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“Mariage Frères are characteristically coy with their descriptions. Their website claims Hunan, but my sources tell me this is similar to Anhui’s Huo Shan Huang Ya (Yellow Sprouts). Whatever the...” Read full tasting note
This small-leaved yellow tea is made in the mountain city of Yueyang, known for its tea plants ever since the Tang dynasty (618-907). The mild climate and proximity of Lake Younghu create a humidity and vapour that meet with low clouds to produce beneficial rains.
The buds, wrapped in a single leaf, are harvested prior to April 20th, and patiently handled according to traditional methods to obtain regular, fine leaves with distinct downiness.
The golden yellow cup and deep liquor produce a pure aroma and pronounced flavour at once smooth, supple, and refreshing.
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Mariage Frères are characteristically coy with their descriptions. Their website claims Hunan, but my sources tell me this is similar to Anhui’s Huo Shan Huang Ya (Yellow Sprouts). Whatever the origin, this is a difficult tea to make, or at least I found it to be so. Strictly 75 degrees Celsius, and keep the cup/teapot open so that the water is cooling down as the tea is steeping. And it’s properly steeped after about a minute. Keep it steeping for a longer time and it loses most of its aroma and taste, and becomes an average green tea. I think I only got this two times out of ten.
But the results, oh the results! Impossibly beautiful flavor and aroma, gentle and full-bodied at the same time, layer upon layer of different kinds of sweet and floral taste and smell. And if you keep the wet leaves after steeping, they give off a yet another kind of sweetness. Breathtaking, really. Just very demanding to make.
