Huoshan Huang Da Cha

Where it grows

The districts recorded against this tea, all of them in China. Elevation is given as the band the district is recorded at, not a measurement of the garden this leaf came from.

• Huoshan — 300–900 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Pan-firing (Chinese fixation) — Denatures oxidation enzymes through dry contact heat while simultaneously initiating surface browning reactions in the leaf.
2. 2. Rolling and shaping — Ruptures cell walls to expose leaf juices, and forms the leaf into the shape it will hold through drying and storage.
3. 3. Sealed yellowing (men huang) — Holds fixed, still-damp leaf warm and enclosed so that slow non-enzymatic change proceeds without the browning that free air would allow.
4. 4. Roasting — Drives off residual moisture and drives thermal reactions in the finished leaf, deepening colour and building toasted aromatics.
5. 5. Drying — Reduces residual moisture to a level at which enzymatic, microbial and oxidative change effectively stops, stabilising the leaf for storage.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Coarse yellow tea with a high finishing fire — The yellow tea that behaves like a dark tea. Coarse leaf and stem, yellowed in bulk rather than in a wrapper, and finished with a fire long and hot enough that the roast becomes the tea's main character.

  Where it is practised: Huoshan and the surrounding counties of western Anhui, with related coarse yellow productions elsewhere in the province and in Hubei. It is a local staple rather than an export tea.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

The compounds that substantially decide what this tea is: Pheophytin.

• Pan-firing (Chinese fixation)
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
  • locks EGC (epigallocatechin)
• Rolling and shaping
  • converts Leaf lipids
  • creates Theaflavins
  • raises Pectins
• Sealed yellowing (men huang)
  • creates Pheophytin
  • lowers Catechins
  • lowers Chlorophyll
• Roasting
  • converts Free amino acids
  • converts L-theanine
  • converts Soluble sugars
  • creates Pyrazines
  • raises Beta-ionone
  • lowers Glutamic acid
• Drying
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
  • raises Beta-damascenone
  • raises Thearubigins

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

History

A mature-leaf yellow tea from Anhui traded to northern China from the Ming dynasty, where its robustness suited long transport. Like most yellow tea its production has been discontinuous, with the yellowing step frequently dropped for economic reasons.

TeaHQ synthesis — TeaHQ's own reading of well-attested general knowledge, with no single source behind it.

Brewing

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 90–100 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)

  3–4 g/100 ml · 80–88 °C · 4 authored infusions

  Needs: Gaiwan

  Open in the brew assistant

• Grandpa style

  0.7–1.4 g/100 ml · 90–98 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Open in the brew assistant

Common mistakes

• Expecting the delicacy of a yellow bud tea

When the cup goes wrong

Written against yellow tea as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order.

• My green tea tastes flat and looks dark in this house — A delicate green tea that tasted bright elsewhere comes out dull and heavy here, with a darker, browner liquor than it should have and none of its aroma.

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

Compare this tea with another

Journeys featuring this tea

• Understanding tea families — Someone who has heard there are six kinds of tea and wants to know what actually separates them.