Yellow Tea

Many people are not aware of Yellow Tea. When I was in Teavana I asked them if they carried any Yellow Tea, and he asked me if I meant Green Tea, to which I said no, Yellow Tea.

Yellow tea is not well known because it’s rare and hard to get. It is ONLY grown in China. It is rare even in China, which is why you’ve probably never heard of it.  There are two types of yellow tea that I’ll talk about, the real one, and the one that’s the imposter!

Real Yellow Tea is actually yellow in appearance and is made specifically to remove the grassy or vegital taste of the green teas that some people can find unpleasant.  (If you’ve ever had Matcha, you’ll know what vegital means). It is a variety of tea that comes from the  Camellia sinensis  plant (that Black, Green, White, and Oolong and Pu-Erh teas come from) And it’s oxidized a little more than green tea but not as much as Oolong tea. See from the same plant we get 5 teas that are oxidized for a different amount of time, and taste very different. So yellow tea tastes more subtle and sweet than green tea.

Here is a helpful chart to go by:

**Note: Pu-Erh undergoes a second oxidation.

The second kind of yellow tea is more from the ancient stories of Chinese Emperor’s.  Tea used to be given to the Emperor and “yellow’ was the royal colour and were paid as a royal tax… they were not actually yellow tea, but were called “yellow tea.”  There is also green tea that has been improperly fermented that is passed off as yellow tea but that’s not what real yellow tea is. (and that would taste different)

Generally you would use water that is 80 degrees to steep this tea, and it’s flavour is similar to white tea (being a very light tea).  It also has the same health benefits associated with Green tea.

Yellow tea is the least produced and known tea because it is time consuming and tedious to make.  Awww, poor yellow tea, it’s like the underdog of tea.  And you will find, you cannot find yellow tea in most of the new tea shops that are popping up. There are only a few select (generally online) stores that carry it, and they sell out FAST.  You know what? It’s not even the most expensive, White tea is more expensive!

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China, Oxidation, Yellow tea