Junshan vs Mengding
The two origins that matter for yellow tea, the rarest of the six categories. Junshan is an island measured in hectares; Mengding is a Sichuan mountain with one of the longest continuous cultivation records in China and makes both a yellow tea and a green one.
growing region
What is being compared
Point by point
| Aspect | Junshan Island | Mengding Mountain |
|---|---|---|
| Position | A small island in Dongting Lake, Hunan. | A mountain in Sichuan. |
| Elevation | Roughly 50 to 100 m. | Roughly 800 to 1,450 m. |
| Growing area | Measured in hectares rather than square kilometres. | Substantial. |
| Signature tea | Junshan Yinzhen, a bud-only yellow tea. | Meng Ding Huang Ya yellow tea, and Meng Ding Gan Lu green tea. |
| Yellowing applied | Short — a few hours, because longer would flatten a bud-heavy tea entirely. | Varies; leafier material tolerates and rewards a longer smothering. |
| Authenticity risk | Very high. Almost everything sold under the name is not from the island. | Lower, though the yellow tea is still often green tea that skipped the step. |
| Climate | Lake-moderated. | Fog for much of the year, high humidity and mild temperatures. |
The short answer
Yellow tea is scarce because the step that defines it is slow, hard to judge and adds no weight to the finished product. Junshan is scarce for the additional reason that the island is tiny, which makes the name the most abused in the category.
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