The Ultimate Guide to White and Yellow Tea
Most people have probably heard of green, black and oolong tea. Green tea, specifically matcha, has exploded in popularity in Western countries, black tea is commonly used or chai and other milk teas and oolong tea is often served in East Asian restaurants, Along with these types of tea there are three others that are much less common, these being fermented, white and yellow tea. I went over fermented tea in my previous post in this series and today I will go over the latter two. Prior to this post I knew virtually nothing about these types of tea but I am here to share what I have learned and also provide some anecdotes because I recently got to try white tea for the first time! I hope you all enjoy this ultimate guide to white and yellow tea and gain some insight into these mysterious types of tea!
What are White and Yellow Tea?
White tea is the least processed tea and fundamentally only requires two steps, withering and drying. Withering is when tea leaves are left in the sun or in warm ventilated rooms in order to remove moisture from the tea leaves for further processing. While all tea goes through some period of withering, white tea is generally the longest. Green and yellow tea are typically only withered for a few hours while black and oolong teas are withered for 12-24 hours but white tea is generally withered for multiple days! The tea is then dried to remove remaining moisture, generally to about 3%, after which white tea just needs to be sorted and it is ready for sale.
Yellow tea is much more similar to green tea and, in retrospect, probably should have been included in my green tea post. It is withered and fixed, fixing being the process by which the tea is heated to stop oxidation, just as green tea is. The difference comes in a unique step that yellow tea goes through referred to as mēn huáng which literally means "sealed yellowing" but is otherwise referred to as heaping or wrapping. This is the process by which piles of tea leaves are wrapped in warm, damp, cloths that slowly yellow the tea and slightly oxidize it. This breaks down chlorophyll and produces a more mild vegetal flavor to the tea. After this step the tea is simply dried and processed for shelving as other teas are.
Types of White Tea
Compared to other types of tea, there are comparatively fewer types of white tea and most come from Fujian Province, China. Although white tea generally has a reputation of being expensive, one of the most affordable types of white tea and the only one that I have tried is Shou Mei. This tea is generally considered lower quality than most white tea but accounts for ~50% of white tea production in China, perhaps due to its affordability. I personally really enjoy the Shou Mei tea that I bought and find that it has fruity and honey notes with a very light flavor. The tea itself is also interesting in appearance because it has large broad leaves and stems included. I highly recommend trying out this tea if you've never had white tea before and want an affordable introduction!
The most famous type of white tea and the only type that I had previously heard of is Bai Hao Yin Zhen or White Hair Silver Needle tea. It is considered one of, if not the, highest quality white tea and consists of just the buds of the plant. Bai Mu Dan seems to be of a quality in between Bai Hao Yin Zhen and Shou Mei. While Bai Hao Yin Zhen is all buds and Shou Mei is very few to none, Bai Mu Dan has buds along with leaves and appears to be considered good value white tea.
While white tea originated in Fujian Province, China, it is now grown in other countries as well, most notably India and Sri Lanka. There you can find Darjeeling Silver Tips and Sri Lanka Silver Tips which appear to be similar to Bai Hao Yin Zhen. They are also similarly prized for a light but complex and refreshing flavor!
Types of Yellow Tea
While there are relative few types of white tea there are even fewer types of yellow tea, in fact it is the rarest type of tea. Yellow tea is pretty much only found in China, and even there only a few types are common. The most famous yellow tea is Jun Shan Yin Zhen, also referred to as Junshan Silver Needle, from Hunan Province. According to Wikipedia without any available sources, so take this information with a grain of salt, Jun Shan Yin Zhen tea is the rarest tea in China and was Chairman Mao Zedong's favorite tea which is some interesting fun facts. It is also commonly featured among the Ten Chinese Famous Teas lists although as I have mentioned in previous posts there isn't an exact consensus on what these ten famous teas exactly are.
Otherwise there is another common class of yellow tea called Huang Ya tea that is further divided into different sub-types. These sub-types include Huoshan Huang Ya, from Anhui Province, Meng Ding Huang Ya from Sichuan Province and Mo Gan Huang Ya from Zhejiang Province. These are all known for their smooth and sweet flavor compared to the astringency of green tea and are apparently quite difficult to find here in Canada. It should also be noted that sometimes sellers label teas as yellow tea but because the mēn huáng process is so laborious it is skipped and in reality the tea being sold is green tea.
How to Prepare White and Yellow Tea
Just as with any steeping recommendations this will depend significantly on the specific type of tea you are using and your personal preference. White tea is generally steeped for 1-2 minutes and can be re-steeped at least once. As for the steeping temperature, most sources appear to suggest ~70-80 degrees Celsius but one of my sources suggests ~80-90 degrees Celsius. For tea to water ratio, typically 2-3g per 180mL or 1 teaspoon per 180mL is recommended in general. I personally make 1L of tea for my teapot at a time and generally add 2 tablespoons of tea but since the leaves for my white tea are so big I have been adding close to 3 tablespoons and steeping for 2 minutes at 70-80 degrees Celsius. This makes for a pretty strong tea but I think that for the Shou Mei white tea at least a strong flavor is quite nice since it isn't very astringent and it goes very well with the addition of a little bit of honey.
For yellow tea I have no personal insight but the steeping appears to be very similar to green tea which makes sense considering their similarities. It is generally steeped for 30s to 2minutes and can be re-steeped multiple times, potentially even more than green tea (at least three times). In regards to steeping temperature, it is also similar to green tea with a recommended temperature of ~70-80 degrees Celsius. The tea to water ratio is presumably the same as the general recommendation, I haven't really seen any recommendations that suggest otherwise.
The Ultimate Guide to White and Yellow Tea
I hope you all enjoyed this post and learned something about these slightly less common types of tea! I couldn't provide as much personal anecdotes for this post but I am glad I got to pickup some white tea prior to writing this post and give it a try because it is really good! I can't wait to try yellow tea in the future as well because it sounds great too!
It was also a little harder to find reliable information on these types of tea but as with my previous posts I relied mostly on the books; "The Tea Book" by Linda Gaylard, "Tea: A User's Guide" by Tony Gebely, and "The Story of Tea" by Mary Lou Heiss. Definitely checkout these books if you want to learn more about tea because they are such amazing resources!
I also think this is a great time to shout out the tea shop I have been getting my tea from recently in Montreal! It is in Chinatown and is called Shun Lee Alimentation & The! I find that the prices are quite reasonable, the staff is very friendly and the tea is great! Definitely check them out if you are in Montreal and are looking for some good affordable tea, plus they have other good like dried fruits and nuts.
Thank you so much for reading this post! Checkout my other blog posts for more foodie content and restaurant recommendations! I hope you all drink some amazing tea today and go out and buy some white or yellow tea if you can!
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