Junshan Yinzhen

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.

• Junshan Island — 50–100 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. Withering — Reduces water content, softens the leaf for later handling, and permits early enzymatic and aromatic development.
2. 2. Kill-green (fixation) — Denatures polyphenol oxidase and related enzymes, arresting enzymatic oxidation.
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. 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.

• Yellow tea: the inserted smother — A Chinese green tea route with exactly one operation inserted into it. Nothing is substituted and nothing is removed, and that one insertion is the whole category.

  Where it is practised: A handful of surviving Chinese productions in Hunan, Sichuan, Anhui, Zhejiang and Hubei. They differ chiefly in whether the smother acts on damp leaf straight from fixation or on part-dried leaf, which is the axis `processing-yellowing-blanks` covers.

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: Catechins, Pheophytin.

• Withering
  • creates Geraniol
  • creates Linalool
  • creates Linalool oxides
  • creates Theasinensins
  • raises Methyl salicylate
  • raises Nerolidol
  • raises Soluble sugars
  • lowers cis-3-Hexenol
  • lowers Green-leaf volatiles
  • lowers Leaf lipids
• Kill-green (fixation)
  • locks 2-Phenylethanol
  • locks Anthocyanins
  • locks Catechins
  • locks cis-3-Hexenol
  • locks Green-leaf volatiles
  • locks L-theanine
  • locks Leaf lipids
  • locks Methylated catechins
  • locks Theogallin
• Sealed yellowing (men huang)
  • creates Pheophytin
  • lowers Catechins
  • lowers Chlorophyll
• 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

Grown on a small island in Dongting Lake and recorded as a tribute tea under the Tang dynasty. Genuine production is measured in hundreds of kilograms a year from a growing area of a few hectares, which is why almost everything sold under the name is not from the island.

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 · 75–85 °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

  0.6–1.2 g/100 ml · 80–90 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Open in the brew assistant

Vessels this tea suits

Recorded against the tea rather than against a brewing style, because the vessel does not always follow from the method — a whisk needs lateral room whatever the schedule says, and compressed leaf needs a pick before any method applies at all.

• Glass teapot — The conventional vessel for bud-only yellow tea, where the buds rise and sink repeatedly.
• Double-walled glass — A needle tea whose behaviour in the glass is part of what it is sold for, in a vessel that stays holdable.

Common mistakes

• Buying on the name without checking that a yellowing step is described
• Using boiling water, which coarsens a delicate 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

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison. Each one is a written page with the points of difference argued out.

• Junshan Yinzhen vs Bai Hao Yin Zhen: two Silver Needles — Two bud-only teas, both called Silver Needle in English, from different provinces and different categories entirely. One is white tea; the other is the most celebrated yellow tea there is. Put the two side by side

Where this tea is drunk

Documented practices that name this tea. Each page describes what is done and by whom, and separates what is recorded from what is repeated.

• Imperial tribute tea — The system under which designated gardens supplied tea to the Chinese imperial court, and the long shadow it casts over how Chinese teas are ranked and marketed today.
• Tea as a gift in China — A very large share of expensive Chinese tea is bought to be given rather than drunk — which means the packaging carries the message, the price has to be legible without opening the box, and the manufacture has been pulled toward what a gift needs rather than toward what a cup needs.

Guides covering this tea

• What is yellow tea?
• How yellow tea is made, and why it nearly disappeared
• Yellow tea: a whole category made by inserting one step