Huoshan Huang Da Cha
The leafy, inexpensive counterpart to Huoshan’s yellow bud tea, made from mature leaf and stem and given a much longer yellowing and a heavy final roast. It is the only yellow tea made in real volume, and it tastes closer to a roasted oolong than to anything green.
Character
Roasty, sweet and full-bodied, with the yellowing barely detectable under the heavy fire. Cheap, robust and the yellow tea most likely to be encountered by accident.
- Flavour
- Roasted, Nutty, Sweet, Woody
- Aroma
- Toasted, Caramelised
- Mouthfeel
- Full bodied, Smooth
- Complexity
- Straightforward
- Notes
- toasted grain, caramel, dried hay, woodsmoke
- Aftertaste
- Warm, roasted and grain-sweet.
Moderate intensity: noticeable weight or grip, but neither dominates the cup.
Provenance and production
- Origin
- China
- Oxidation
- Unoxidised
- Roast
- Heavy
- Harvest
- Summer
- Processing
- Pan-firing (Chinese fixation) → Sealed yellowing (men huang) → Roasting → Drying
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.
Brewing
Western brewing (teapot or mug)
1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 90–100 °C · 1 authored infusion
Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)
3–4 g/100 ml · 80–88 °C · 4 authored infusions
No caffeine estimate is authored for this tea. TeaHQ does not infer one from its category, because category predicts caffeine poorly — matcha and gyokuro carry more than many black teas.
Common mistakes
- Expecting the delicacy of a yellow bud tea
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.
Editorially linked
Someone wrote down why these two belong together. The note below is theirs.
- Huoshan Huangya
Cheap, robust and made in volume — the easiest honest yellow tea to obtain, even though the roast masks the yellowing.
- Lu An Gua Pian (Melon Seed)
Two Anhui teas from adjacent areas made from mature leaf, one yellow and one green. The yellowing step is the difference and it is often skipped.
Similar sensory profile
Shares controlled flavour, aroma and mouthfeel descriptors. A looser match — two teas can share descriptors and still taste nothing alike.
- Nong Xiang Tie Guan Yin (roasted)
Shares 8 descriptors with Huoshan Huang Da Cha: roasted, nutty, sweet, woody, full bodied, smooth, caramelised and toasted.
- Dong Ding
Shares 7 descriptors with Huoshan Huang Da Cha: roasted, nutty, sweet, full bodied, smooth, toasted and caramelised.
- Tan Bei oolong
Shares 7 descriptors with Huoshan Huang Da Cha: roasted, sweet, nutty, full bodied, smooth, toasted and caramelised.
- Da Hong Pao
Shares 6 descriptors with Huoshan Huang Da Cha: roasted, woody, full bodied, smooth, caramelised and toasted.
- Fu Zhuan
Shares 6 descriptors with Huoshan Huang Da Cha: nutty, sweet, woody, smooth, full bodied and toasted.
- Hojicha
Shares 6 descriptors with Huoshan Huang Da Cha: roasted, nutty, sweet, smooth, toasted and caramelised.
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.