Huo Shan Huang Ya

I didn’t know that this was a yellow tea before I tried it. I placed it with my white tea samples. I was surprised to see the deeper green tea leaves and thought it could be a green, but I steeped as I would a white. 165/1.5 min

The color is so light that I thought for a moment that my Breville didn’t drop the basket. The scent, too, is barely there. There is the slightest hint of sweetness in the scent and perhaps a vegetal tone, but it’s so light that I can barely tell.

The taste… wow! From the first sip, I’m blown away. It’s so very light, but with a punch of sweetness at the end. The flavor gradually fills your mouth. At first, I thought it must be just watery, but not with this finish. It’s really wonderful. I can taste a vegetal flavor, but it’s different. It’s nutty, but with a sweet/savory taste of perhaps squash. It’s a great combination of flavors. Nature really knows what she’s doing.

Do you know what I like? Naps. I took one today, and it was glorious. But do you know what I hate? Recovering from a nap. For such a thing today, I went for a second pot o’ tea…but I didn’t want something black and migraine-inducing.

So I went for this little lovely – a step between green and white. It was peppery, light, melon-like, and a smidge on the floral side. Truthfully, I forgot I even had it, but it sure did the trick.

ooh, wow. It’s got one of those caffeine kicks that start you shaking.

I got a sample size of this and it was quite pricy. I mean, anything you buy in British currency is going to be pricy, but I guess this is also a yellow tea. Rarest of the rare. :) Still not entirely sure what makes this different from a white tea, though it doesn’t taste quite like other white teas I’ve had. This taste is very crisp and clean. Like salad. Yes, this reminds me of salad. Spring mix sans dressing. The flavor is also quite light, but it’s possible that I simply didn’t use enough leaf. Though with a caffeine kick like this, more leaf would probably have been a bad idea. Next time I drink this, I’ll have some food first.

This tea went for three steeps with me.

I was really looking forward to this after having a yellow tea in Shanghai many years ago. I had not seen any since, so it was with great anticipation that I made a pot. The vegetal note was immediately evident when I sniffed the aroma. I drank a bit and let it swirl around my mouth. The tea did not disappoint. As I held it in my mouth the flavour developed: slightly grassy, sweet and slightly nutty making my taste buds tingle for a while after swallowing. Lovely. Although it did not blow me away the way the Anji Bai Cha did, it is definitely among my favourites and I would highly recommend it. I made my pot at 75 degrees with four teaspoons of leaf for 400ml of water and brewed it for 2 minutes.

So, I made the first cup and wrote the notes. I then followed it up with a second steeping, which my wife tried and she commented that it was really citrusy. She also drank most of that cup! I managed to get half a dozen steepings out of the pot without any great loss in flavour, increasing the length of time I steeped it for a little each time until the last one was three minutes. This is a cracking good tea and is on my repeat list now.