Where do yellow teas (Huang Cha) fit

RayClem
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Wed Mar 30, 2022 6:18 pm

In an effort to explore a wide variety of tea types, I have purchased a couple of yellow teas (Huang Cha). There does not seem to be an ideal place to discuss these teas. They share some similarities with green, white and black teas in the way they are grown, picked, and processed, but yellow teas do not seem to be a ideal fit for either category.

I know yellow teas are considered rare and somewhat expensive, but are they so rare that we should simply ignore them on the forum?

Here are the yellow teas I have tasted. I do not know how authentic they are, but I do enjoy drinking them.
1. Tealrya Golden Dragon- This one brews to a bright yellow liquor. I do not know the Chinese name of the tea.
2. Teamotea Yellow Buds from Huo Mountain (Huo Shan Huang Ya). This is very similar to Silver Needle white tea from Yunnan.
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pedant
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Thu Mar 31, 2022 3:08 am

choosing forum areas (i.e. subforums) is hard. the existing categories are kind of sinocentric, but most teas people write about fall conveniently into those categories. yellow tea is notably missing, but so are categories for other kinds of teas including darjeeling tea (though people are largely comfortable with calling that black tea) and various korean teas. you are not the first person to bring this up, and it is a good point.

for now, would you be ok with using Tea » General Discussion as a place to talk about huangcha? maybe eventually we can do a review of existing threads and move them into new categories. i don't think there are many huangcha threads right now.

feel free to create a "What Yellow Tea Are You Drinking" topic if you like?
RayClem
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Thu Mar 31, 2022 11:23 am

I did a search for "yellow tea" and came up with a number of threads that reference yellow such as yellow labels, but there was nothing about Huang Cha yellow teas. Perhaps, they are so rare in most parts of the world that it is not worth discussing them.
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LeoFox
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Thu Mar 31, 2022 12:37 pm

RayClem wrote:
Thu Mar 31, 2022 11:23 am
I did a search for "yellow tea" and came up with a number of threads that reference yellow such as yellow labels, but there was nothing about Huang Cha yellow teas. Perhaps, they are so rare in most parts of the world that it is not worth discussing them.
There are several posts about yellow teas scattered around tf

Eg
viewtopic.php?p=38357#p38357
viewtopic.php?p=38366#p38366
viewtopic.php?p=39739#p39739
viewtopic.php?p=6803#p6803
viewtopic.php?p=38019#p38019

My vote is to have a dedicated thread called what yellow tea you are drinking in general discussion. Yellow tea in the thread should encompass both Chinese and Korean versions. The first post should be informational, with links to processing and history.
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Baisao
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Thu Mar 31, 2022 3:14 pm

RayClem wrote:
Thu Mar 31, 2022 11:23 am
I did a search for "yellow tea" and came up with a number of threads that reference yellow such as yellow labels, but there was nothing about Huang Cha yellow teas. Perhaps, they are so rare in most parts of the world that it is not worth discussing them.
I agree that this becomes a problem when people want to look for yellow tea. Having a grouping for yellow tea would help avoid that searching problem. I see no reason we shouldn't have a grouping for yellow teas.

There should be a grouping for Korean teas IMHO but perhaps there is not enough interest yet for this. However, I've seen interest in Korean teas increasing.
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pedant
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Thu Mar 31, 2022 3:26 pm

Tea » Yellow Tea is proposed
(or alternatively perhaps starting with a yellow tea sticked thread)

what else would you guys find useful?

Tea » Korean Tea ?
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pedant
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Thu Mar 31, 2022 3:43 pm

can someone start (or point me to) a seed topic for huangcha? and maybe another for korean tea? we can make new forum areas for them if you want.
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mbanu
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Thu Mar 31, 2022 5:05 pm

I think maybe it is that with the other categories of tea, there are English-speakers for whom it is a daily drinker as part of a shared tea-culture. Even white tea has the Hong Kong dimsum folks and the American health-drinkers.

Yellow tea does not really have this, most English-speaking drinkers seem to want to try it for completion's sake, rather than due to a connection to an existing yellow-tea culture. Also, it has a fading domestic market, at least according to ad copy from Seven Cups:
Seven Cups wrote:Zhuping’s first trip to Junshan Island in 2008 proved to her just how elusive yellow teas are. She arrived in bristlingly cold February, when the lake waters were low enough to drive onto the island by a landbridge. Guided by the factory boss of the most prominent Junshan Yinzhen producer at the time, Zhuping toured the island in the chilly morning fog. In addition to the island’s tea industry and research station, part of its land is a nature park that’s open to the public and home to a few teahouses. Taking refuge from the cold, the factory boss and Zhuping ducked into one of these teahouses and ordered (what else?) Junshan Yinzhen. To Zhuping’s surprise (and the factory boss’ embarrassment) the tea that they were served looked sort of like Junshan Yinzhen, but it was green tea — not the traditional yellow tea that’s made Junshan Yinzhen a prominent name.

Zhuping and the boss were interested in getting the real thing, so they moved to a second teahouse and then a third, each time only finding green tea with the Junshan Yinzhen name on it. Finally, the factory boss, now a bit red in the face, suggested they go to the tea factory for tea. At least there they knew what they were getting. You can go straight to origin, know the right people, ask for a tea by name, and still have a heck of a time finding it.
(https://sevencups.com/2021/08/have-you- ... d-to-find/)

Usually the only trivia known about yellow tea's history is that it was a favorite tea of Chairman Mao, which is likely the main reason it survived as an official tea style during the consolidation of the Chinese tea industry. Yellow tea was used in Russian Caravan blends in the very early days, but really has no modern export market.
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Bok
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Thu Mar 31, 2022 8:12 pm

mbanu wrote:
Thu Mar 31, 2022 5:05 pm
Even white tea has the Hong Kong dimsum folks
where did you get that idea from??? I have never ever seen any white tea in a dimsum place anywhere... not in HK, London/Paris/-Chinatown. Would also be a pretty terrible match for dimsum in my view.
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pedant
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Fri Apr 01, 2022 12:22 am

i agree not my first choice for dimsum. but it could work. there are certainly worse pairings.
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Balthazar
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Fri Apr 01, 2022 12:44 am

Modt dimsum places I went to in HK offered at least shoumei, and sometimes a couple other white teas. Probably not the most popular offering, but not unheard of.

... and now I wish I had a decent dimsum place nearby.
.m.
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Fri Apr 01, 2022 2:50 am

How about moving from subforums to topic tags allowing multiple categories, e.g. "green tea", "korea"?
Obviously that would be a major overhaul, and not sure who would be able to do that, not to mention that the current system is perfectly good, but I can still float that idea.
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pedant
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Fri Apr 01, 2022 2:54 am

tags are better in theory, but basically that won't happen unless we move to a completely new forum software.

also, in practice, tags are not always better. people have to be more mindful and diligent about tagging their content. many users are not diligent.
but if users were forced to select at least one tag, then i think that system would be at least as good as what we have now.
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Baisao
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Fri Apr 01, 2022 1:45 pm

pedant wrote:
Thu Mar 31, 2022 3:43 pm
can someone start (or point me to) a seed topic for huangcha? and maybe another for korean tea? we can make new forum areas for them if you want.
I thought I had written something on both a yellow and Korean tea. It’s been a heck of a year (trials of Job) so I don’t know where to begin looking for it.

Also, I think @LeoFox may have written something recently about yellow tea.

Additionally, I don’t see interest fading for but increasing for both, regardless of what some ad copy says. They’ve been popping up more frequently in my circle of tea folks.
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LeoFox
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Fri Apr 01, 2022 6:48 pm

Paper on yellow tea
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j.foodres.2018.01.063.pdf
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