice (Bu Bu Jing Xin), which aired in 2011, Taiping Houkui was often mentioned by the fourth Prince who later became Emperor Yongzheng (1691-1731). In fact, the tea appeared in 1859, more than 100 years later after the emperor's death. Grown in Anhui province, Taiping Houkui was one of the ten most well-known Chinese teas and was given as a gift to the 37th US President Richard Nixon when he visited China in 1972.