Huo Shan Huang Ya 霍山黃芽

One of the ten most famous Chinese Tea

Huo Shan Huang Ya, a kind of Yellow Buds or Small Yellow Tea, one of the 10 most famous Chinese Tea. The Tea is named as “Huang Ya”, which means Yellow Buds, but it is now usually made of Small Yellow Tea Leaves rather than Tea Buds only. In recent years, most of the Huo Shan Huang Ya found in the market is being made into Green Tea rather than Yellow Tea. Tea maker find the market demand of Green Tea is higher than Yellow Tea, and it is way more difficult and time consuming to make Huo Shan Huang Ya Yellow Tea. As a result, it is very difficult to find the authentic Huo Shan Huang Ya in the market nowadays. Luckily, we find this very limited batch of traditional handmade Huo Shan Huang Ya Yellow Tea, this newly harvest 2021 batch is from Jin Ji Shan of Huo Shan. It is made of Small Yellow Tea, it is soft and brisk in its mouthfeel, not grassy and vegetal at all. It taste sweet, with chestnut and floral notes , accomplish with some light milky and pekoe flavor.

Huo Shan Huang Ya is originated from Huo Shan Mountain in Anhui. This high mountain is having long history in producing Tea, it is high in altitude, surrounded by cloud and abundant rainfall throughout the year, soil is high in permeability with good nutrition. The Tea grown in this high mountain is less affected by direct sunshine, the Tea here is lower in the level of chlorophyll and high in amino acid, thus the taste is soft and rich in taste.

Appearance of Huo Shan Huang Ya

Huo Shan Huang Ya is usually made of buds or one buds and one leaves. It looks small, straight with slightly opened buds, apparent with pekoe on the dry leaves.

History of Huo Shan Huang Ya

Jun Shan Yin Zhen is also a Tea with long history, it was being recorded since Tang Dynasty, and is made into Tea Cake by then. It was chosen as Tribute Tea for over 400 years – from Ming to Qing Dynasty. It was once being stopped in production after the end of Qing Dynasty, luckily the technique of making Huo Shan Huang Ya is being spread and inherited among the local folks, the Tea started to be produced again in 1972, and become one of the 10 most popular Yellow Tea now.

Taste of Huo Shan Huang Ya

Soft and brisk in its mouthfeel, not grassy and vegetal at all. It taste sweet, with chestnut and floral notes , accomplish with some light milky and pekoe flavor.

Making Process of Yellow Tea

Some people think that the making process of Yellow Tea is similar to Green Tea because of their similarities in the taste, but it has a special making step called “Men Huang”, which literally means wrapping the Tea in a cloth or paper for oxidation. The making process of Yellow tea is way more complicated and time-consuming, it required few days to a week to make a high quality Yellow Tea.

After plucking the tea leaves, tea maker immediately put the tea leaves into a wok for pan-frying. After the step of killing-green, the tea leaves are wrapped into a yellow paper or a wet cloth for mild oxidization for around 60 to 80 minute, the temperature will decrease from around 55 degree to around 35 degree, the leaves will then turn into a light green-yellow colour. At that time, it will be put back into the wok for pan-frying again to further reduce the humidity of the leaves. The steps of “Pan-frying” and “Wrapping” will take turns and repeats for several times until the leaves turn into an evenly yellow colour. After that, the leaves will be put in a place to rest for a while. For the final step, the tea is roasted to lift the aroma and flavour.

Weight per pack: 75g

Tea Farm Location: Jin Ji Shan, Huo Shan, Anhui, China

Harvest Time: 2022 Spring

Characteristics:

Tasting Notes: Soft and brisk in its mouthfeel, not grassy and vegetal at all. It taste sweet, with chestnut and floral notes , accomplish with some light milky and pekoe flavor.

Tea Liquor Colour: Bright and light yellow

Dry Leave Appearance: One buds and one leaves, straight, yellow-brown in colour, apparent with pekoe

Wet Leaves: Yellowish green