More monkey stuff

I'm back from China with some new thoughts on monkeys and tea. We drank some fabulous green Monkey Tea in Anhui. This is not the monkey-picked tea mentioned in my previous post, but probably the least famous of the famous teas of China: Taiping Houkui Tea.
This tea has crazy, long stiletto leaves and produces a sweet smooth broth with a bright color. It grows in almost the same regions at Mao Feng, but is very different. It would be an exaggeration to say Mao Feng was the classical violinist and Houkui was the punk rock sister, but not completely wrong. The tea's original region near Yellow Mountain, Houkeng, is similar in name to the Chinese word for monkey, and so the tea became known as monkey tea.
Monkey tea is made from a bud and one or two leaves, but they are amazingly long leaves. It's different, but very good. Maybe even great.
Monkey-picked is just a euphamism for high-altitude tea. All authentic Houkui monkey tea grows above 700 meters. It all gets confusing. Houkui is a traditional, exceptional tea. Monkey-picked is marketing hype.