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Yellow Tea
Early this spring, Sebastian spent some time looking for yellow tea in China. Here are his notes on the rare tea.
This tea was traditionally made in Anhui Province, in southeastern China, and is now almost a lost tradition. Yellow tea was a workers' tea, not a rare, high-quality tea reserved for the emperor (as some accounts put it). It is pan fired in two woks, and then hand rolled. Finally it is slowly dried over charcoal for several days. This allows more oxidation than a green tea. Yellow tea, when you can find it today, usually is just a green tea made up of very young, spring-picked leaves.
I spent some time with Mr. Dai and his family who still know how to make this tea, although now they usually make a green tea. This is much more marketable and takes less time and effort than making the yellow tea. I am encouraging them to continue making the yellow tea and will support them by bringing this tea to the U.S. I find the flavor nutty and vegetal -- it stands up to multiple steepings and is a tea that is very out of the ordinary.
One-Minute Tea Tip, 2004
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