Weishan Mao Jian

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.

• Weishan — 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. Kill-green (fixation) — Denatures polyphenol oxidase and related enzymes, arresting enzymatic oxidation.
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. Drying — Reduces residual moisture to a level at which enzymatic, microbial and oxidative change effectively stops, stabilising the leaf for storage.
5. 5. Pine smoking — Exposes withering and drying leaf to pine smoke, so phenolic smoke volatiles are absorbed into the leaf and persist into the finished tea.

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: Pheophytin.

• 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
• Rolling and shaping
  • converts Leaf lipids
  • creates Theaflavins
  • raises Pectins
• Sealed yellowing (men huang)
  • creates Pheophytin
  • lowers Catechins
  • lowers Chlorophyll
• Drying
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
  • raises Beta-damascenone
  • raises Thearubigins
• Pine smoking
  • creates Guaiacol

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 Hunan yellow tea traded into Tibet and the north-west alongside the province’s dark teas. Much of what is now sold under the name omits the yellowing step, which makes it a green tea wearing a yellow tea’s name.

Brewing

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 80–88 °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

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.

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