Six Major Types of Chinese tea (Part Four): Yellow Tea

The Mysterious Yellowing

Chinese yellow tea is a specialty of China, characterized as "yellow soup and leaves ." It is primarily produced in Hunan, Sichuan, Hubei, Anhui, and Zhejiang provinces. Yellow tea is lightly fermented, and its processing technique is similar to that of Green Tea, except that an additional craft "yellowing (heaping and sealing to yellow ) " is added either before or after the drying process, promoting the partial oxidation of substances such as polyphenols and chlorophyll.

The main producing process of yellow tea includes: fixation, rolling, yellowing, and drying. The most important step in making yellow tea is the yellowing process, which is key to forming the characteristics of yellow tea. The main method involves wrapping the tea leaves, which have been green-fixed and rolled, in paper or stacking them and sealing with damp covers. This process usually takes several hours to tens of hours, allowing the tea leaf to undergo non-enzymatic oxidation under the influence of heat and moisture, resulting in the yellow color.

To get the “yellow soup and yellow leaves”, the temperature and technique for fixation have their peculiarities. The principle and purpose of fixation in yellow tea making are fundamentally the same as in green tea, but the temperature of the fixation is lower than that of green tea, and the crafting of fixing also differ. Depending on the sequence of the yellowing during the whole making process, yellow tea can be divided into wet pile yellowing and dry pile yellowing. Despite different methods and duration of heaping, yellowing process must be involved in various types of yellow teas. It is a special feature of yellow tea production. During the process, due to the effects of heat and moisture, the total amount of polyphenol compounds are significantly reduced, altering the astringent taste of these compounds and forming yellow tea’s unique golden color and mellower flavor compared to green tea. Additionally, chlorophyll is broken down and reduced due to fixation and yellowing. While lutein would be obvious, which is an important change that leads to the tea of yellow leaf color.

Yellow tea has a distinctive aroma, commonly featuring floral, fruity, and honey notes. Famous types of yellow tea include: Junshan Yinzhen and Beigang Maojian from Yueyang, Hunan, Mengding Huangya from Sichuan, Huoshan Huangya from Anhui, Yuan'an Huangcha from Hubei, Pingyang Huangtang from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, Dayeqing from Guangdong, and Haimagong Cha from Guizhou Province, etc.