Yellow Tea 黄茶

Yellow tea (黄茶) starts out like a green tea and then takes one slow extra step: menhuang (闷黄), "sealing yellow". After the first firing the still-warm leaves are wrapped and left to rest, and a light oxidation softens the grassy edge into sweetness. Our makers still do it by hand, which is why so little yellow tea gets made.

On Junshan Island (君山) in Dongting Lake, Hunan, it is all bud: Junshan Yinzhen, downy silver needles from early spring that stand upright in a glass. In Moganshan (莫干山), Zhejiang, our host Auntie Pan has drunk Mogan Huangya (莫干黄芽) for decades, from a hillside farm ringed by bamboo; its menhuang is so light that it drinks close to a green. And from a high-mountain farm in Simao (思茅), Yunnan, comes Daye yellow tea, wildflowers and honey turning to chocolate. Three places, one quiet step. Yellow tea is easy to overlook, and that is exactly why we keep bringing it home.