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Yellow tea · Zhejiang
Mogan Huang Ya
莫干黄芽
The yellow bud tea of Mount Mogan in Zhejiang — buds slowly mellowed through the "sealed yellowing" step into a honey-nut cup with a savoury, umami depth and a sweet aftertaste.
- Region
- Mount Mogan, Deqing, Zhejiang — 200–760 m
- Harvest
- Early spring — single buds and first leaf
- Oxidation
- Lightly oxidised, with the "sealed yellowing" step
- Cultivar
- Local Mogan mountain bushes
In the cup
Honey and toasted nut over a soft umami depth, with a clean, sweet aftertaste — mellow, never sharp.
What it gives
A smooth, gentle cup — the yellowing step softens it into an easy, low-astringency tea, soothing to drink.
Mogan Huang Ya comes from Mount Mogan in Deqing, Zhejiang — a cool, bamboo-clad mountain better known as a summer retreat, where tea grows on misty mid-altitude slopes. It is one of the small handful of genuine yellow teas still made, and a refined one.
Its making follows the yellow method: the buds are fixed, then held warm through the slow “sealed yellowing” (mèn huáng) that gently mellows the leaf, deepening its colour and rounding its flavour. The step trades the green’s brisk edge for a softer, sweeter, more savoury character.
In the cup
Brew around 85–90 °C for a cup that leads with honey and toasted nut over a gentle umami depth, finishing clean and sweet. It is mellow and easy, free of green-tea sharpness, and gives several patient steeps. A quiet, well-mannered yellow for slow drinking.
How to brew
Mogan Huang Ya
Water
85–90 °C
Leaf
5 g per 100 ml
Steep
1–2 min, several steeps
Vessel
Glass or gaiwan
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