TeaChat

I've been interested in trying out a yellow for a while now, but I don't know which one to try out. Does anyone have any recommendations for a yellow? Even buying a small sample of yellow seems to be a pricey endeavor.

Thanks!

My first one is on the way now! I'll let you know what I think.
I'm very intrigued as well.

Oh man, I got some this week, and it is AMAZING. I need to do a formal review of it soon.

Yeah, I have been wanting to expand my tea repertoire as well and have been looking into yellow teas. And you are correct! They are quite expensive. However, I will be recieving a sample and I will post my tasting notes when it arrives.. But does any one actually know why they call it yellow tea?

hop_goblin wrote:But does any one actually know why they call it yellow tea?

Cuz it ain't green and it ain't white.

'Course, it might be that many types (like Meng Ding Huang Ya) have a yellow sheen to them, as opposed to the silvery-white on Yin Zhen. I don't know...I haven't really researched it.

I remember reading a while ago that the color of a tea was determined by the color of its liquor.

Black
Blue (aka oolong)
Green
White
Yellow

I wish I had my book with me right now, but in short they classified tea at the time based on the color liquid you would produce, but this was the ancient grading system. If I remember correctly there were a few more modern ones that did not match up to this system. The book The Story of Tea has more detail about this and a chart comparing the ancient colors to the current classifications.

But in short yellow tea is called yellow because it brews yellow. I still want to find a blue colored oolong though.

I vaguely recall reading something similar myself, but the book I read it in wasn't exactly the savviest it could have been.

If I had to lay money on it, my bet would still go with the basic color of the dry leaf. White teas do tend to have that silvery trichome fuzz. Green teas are almost always green in color. Black teas (red teas in Chinese) are usually a deep mahogany (red brown). Most of the yellow teas look golden.

But I better go do some research before I whip out the wallet...

I've had a few I've like a bunch, but none that are currently available.

If you've had any particularly good long jing, I personally think you may find something familiar in at least the yellow teas I've tried.

I've also heard that the names went by wet leaf color, which certainly seems to clarify the red and black tea issues-- however, white tea sure isn't white when wet, so I don't know what they did about that. It's in some book I have laying around.

My TeaCuppa order is unusually late! Wanting to try that yellow!!
They are blaming the slow shipping on Lunar New Year.
Oy.

Mary R wrote:
If I had to lay money on it, my bet would still go with the basic color of the dry leaf.

I seem to recall reading something like that, too. I would imagine it looks green wet.