Tea aficionados will tell you that the hundreds of teas available on the market today fall into one of six main categories: Green tea, White tea, Scented tea, Oolong tea, Black tea, and Puer tea.
There is one very rare tea in a class all by itself, and you almost never hear of it -- yellow tea.
These categories are defined by how the teas are made / processed. According to Seven Cups:
"the process for making yellow tea is time consuming and difficult. Thus for the thousand kinds of green tea, there are only three kinds of yellow tea that survive today."
And apparently, because of the time and cost involved, many yellow teas are now being produced using green tea processing techniques. So how to know if you're actually drinking a TRUE yellow tea? And why bother?
Like white tea, yellow tea is very lightly oxidized. It has all the health qualities of green tea - and possibly better than green tea because yellow tea is felt to be easier on the stomach than green tea - but doesn't have the green "grassy" taste of green tea. The taste is milder, and is often described as being somewhere between white and green tea with a flowery, fresh aroma.
This I have to try.
The Seven Cups website has a tea shop with several yellow teas. I like a website that offers a ton of good information along with hard to find teas. Trust factor goes up, willingness to part with dollarettes goes up.
For more information, try:
I'm a little late on this train it seems like, but I thought I'd post my thoughts anyway...
As I understand it, White tea, green tea, and yellow tea are all completely UNoxidized as opposed to oolongs which are slightly oxidized, and black teas which are completely oxidized.
Yellow teas are processed the same way as green teas but instead of being quickly dried after the steaming process they are allowed to sit damp, which causes the leaves to yellow. This is NOT oxidation because the steaming prevents that (which is why most green teas have been treated in that way).
Anyway, finding a good, reliable source of quality yellow teas is without a doubt, an amazing find outside of the far eastern nations. Wonderful of you to share the link with us!
By the way, I have recently started my own blog which is especially relevant to those of us in the Washington, DC area, so if you're in the area, I recomend you give it a look: http://coffeeandteaindc.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Patrick | September 10, 2012 at 05:36 PM
I've never had yellow tea before. This is very interesting, does it mean they're more expensive than the other tea varieties?
Posted by: Jen@ jasmine green tea | December 06, 2011 at 08:56 AM
The yellow tea also have different quality, If the bad quality or just so so qualilty yellow, It also very easy to find out in China tea market. But top quality all the bud yellow tea, It is very hard to find. The also the same to other kinds tea.
You could see the below URL
www.jkteashop.com
Posted by: jkteashop | November 13, 2011 at 09:05 PM
Hi Liz, I haven't placed the order yet, but I'm going to try the Seven Cups shop here: http://www.sevencups.com/tea_shop/Yellow_Tea/
Posted by: Christine | July 12, 2011 at 01:54 PM
I have never even heard of yellow tea. are there any brands or places you recommend to find good, real yellow tea? let me know, thanks!
Liz-CoolProducts
Posted by: Liz | July 12, 2011 at 09:44 AM