Comparing yellow tea versions from a Xinyang, Henan producer

 

I'm trying teas sent for review by an earlier producer contact, from the Shangcheng County Wanmu Tea Garden Tea Industry Development Company.  That lengthy name is explained by it being a corporation name, not really a direct sales vendor branding, which are essentially always tied to catchier, shorter names (Yunnan Sourcing, Seven Cups, and so on).  In this case Chinese Tea Time was the local outlet name I tried teas as presented by earlier, last year.

I don't often try teas from factory producers.  It's not that products from this sort of origin would have to be inferior to artisanal, hand made, small producer offerings, it just works out that way, that I run across the other extreme in source form more.  I probably am trying a good bit of tea from factory production, but the level or levels of sales in between that and a final sales vendor cover up that true origin.  If I--or anyone else--buy teas in tins in a local Chinatown shop they're from mainstream production sources, like this one.  

There wouldn't have to be a lot of significant difference between a small producer making tea on a different type of machines and larger scale factory production (completely hand made tea just isn't how that tends to work).  In practice sure, differences would enter in, but the colorful, warm feel you would get from the image of small family production may not always relate to a lot of differences in quality of outcome.  Consistency and control would improve based on more standardized production forms, and variation and the potential for routine changes that are helpful, or mistakes that may or may not be informative, could be factored out.  This post is more about reporting how two experimental versions of tea turned out, not all that; just adding some extra thoughts.

More background on the teas and that local area are here in a Facebook page, Xinyang Diary.

Here is another Instagram link to a local vendor sales portal, Chinese Tea Time (by local meaning based in Thailand; I'm here, at least just now).  This is their Shoppee outlet link, similar to Amazon or Ebay in the US (which doesn't seem to be active just now; that kind of channel can be seasonal). 

Here is more background on that tea producer, from their website:

Shangcheng County Wanmu Tea Garden Tea Industry Development Co., Ltd., located in Hanchong Village, Wanggang Town, Shangcheng County, Xinyang City, Henan Province, was established in 2020 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan and a total area of ​​6,300 square meters. The company's standardized tea processing facility was completed and put into production in February 2022. 

It is a comprehensive enterprise integrating tea cultivation technology promotion, production and processing, marketing, innovative research and development, tea-tourism integration, and e-commerce. The company produces tea varieties including Shangcheng high mountain tea, Xinyang Maojian, Xinyang black tea, white tea, and oolong tea.

That's amazing, that it's that new a producer.  I tried those earlier teas in 2024 and they were exceptional (reviewed here:  Xinyang Maojian and Himjian; exceptional quality green teas).

I won't cover a lot of what discussing this vendor and their background with that contact related to here, but I'll keep adding more across different review posts.  

photo credit their website

Green tea is a main category produced in that area, those green tea versions, and then black tea might also be a main local category, and presumably a somewhat narrowly defined standard style.  They're also experimenting with other production, hence this yellow tea review, and the Dong Fang Mei Ren versions that will follow (aka Oriental Beauty, a name producers and vendors have more or less dropped out, due to oriental now seeming pejorative, to many people).  I'll try a black tea (a sample sent) that relates to a product listed on a website more directly.

One interesting theme related to something along the lines of organic tea production.  They're certified to a local variation of such a thing, a Chinese "green mark" designation, which would just use different testing and limitation criteria, aimed at a similar goal.  That's hard to place, but generally positive.  

It's no surprise that local certifications take on different forms within China than outside it.  My "real job" duties relate to ISO systems certification, within IT scope, and related control and process implementation, and the form that takes varies by geographic region.  A theme like information security (cybersecurity) is essentially identical globally, and the controls are the same, but the standardized sets of controls and certifications differ quite a bit.

So more background will follow, in a next post, and I'll get on with covering two yellow tea versions here.

Review:

#1:  I won't have much to compare these to, having only tried a few yellow teas, maybe only 2 or 3, but this is pleasant, and interesting.  Flavor range is what I expected, not so far off green tea, but with additional warm and unusual sort of range, a little extra mineral, and flavor that's not unlike either cured hay or cardboard.  Cured hay sounds better; lets go with that.  

Some floral tone adjoins the green tea related range, but it's going to be hard to identify.  The overall flavor range is complex.  Some mineral ties to the cured hay range.  Sort of in between there is some vegetal scope, which is hard to describe.  Not completely unlike spinach or kale.  There's a touch of mint in this; that's different.  It's hardly even fully opened up, but I did give it longer than it needed to start, 20 seconds or more.  Flavor range is clean, it's intense.  Mouthfeel is fine, with good structure, and some aftertaste expression.  There's a lot going on.

back to reviewing outside (in Bangkok), with company

#2:  similar in a lot of ways; the difference will be minor enough that I'll end up discussing how they differ, even though it's really based on them sharing more than they don't, at this point.  There's one sweeter tone in this.  The vegetal range isn't completely different, but it may include more sweet corn instead, and a bit more floral tone than either.  That floral range is smooth and rich, sort of roundish, as one might expect sunflowers to smell.  I've ran across sunflowers, I just don't remember a related scent.

That touch of mint is present in this too, maybe just a bit lighter.  The cured hay effect is also lighter.  So maybe it's less fermented?  Again they're so close to each other that I'm citing minor differences; they're quite similar teas.  This might seem a little brighter and sweeter, tied to that floral range standing out more.  It's almost towards citrusy, including a touch of lemon, along with a creaminess.  It's pleasant.  Both are, really.

I think that the second sample might include slightly less tea, maybe one gram less, and some differences are going to emerge from brewing it less intense.  I can compensate by adjusting timing just a little.

#1, second infusion:  these are brewed very fast, to try them extra light, and see what that changes.  Intensity is still good, and the same general range emerges, but of course it's lighter.  Balance is very nice in this, the way that list of flavors covered in the first round integrates together.  These are probably the best yellow tea versions I've ever tried, which isn't saying much, since I've tried so few.  The first would have been from Korea, from way back when, which I kept some of.  It was sold as two packs of tea, wrapped separately, on the expensive side, maybe for close to $1 a gram.  It should be 8 or 9 years old now; I'm not sure if that's a favorable thing or not, aging it like that.  There was no reason to do so, and also no reason to drink straight through both packs.

Vegetal range dropped out, as much as anything did.  Cured hay related aspect may be slightly diminished, with a bit more floral tone entering in.  Mint is still present; that's still nice.  It's so faint that I doubt most people would identify it, or see it as tasting like that, but to me it seems clear.  I've tasted mint in a good number of teas over the years, making it easier to notice.  Obviously it's natural mint flavor; they didn't add anything to this tea.

#2:  similar, just a little lighter.  The overall balance shifts a little, maybe a littler warmer.  Mineral might stand out just a little more.

#1, 3rd infusion:  probably a lot like the last round, maybe a little stronger for being brewed slightly longer.  The mineral is really picking up; that might just keep extending.  It's nice the way that it connects with the cured hay effect, tasting like hay that had been cured even longer.  

#2:  still a little lighter, a little sweeter and more floral.  The overall balance and aspect set isn't so different.  It's interesting how clean these both are, for having that one unusual fermented character.  I didn't expect them to taste sour, or anything like that, but these are both clean and bright.  I would expect mineral tone to keep picking up, or maybe even a vegetal edge, so even though it's still kind of early from here I would expect the flavor balance to be less positive.

#1, 4th infusion:  that distinctive cured hay sort of flavor stands out all the more.  It's not really transitioning that much.  Pleasantness hasn't diminished; the balance still really works.

#2:  a little lighter than the first version, at this point, with less vegetal and mineral range.  The floral tone is still nice, in a good proportion.  Vegetal and mineral are in the same range but slightly different; it would be possible to break that down further.  

Conclusion:

This style matches what I've tried of yellow teas before, the little that has come up.  These are quite good.  It seems nothing like experimental tea versions; they must be pretty far through process development.  The material had to be pretty good for results to be this positive, beyond getting the secondary steaming / fermentation stage to give good results.  

I don't know lots about yellow tea; my understanding is that it's more or less post-fermented by storing it within wetted paper layers, or something similar, perhaps not necessarily being affected by the input of bacteria and fungus in the same ways that pu'er or hei cha versions are.  Wikipedia and AI sources would inform more detail.

It's interesting that these could be so clean, balanced, complex, and refined, that nothing seemed "off" at all, related to the outcome from that input.  The limited range of other yellow tea I've tried was like that, but these might be a little better.  Then again it's been years; it's hard to say.  They're definitely good.

Related to a match to my own personal preference they're still fine.  I like sheng pu'er the most, which isn't so far removed from green tea (maybe the closest type to these, but they're different), but green tea not nearly as much.  This style and how these come across are pleasant.  Maybe others would value this unique outcome more, if buying this rare and probably difficult to produce style relates to high final sales prices.  I don't buy green tea, or even oolong, even though I like lots of range of that; I'm stuck mostly on sheng.  That's normal; there's so much to get to, and it varies so much, that you can easily get caught up in all of it.

Greengold Georgian Mze Etseri (yellow) and Qvevri Etseri gaba processed black tea

 

Mze yellow tea left, Qvevri gaba black right

I picked this first sample to review randomly, Qvevri Etseri, not knowing that it was gaba processed.  I tend to not like those.  A sourness often comes across that makes the experience less pleasant than if it wasn't there.  

I tried a second tea afterwards, their Mze Etseri (including the plantation name, per one description), to help keep moving through a broad set of samples they sent for review (many thanks for that!).  It seems to tell more of a broader story about how personal preference mixes with more objective quality themes in evaluating teas.  

Quality level is pretty good for their teas.  I don't tend to mention flaws, as much as describing tea aspects and character that one might like or not like.  Limitations in intensity or sweetness don't come up so much, but someone might see balance or refinement as issues, given the styles tend to be novel.

I can cite descriptions from a catalog that I've downloaded from their website in the past, which isn't available through the main links there to it now.  They might be updating descriptions or types range in that.  These had been listed in that reference through their main web page:

The grape flavor reference reminds me of how purple leaf Assamica tea versions tend to include sourness and fruit along the line of grape.  Probably I would've "noticed it" if I'd read that description before the tasting, inclined towards that interpretation by that.  

I don't think anyone's interpretation is a clear, objective, final description of tea aspects, but if you taste the teas a few times, and stay open to varying interpretations, the description outcome would be closer to that.  It's not practical for tea blog review; trying them once and writing and editing notes takes hours, and it's too many hours doing two rounds and then merging notes.

I interpreted that flavor as floral and then fruity in later rounds, not exactly as citrus, but that could work, as a less intense version of that.  I did mention honey and nuts; their description is fine.  Marzipan is an interesting description, and one that's not familiar to me; here is Google's description of that (surely an AI compiled version):

What is Marzipan? Marzipan, also known as almond candy dough, is a smooth and pliable confectionary paste made from almonds that can be used as a cake icing or molded into candies. It features a clay-like consistency that makes it easy to handle.

Review, Qvevri Etseri gaba processed black tea

#1:  that touch of sourness is definitely there, but it's balanced by other pleasant flavors, and not so pronounced.  There's no chance this would be a favorite version as a result but it might be fine.  Other people don't mind that aspect as much as I do; personal preference works that way.  

Other warm tones are a bit malty; that part is nice.  Mineral depth is pronounced, seeming to extent to a touch of salt.  There's never salt in tea, I don't think, but it's interesting when some mineral range can resemble it.  Some of the rest might lean a little towards cacao, but I'll do a more complete flavor list over the next round or the one after, when it all seems clearer.

#2:  that transitioned a good bit, mostly in a positive sense, but one part is mixed in pleasantness.  A wine-like character entered in; that's nice.  A kind of funky vegetal flavor range also picked up, along the line of endive or mustard greens.  Or maybe neither of those is right; I tend not to eat that kind of vegetable.  It's like dandelion leaf, if that helps, which probably doesn't since that's not something people eat.  Spice-like tones also pick up a little, but they're not easy to make out beyond the warm tones, touch of sourness, warm mineral, hint of cacao, and odd vegetal input.

#3:  it falls into slightly better balance, but this is still really strange.  It's hard to imagine someone drinking this and experiencing one of their most favorite flavor profiles, but then preferences do vary.  

People tend to drink gaba processed teas for a relaxing effect, and I won't notice that.  I'm not sensitive to drug-like effects from tea, and I'm feeling a bit hazy from experiencing an unrealistically long day yesterday.  I ran 12k (8 miles), walked 5k doing errands, watched Kalani play for two hours, then did more errands, busy from 8 in the morning until 9 at night.  I'm feeling it.  I'm quite calm but tired.

#4:  this is brewed a little stronger.  I don't think that will help with separating and defining flavors, it's just to try it made differently.  A sun-dried tomato savory aspect picks up.  This would be quite pleasant without that one sour note.  With it I wouldn't drink this just for flavor experience.  At this point that savory edge stands out most, along with a wine-like background flavor, and then warm tones below that, some mineral, that sourness, and more vague warm flavor not so different than cacao, but really not distinct.  It seems that one vegetal aspect evolved and split into a wine-like flavor and the savory sun-dried tomato part.  

I'll probably drink one more round and then set this aside; it would be nice to try another version to get through more of their teas.  Apparently they make a lot, and I'll be leaving Honolulu to go back to Bangkok in two weeks, for the summer, so it would be nice to finish more of this cycle of tastings.

#5:  maybe this balances the best that it has so far; all the flavors are evolving to integrate better.  It may be for the best to brew this Western style to get it all to mix from the first infusion.  It comes across more like a standard black tea, with those odd flavor inclusions mixing and reduced in intensity.

In a sense this isn't a fair trial because I don't like gaba teas.  Maybe a reader who does can read through all this and place how they would like it if that sourness wasn't interpreted as a negative inclusion.

Mze Etseri, yellow tea:

#1:  this is nice.  It's unusual, and interesting, but not as challenging as I found the gaba version to be.  It reminds me of trying yellow teas in the past, but I may have only ever tried three versions of those, or at least that's all that come to mind.  There's an unusual flavor aspect in them, as I remember, which is also included in this, a fermented light edge, not dis-similar to how one type of cardboard smells, like a shoe box.  But it's better than that sounds; it mixes with other flavor range in a nice way.

Brighter honey and floral tones stand out, along with dry mineral and that cardboard edge, which might be closer to balsa wood.  I suppose there is a faint hint of sourness in this as well, but it's hard to notice, and depends on judgment whether it is even that, where you couldn't miss it in the gaba version.  A flavor that I'm describing here as floral stands out; it's distinctive, and I think truly in that range, but it could be interpreted differently.  Warm sweetness makes it all integrate well, along the line of the taste of beeswax (or smell of it; beeswax is an odd thing to try and taste or eat).

#2:  it's even better.  A creaminess really picks up, in the feel, which can at times remind you of the taste of cream as well, as occurs in this.  The flavors I described last round integrate a lot better, and they were already pleasant then.  Those include rich floral tone, honey sweetness, warm mineral, towards beeswax, and then a touch of butter or cream.  Feel is a bit thicker, and aftertaste lingers in a pleasant form, even though I brewed that last round fast.  

At their best these Greengold teas can really catch lightning in a bottle, extending into really novel and pleasant range, balancing well, coming across as very refined.  Then other versions aren't quite as polished, or include flavor range I don't like as much; they vary.  Which versions are which, very novel and positive or else a bit of a miss, might vary with preference.  In some cases trying a version more than once can shift interpretation, since novelty can be very positive or else a little hard to relate to.  That might not apply as much to this version, but if someone had never tried anything similar to a yellow tea it might apply quite directly to this.

#3:  another shift; a touch of fruit seems to come out.  It's non-distinct enough that it's hard to place though; maybe along the line of yellow watermelon, a little sweeter and different than the red version.  There's a freshness and brightness to this, which is odd, since that contrasts with the warm tone and hint of extra fermentation effect, a deepening of the flavors.  But it integrates; it comes across as all one experience, even as one flavor, even though it's actually complex.  

Maybe instead of describing the fermented range as like cardboard or balsa wood it's more like how a library smells; a mix of paper and binding materials scents, complex from relating to thousands of books, but also kind of distinct.  To me it's pleasant when combined with the fresh floral and light fruit range, but then someone else might not like it; I think that part relates to personal preference (again) instead of objective judgement.

#4:  an interesting spice tone picks up, quite similar to lemongrass, just maybe not exactly that.  A long infusion might draw out something else entirely; I had planned to stop taking notes here but maybe I'll try one more round.  A richness to the feel and flavor of this might also relate to nuts, to something like Brazil or macadamia nut (probably the second).

#5:  that was a really long infusion; I got distracted and forgot the tea.  It's still ok brewed extra strong, just with a stronger underlying base, which has shifted to light green wood tones brewed so strong.  There is no astringency edge to come up but the related feel is stronger, a little towards structured or drier.

This isn't all that close to green tea character, not vegetal, without the same feel edge.  It's hard to compare it to any other tea type; it seems most like yellow tea.  The closest might be a mild green tea like Taiping Hokui, or a fresh and sweet oolong like Bao Zhong / Pouchong.  

Conclusions:

Of course I liked the yellow tea version a lot more.  Maybe it is even better (objectively), beyond just matching what I like most.  Then again I never could relate to what people see in gaba tea versions, which supposedly has to do with feel effect, and it must also relate to preference or openness to that flavor range, the distinctive sourness.

To me the second yellow tea version was really distinctive, interesting, well-balanced, and positive.  Parts of that apply to the first too, the gaba version, but it's hard for me to move completely past that one flavor note.

where I run, beside Diamondhead, with extra clouds since it has been rainy lately

the kids!  it was mix and match outfit day at her school.

Great Mississippi Tea Co. yellow and MS Belle oolong

 

yellow tea left, oolong right, in all photos

Another review of teas from the Great Mississippi Tea Company.  We talked to Jason McDonald in a meetup not so long ago, essentially the main owner there, and he sent a number of these for review (many thanks!).

In trying a pair of plain versions prior and trying a set of two flavored teas I suppose I liked the flavored versions better.  They were distinctive, interpretations of standard blends that worked well with their tea base.  The plain teas were fine, but it takes some adjusting to different versions from different places, and it's hard not to judge them against the highest quality range from other countries, since those are familiar, and styles are never going to completely match.  No one is going is to be able to grow tea plants and match style (aspects / character) and positive aspects with Taiwanese oolong within the first 5 years; it just doesn't work like that.  But then being novel can be positive, and variations in terroir, plant type use, and processing can really add up.

These are plain teas again, and I'll get back to reviewing more blends later too.  Yellow tea is a good starting point for novelty.  It's a fermented version of green tea, not age fermented as sheng is over time, but wetted and left to naturally ferment in a related but much more moderate process than shu pu'er goes through, which is wet piled.  I didn't check what oolong style this was intended to match before the tasting, since it seemed like judging it on its own merits versus matching something else was fair.

Review:

Yellow / MS Sunshine: one part of that is really catchy, another maybe just a little off.  I would expect that the catchy part will develop and that rough edge is going to drop out, but we'll see.  All in all it's quite positive.  On the off side a bit of sourness stands out, like dill pickle, and an odd earthy edge, like some form of cardboard.  Tasting it again that edge is more like a collard green sort of thing (not that I remember what my grandparents used to eat so clearly).  I'm tempted to start on a tangent about Southern foods, which are fantastic, but it doesn't connect enough for that to make sense.  The negative range isn't a primary part of the experience, but significant.  On the positive side--most of what you get from this, to be fair--it has a nice creaminess to it, and a nice light fruit edge, towards citrus, although it could be identified as floral instead.  

There's a main underlying aspect range that's harder to pick up that defines it all though.  It's a little like the smell of fresh cooked rice, something catchy and positive.  If you don't already own a rice cooker I'll add that in as a life-changing tip; they're cheap, and no one in Asia would consider living without one.  We're onto owning a slightly more expensive Japanese version, with a non-stick cooking surface, and a bunch of functions we couldn't figure out if we wanted to.

It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.  If that dill pickle and slight rough edge were to ramp up it could be bad, but I expect the exact opposite, that those are kind of typical early-round aspects that will be faded next round and gone in the third.

Mississippi Belle Oolong:  This is nice.  Of course it's not so close in style but it reminds me most of Dan Cong, that hit of floral and fruit range that comes with those.  Surely they aren't using a cultivar remotely connected to those?  It's missing the astringency that sometimes pairs with versions (often, for medium quality versions).  The feel has some thickness to it but there's not much edge.  One part of the fruit reminds me of sweet banana; that's nice!  They have different kinds of bananas here but I might just mean the standard version (hard to keep track, since the Thai name is always different, and they wouldn't necessarily get mapping to Western fruit forms right).  Maybe the versions here are more flavorful.  This covers a different creamy effect, some "round" smooth feel, but also an effect like tasting cream.  Both should be really nice after opening up this first round.

MS Sunshine yellow, second infusion:  really intriguing!  The vegetable greens part is stronger, still connecting with sourness.  Probably really tweaking brewing temperature and infusion time would shift how that part comes across, and I'm using water that's a bit too hot out of habit.  I've framed it as negative but for a green tea drinker that really could be the main appeal of this tea, and I can't say that I completely dislike it, it's just at the opposite side of the range of what I seek out in tea experience.  

The sourness included I would've really disliked before getting accustomed to that in wild versions of teas from here (Thailand).  One might think sour food experience could prepare you to like such a thing but expectations about what's coming seem to shape tea experience, or any food experience, and a range you appreciate in a different context very often wouldn't carry over.  An IPA drinker or fan of pickles or sauerkraut could easily be put off by any sourness at all in tea.  Related to those wild Thai teas, the owner of a company making many versions (Monsoon) has passed on that chefs tend to like the teas (and accept the sourness), while tea enthusiasts don't, again surely related to acclimation and expectation. 

On the positive side that creaminess, sweetness, and intensity is nice.  Part is a forward-facing floral aspect, with a hint of citrus along with that.  What I interpreted as fresh cooked rice is a "layer" that's subtle but one that ties the rest together.  It would be easy to interpret that as part of the vegetal range, but I'm seeing it as separate.  It's hard to communicate how this is positive for intensity alone.  In the opposite sense of the way that white teas are often hard to appreciate for not tasting like much, this really smacks your palate.  To a sheng drinker that's a good thing.

MS Belle Oolong:  this is settling into a warmer, smoother, more balanced range.  Some wood tone picks up, but rich and complex floral also develops.  It would be easy for someone accustomed to a narrow range of styles of oolong to be really put off by that wood tone range, but for people who drink a broad range of teas that would be fine.  I guess that's the running story of this entire review; depending on expectations and broad or narrow range of preference these teas are either great or not very good, or somewhere in the middle.  If someone is seeking a match to an established Chinese type maybe not so good.  I can't evaluate this other version against Chinese yellow tea though; I've only tried a version of that broad category from Korea, which surely isn't the same.

Fullness of feel is positive in this tea, just not mapped to a conventional oolong form, or as intense as high mountain Taiwanese oolong level.  The level of sweetness isn't really high but it supports the overall experience.  Aftertaste experience is a bit limited.  The fruit and floral flavor range is catchy; that's a main strength.  That hint of banana isn't noticeable this round.  Floral range isn't so far off what Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong oolong often covers (presumably honey orchid, the translation for that), which can also extent into peach in a lot of versions.

MS Sunshine yellow, third infusion:  on a hunch I went with slightly cooler water for this tea and slightly hotter for the other.  That hunch also matched the actual brewing instructions for the yellow tea, to use 175 F water for the yellow and 190 F for the oolong (79 and 88 to the rest of the world), except that I was using slightly hotter water than that to begin with, so going that much further above the recommendation for the oolong.  That did drop the vegetal edge back in this; the balance is much nicer.  It's still there but the floral range shines through a lot more, the strongest part of the experience.  

It's odd how this retains a fresh effect, even though it's a partly fermented tea (not like sheng or shu, but still processed with a different fermentation step).  To me the flavors are floral, with citrus fruit, some base that's non-distinct (maybe more like a cereal malt of some sort), then that vegetal range.  Sourness drops back in proportion (which seems to tie to the vegetal range), but it's still significant.

MS Belle oolong:  this might be slightly better too; at a guess using hotter water and faster infusion times would provide better results for this, as is common across most oolong range.  Of course that's not how Western brewing really goes as much; I'm talking about a Gongfu approach.  I don't think the effect would be the same for using 95 C water and brewing for 3 minutes instead of 4.  

There's not much new to add to a flavor list.  Heavy floral range is nice, and woody tone beyond that isn't so negative for me, but not really much in support.  In a sense it adds complexity but not in as positive a sense that fruit tone would, or a mineral base, or more creaminess, although the creaminess present does help it.  To me it all balances really nicely, but of course that's a statement about match to preference as much as objectively identifying balance, or maybe more so.

MS Sunshine yellow, fourth infusion (still using temperatures described last round, which never were specifically expressed):  it's the best that it's been; that vegetal is dropping out, letting the rich floral tones take over.  This might well be even better for 3 or 4 more rounds.  I'm not taking notes to the bitter end because I get bored writing a 2000 word, 10 infusion round post, but I usually mention late round shifts in a conclusion.  

What was present before is just arranged in a different proportion now.  That one base flavor I described as fresh rice and then malt is interesting for changing a little and ramping up.  It's a little like a high quality version of paper.  With a decent amount of base mineral that might resemble a freshly printed resume.  Appreciating this tea definitely relates to not overdoing it with water temperature, which is hard to relate to when Gongfu brewing, since in the world of GFC hotter is better, for some people even for green tea.  

MS Belle oolong:  wood flavor is moderating, falling further below the floral level than the last round.  It's nice that both are at their best now, even though they were good last round, and pleasant enough the first two.  These teas would probably be ok brewed Western style but it would be a shame to not experience that transition, and to omit the extra messing around.  Gongfu brewing should provide significantly better results, although trying brewing the other way would add certainty about that.  Now I'm curious what this oolong style is supposed to be like, and how they describe both.  I'll add that in a section prior to conclusions.

Great Mississippi Tea Company descriptions:

Mississippi Sunshine: 

Yellow tea is the rarest type of tea in the world. It is usually only made and sold in China. As far as we know, we are the only tea producer in America making yellow tea.

Yellow tea is a fermented green tea so it has all the flavors of green tea without the grassiness of green tea. This tea starts as a green tea and then ferments for 5 days before it is rolled and dried.

This tea has flavor notes of honey and citrus with a slight earthiness. 

Kind of a snub of Korean yellow tea in that first part, but what they make is not exactly the same thing, and of course they have their own words for their own styles, not tied to that color code.  "Honey and citrus with slight earthiness" isn't exactly what I wrote, except the citrus, but that does work.  That very mild earthiness is probably what I was struggling to provide a clear description of, relating parts to rice, malt, and mineral, which may have kept transitioning after the rounds I took notes for.

Mississippi Belle Oolong:

This tea is a lightly oxidized oolong using older leaves to give it a rich mouth feel and a floral aroma. It is similar to a tie guan yin. 

Its sister tea, Delta Oolong, won a silver medal in 2018 in Global Tea Championship. 

This tea has flavor notes of brown sugar, jasmine, and sugar snap peas. 

One part of that floral range could be interpreted as similar to Tie Guan Yin.  It can taste like sweet floral range in some versions, like sweet corn in others, or even a bit like new car smell sometimes, like plastic (but in a good sense).  Floral range definitely stands out most, so it's down to interpretation of which kind.  

Tasting it again just now (in the next round, 5) sugar snap peas does work as a description.  It still tastes a little more like wood than that to me.  That wood could alternatively be interpreted as tied to the sweet and fragrant scent of fallen leaves, maybe a fresher and wetter version than the warmer and richer bone dry autumn leaf pile form.  As to jasmine, sure, I guess, I'm not really great at connecting floral range to flower types.  I'm accustomed to jasmine coming in a really overpowering form because in flavored jasmine tea they tend to dial that up, and the wrist leighs they offer to Buddha statues here, or use as bus air fresheners, are way too strong, often sickening in intensity.

All in all really good tea.  I think I liked both better than those first two plain versions I had tried, but then who knows, on a different day maybe that would switch around.  For trying something novel how you are relating to that new experience form can comes into play.  It's probably as well not to try and judge this oolong as a variation of Tie Guan Yin, for example, and accept the degree to which it overlaps and also doesn't match openly.  

Both teas were quite positive as novel and pleasant experiences; that's the main thing.

nice to be back to having stores open here, even if we do just buy scented soap

we were at outlets that outing, a familiar theme in the US, but this is just outside Bangkok

Yellow tea explained, and a Korean yellow tea reviewed

This post will cover yellow tea research first, then a review of an example I bought in Korea.  As I mentioned recently it's not informative to review one tea against a type, without reference knowledge of trying others, but at least it fits my "journey to tea" blog theme.

Yellow tea research

Why not start with Wikipedia input:

Yellow tea (Chinese: 黃茶; pinyin: huángchá) usually implies a special tea processed similarly to green tea, but with a slower drying phase, where the damp tea leaves are allowed to sit and yellow... The smell is sometimes mistaken for black if the tea is cured with other herbs, but similarities in taste can still be noticed between yellow, green and white teas.


Sounds good, if a bit vague.  Maybe back to the reference graphic on tea processing, with the long attribution label:   by Sjschen (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

yep, add "moist heating," or sitting there wet (can't be that simple right)

Another vendor reference (Tea Trekker) clarifies what these steps really involve:

During men huan [firing] the heated, softened leaf is removed from the tea firing pan, covered with a cloth, and allowed to ‘rest’ for a few hours or as long as a day. This smothering step can be repeated several times over several days... In this step (which is not part of green tea manufacture ) men huan encourages the softened leaf to reabsorb its own aromatics. The results of this step will be expressed later as additional sweetness...


The same reference said the teas can be produced from buds only or from a bud and two leaves, which sounds essentially the same as for white teas, but then resulting in the two different white tea types.  This and other references say the combination of better leaves being used for the process and additional expertise and expense being required lead to limited tea availability and higher cost.  Fair enough.

It sounds a little like the processing step for shou pu'er (also called cooked pu'er), the step that chart called "wet piling," although of course it's not exactly the same.  The variation in those final products indicates it's not so simple to leave a pile of wet leaves sit to result in a better tea.  It can go badly.

World of Tea processing by type chart (credit Tony Gebely; see link)

This seems a good place to mention a separate tea processing reference, found here, included above.  This replaces the yellow tea processing step "moist heating" with "heaped," and omits "rolling."  Of course with more research one could go to the next level of detail of specific steps variations of this processing.  One other interesting difference in both does tie to pu'er (fermented tea / post fermented tea in these, or heicha if you must, since pu'er is really a regional designation), but I'll skip getting into that.


So far nothing about the taste of the tea, which is compared to both green and white teas in processing, but surely with a taste difference.  A relatively well-known mainstream source, Teavana, describes their product as such:  

Unlike any tea you have tasted before... Captivating high floral notes mingle with a smooth honeyed body and a subtle creamy, buttery finish. A perfectly balanced tea.. 


Ok!  The price is on the higher side but not different than the range for white teas, comparable to the cost for both the yellow and black teas I just bought in Korea.  Their site is actually interesting for including good product description, and of course a clear photo, and also a product review section.

It could be in poor taste to make fun of the reviewer comments but I can't help but mention a couple of anomalies (aside from the tea getting really high reviews--it probably is nice).

One said "when I add the right amount of sugar to this tea it bring the honey and buttery notes to the front..."  I'm the first person to advocate someone drinking their tea as they like it but this seems odd, tea blasphemy, but at least I didn't read about someone icing it (which I suppose they could do--it's their tea).

Another person recommended it so highly they mentioned buying five pounds, well over $1000 on one tea purchase.  My wife should be grateful I don't do that, and ease up about the small stock-pile at home I keep trying to drink through.


Another vendor reference (Vicony teas) roughly matches other type descriptions, just a bit more colorful (with more information in the site content):

This rare yellow tea from Mt. Mengshan, Mingshan County, Sichuan province has been a tribute tea from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) to the Qing Dynasty(1644-1911). ...  Meng Ding Huang Ya is mostly made from tea buds picked during the early spring to create a nutritious tea with a mild and sweet flavor and unique fragrance... It is ideal for tea drinkers especially women who like green tea but want to avoid stomach upset that can occur from drinking green tea. Yellow tea is legendary for its healing properties.... this lightly oxidized tea has a mild flavor without the grassy smell associated with green tea.

... one of these few rare yellow teas, Huo Shan Huang Ya, is now only made into green tea so Meng Ding Huang Ya is seen by Chinese tea industry people as "living fossil of tea".


To be clear I'm not saying that this is the same type of tea I bought and will review; the general category of"yellow tea" is supposedly common.  Cool reference though, "living fossil of tea."


It takes some paging through Google search results to get to any reviews.  The Steepster reviews of the Teavana product (mentioned earlier) don't shed much more light on the character:  floral, smooth, subtle, buttery finish.  Actually it seems you never do make it to the familiar blogger posts; on page 9 of searching "yellow tea" a reference page on yellow tea by the "Tea Stylist" includes a short review section, with the tea described as:

 The taste was indeed subtle, but round and a little more vegetal than sweet with no astringency.


I kept reading it to see if I'd missed the actual description but that was it--a subtle review description for a subtle tea.  The point of the reference was really a description of the tea type, and there was a good bit more content on that.

Of course changing a search to "yellow tea blog review" did turn up different results, a review by one of my favorite tea reviewers, Kevin Craig, the Tea Journeyman, covering the yellow tea that stood out the most in the research, a Tealet product.  The review description:

The leaves are fully intact, appearing to be one leaf and bud, with the occasional two and a bud... The aroma of the liquor is delicately sweet and floral, with a slight vegetal scent. The liquor has a light body and a very mellow texture. The taste is delicate, with a nice balance of floral and very light sweet and vegetal notes. There is no bitterness to the taste. The finish and aftertaste are light and floral....

As a yellow tea should be, this Yellow Bud Yellow Tea from Vivid Huoshan displays characteristics of both white and green teas, and yet has characteristics that are unique to yellow teas alone...  It also maintains the fresh vegetal notes of a green tea.


The other Teavana tea is also reviewed by a familiar name in a video review, by Jason Walker, which I'll only cite the location of here.

One more tangent, a health claim related

There are plenty of health claims in different references, even more for yellow tea than most others, for what that's worth.  I never really personally attach to these; maybe the teas are good for you, but who knows.  One research study article did say this about the tea though:

The yellow tea significantly ameliorated the increase in the activity of the alanine- and aspartate-aminotransferases in plasma. Thus, the drinking of yellow tea may contribute to protection against liver injury.


Sounds good, but it's quite difficult to review the study parameters, and who is financially supporting the work.  Just ease up on the binge drinking and your liver will hang in there; no tea will help you if you alternate glasses of whiskey and cups of tea.

Review challenges

Again reviewing one tea of a type is problematic, and the subtlety attributed to the related teas could add to that.  Even silver needle teas demand a reviewer base their impression and preference on more subtle factors than the list of flavors that really could sum up most of the impression of some other tea types.  It's not that black tea or oolong doesn't have subtle elements, or qualities related to the feel or body of the tea, but somehow--in general--a list of flavors and a comment about that dimension seems to do it for some teas but not as well for others.

Regional differences are another unusual factor.  Of course most of these references and reviews are talking about Chinese teas, with an Indian tea reference coming up, again related to a Tealet offering.  Even if this is authentic yellow tea, produced in essentially the same way as Chinese yellow teas, using a comparable tea product starting point, based on similar processing skill, terroir would vary the nature of the tea (differences in location, soil, climate, etc.), so all I've cited would be talking about something else.

To review teas is to be bold, though, with some allowance for personal style, so I'll give it a go.

Review!

I tried the tea!  My first impression was:  unusual, subtle, hard to describe.  At first some taste element reminded me of a black tea, but the body and feel and subtle character more of a white tea.  The different taste components were all subtle, quite light, and complex, but not so easy to distinguish, not pronounced, similar to a silver needle.  

Maybe there was some hint of a floral aspect, but not much, and a sweetness reminiscent of honey, but not pronounced as these can be in a better tie kuan yin.  A trace of a mineral component reminded me of such found green teas, a trace of flint.  Yet another subtle flavor element resembled hay.  The richness of the feel and that taste component could come across as butter instead, but it seemed to me the separate trace of mineral pulled the interpretation of that other separate component in a more vegetal direction, from butter to hay, if that even makes sense.

Something about the set of flavors and character reminded me of the Korean black tea I reviewed, but it was hard to say what.  I think maybe the mineral element was common, or maybe more than one component.  

The tea produced multiple infusions with subtle changes in character, so a more standard, some could even say "proper" review wouldn't summarize flavor components together as I have, but would instead track the elements and transitions across them.  Perhaps later I would as well, but for trying a new tea type it seems as well to keep it simpler.

To back up to the beginning, the tea was presented as small, twisted leaves, without any stems.  The scent was sweet and distinctive, a bit herbal and rich, slightly towards grassy.

It's harder to say if I liked the tea.  It was so unusual I'm still taking it in.  Someone that really loves white teas might love this as well, but although I've tried some and can appreciate them my own palate still seems a bit juvenile for that, back towards black tea, or maybe more accurately more oxidized oolongs, comparatively straightforward stuff.  

I could see how subtle differences in brewing might really affect this tea, or differences in water used, etc.  It could and probably should be optimized.  For some teas brewing them very lightly actually seems to enhance the way the flavors are presented, or maybe that's just my take.

Or, on the other extreme, as one reviewer I'd mentioned here expressed a bit of sugar probably would bring out some of the honey and butter.  It would be hard for me to do that to this tea, even in the name of experimentation; it would be disrespectful to this tea.  I'm reminded of a co-worker trying a taste of a nice Rou Gui I was excited to try, and asking if she could add sugar to it.  I replied no, you can't, you're thinking of a different type of tea.

Is it really a yellow tea?  I couldn't know for sure.  It is an interesting tea, unlike any other I've tried yet.  I also couldn't guess where it stands related to similar teas.  

There is one best reference on Korean teas I've not mentioned yet here, but the range of posts and detail doesn't lend itself to citing a few sentences as review blogs or vendor descriptions might.  I'm referring to Mattcha's tea blog.  Even the tea types aren't always presented there in such a clear-cut fashion as the standard categories, with yellow teas exhibiting a bit of range (here is why).    

A really interested reader might explore a range of posts on that blog, (eg. http://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/search?q=yellow), with further reading about where to get teas in this post, a list of vendors and some sourcing information, a bit dated now from posting in 2010.