This post shares my yellow tea tasting notes and explains what makes this less common category of tea so unique.
Recently, I steeped and enjoyed a delightful Chinese yellow tea! Let’s talk about what that is before I share tasting notes.
What is Chinese Yellow Tea?
Chinese yellow tea (huang cha) is between white and green tea in processing. It includes a unique step that lightly ferments and oxidizes the leaves. It’s a time-intensive process.
It’s not produced in very high quantities, so many people aren’t as familiar with yellow tea. (You can read more about Chinese yellow tea here.)
The Yellow Tea I Steeped
I prepared Huo Shan Huang Ya from In Pursuit of Tea. It’s produced in Anhui Province, in China, according to the packaging. (I’m not sure if the link takes you to the same year’s harvest of the tea I enjoyed.)
I first encountered this tea, I believe, in a Tea Tasting Box from Being Tea.
If you love ripe honeydew melon, this tea is for you! If you tend to like white and green tea–or maybe some green teas are too vegetal for you–I also recommend this tea!
My Steeping Parameters
Steeping tea for two, I used a 200 ml gaiwan (a Chinese brewing cup with a lid) and:
- 6.2 grams of tea leaves
- 175F (80C) water
- First infusion steep time: 1.5-2 minutes
- Second infusion steep time: 1.25 minutes
Yellow Tea Tasting Notes
The dry, small tea leaves are green with some yellow-green areas. They are a mix of buds and young leaves. The tea leaves also have a bit of adorable (and natural) fuzz. The aroma of the dry leaves is nutty, fruity, and meadow floral. So enticing!
The first infusion of the tea carried the aroma and flavor of honeydew melon, summer meadows, and cotton in the warm sun. The latter is something I often detect in my favorite white teas, as I have written about here. Since yellow tea is close to white tea, this makes sense to me.
The flavor was also bright.
Honeydew fruit, floral (more floral than the first infusion), and brightness characterized the second infusion.
So good–both infusions.
More Thoughts
After preparing the yellow tea, I noted afterwards that In Pursuit of Tea recommends steeping between180-185F. In other words, they suggest hotter water than I used. I might try that next time, though I loved the results this time!
I have some overlapping tasting notes with those shared on their website. But, they don’t match exactly.
Unique tasting notes could be due to the different steeping temperature, brewing time, water (for example, mine might have different mineral content), and/or palate. How we experience tea can vary so much.
Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this Chinese yellow tea!