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Yellow tea · Anhui
Huoshan Huangya
huòshān huángyá · 霍山黄芽
“Yellow buds of Huoshan” — a yellow tea from the Dabie mountains of Anhui, an old tribute tea sealed warm to mellow its green. Soft, sweet and clean, with a toasted-grain warmth.
- Region
- Huoshan county, Dabie mountains, Anhui
- Harvest
- Early spring — buds and a first leaf
- Oxidation
- Lightly sealed-yellowed
- Cultivar
- Local Huoshan bushes
In the cup
Toasted grain, chestnut and a touch of sweet hay over a smooth, rounded body — mellow and gently sweet.
What it gives
A soft, easy cup — the sealing step lowers astringency, making it kind on the stomach while keeping the freshness of an early-spring leaf.
Huoshan Huangya — the yellow buds of Huoshan — grows in the Dabie mountains of western Anhui, in cool, misty highland above the county that names it. It is an old tea with a long record as imperial tribute, and like the other yellows it is made from tender early-spring buds and a first leaf.
The defining step is sealing-yellow, mēnhuáng: after the leaf is fixed, it is wrapped warm and rested so that a slow, gentle mellowing softens the green into something rounder. Where a green from the same hills would be brisk and grassy, the sealed leaf turns toward toasted grain, chestnut and a whisper of sweet hay.
In the cup
Brew it around 85 °C, in glass to watch the buds and leaves unfurl, or short and gongfu-style for a more concentrated cup. The liquor pours pale gold, the body is smooth and mellow, and the finish is clean and softly sweet — an unhurried tea for an unhurried hour.
How to brew
Huoshan Huangya
Water
85 °C
Leaf
5 g per 100 ml
Steep
1–2 min in glass, or short gongfu
Vessel
Glass or gaiwan
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