Yellow Buds - Huo Shan Huang Ya

New experiment here for me – I’ve only had two other yellow teas, one was from Upton and I wasn’t too keen on it, the other was from the Vital Tea Leaf and was very good. I’ve liked everything I’ve had from Mandala so far so I figured it was worth a shot.

I followed the instructions pretty carefully & used about 1 tsb of leaf in a 10 0z. cup. The tea liquor is a very light yellow (almost clear). I was pleasantly surprised to get a light floral aroma here. This is very pleasant, a bit reminiscent of a dragonwell. Some light nuttiness and a clover like flavor are what impresses me about this, as well as a hint of sweet corn. This tea is a bit light for my personal tastes but I have no doubt it’s a very quality tea. I think this will need to be cold brewed to see what else I can coax out of the gentle character, and perhaps I will use a bit more leaf even next time around!

Anyway this will be very nice to have around when I’m in a mood for something mild. I can see this would also be a nice choice on a day when I’m feeling sick because it’s nice and delicate.

This is one of the samples Mandala generously sent me. So nice of them!

This brews up incredibly light, as to be expected given the nature of yellow tea. It’s a beautiful color in the cup. Smells fresh and wonderful dry and steeping. At first it was so, so light, but the flavor builds as you drink more of it. It’s way different from the yellow tea I had from Zen, which was surprisingly dark and tasted like if you took qualities from every basic kind of tea—black, green, white, and oolong—and mixed them all up. This is more the way I expected yellow tea to be—light, refreshing, with elements of green tea (nutty, buttery) and white tea (lightly floral, gently sweet) and none of the bitterness greens can sometimes have. It’s delicate and delicious, so sweet and clean tasting like sweet corn (it tastes like fresh corn silk smells, if that makes sense), but with a very subtle creamy nut element too. It would be perfect on a warm summer day; it calls to mind crisp sugary-sweet spring and summer vegetables. Yay!

I found myself kind of at a loss for how to brew this tea so I opted to empty the entire 4g sample in my 150mL glass gaiwan and do somewhat short steeps.

This tea, while a past year’s harvest, has so much more character than the Huoshan huang ya I had a few years ago at Imperial Tea Court. It is subtle, yes, but it has a slick and oily medium body that carries a sweet and alkaline taste, like a mix of corn husk, gently roasted buttery nuts, some kind of mild, sweet seafood like squid, quartz-like minerality and hint of anise. It’s a little cooling-spicy in the throat, too. Short, sweet, buttery and flowery mouth-watering aftertaste. Gentle nourishment with no bitterness or astringency.

Thank you for the sample, Mandala :)

Edit: It’s on sale right now.

This looks and tastes a lot like dragonwell, though there’s a light note of smokiness that dragonwell doesn’t have. Very smooth and enjoyable. I think the instructions are a bit optimistic about how many steeps you can reasonably get out of this, but I know it’s also a matter of taste.

Slight bitter yellow tea

The appearance of this tea reminds me a lot of Dragonwell, with its long rolled leaf, but the flavor is light and tastes slightly of sweet corn. It reminds me somewhat of cornsilk tea, which is popular in Korea and some parts of the United States. Because this tea is so lightly flavored, water quality plays a larger than normal roll in the final flavor of the tea. We’ve been having hard water issues the past few months, so my first cup tasted flat and mineral-like. If you have not-so-great tasting water then I definitely recommend using filtered or bottled water when steeping this tea, it makes all the difference in the world.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2016/2/16/tuesday-tea-yellow-buds-huo-shan-huang-ya-mandala-tea

GCTTB
So happy to see this one included in the box. I’ve been meaning to order at least one of the yellow teas from mandala but haven’t had a chance to yet. I’ve been sipping on this over the course of the morning. I quite like this. It’s a little different from the other yellow teas that i’ve had but this is a nice one. The flavor reminds me a little of corn, slightly sweet and very buttery.

Holiday TTB

I’ve had Teavana’s ridiculously expensive Yellow Dragon and loved it, so I was excited to sample this one! It doesn’t disappoint. It steeps up to a clear golden color and smells like freshly-picked sweet corn. The flavor, though very light, is slightly reminiscent of corn too, slightly sweet and very buttery. Absolutely no bitterness or astringency. Definitely one I’d like to purchase when this sample runs out!

I had never tried a yellow tea before, so I thought I would give it a whirl. I am not usually the biggest fan of straight green tea, but I am developing a liking for it. This is similar to green tea without the bitterness that green tea can have sometimes. It is still fairly vegetal, buttery, and nutty.
I resteeped for 1,1.5,2 minutes. The vegetal notes seemed to turn creamier throughout the resteeps.

In my pursuit to try as many different teas as possible I somehow keep missing yellow types. But thanks to Garret and Manalas awesome sale I’m finally able to try some.

I’m amazed at how incredibly light this tea is. Honestly abit too light for my tastebuds. The dry smell is…. Indescribable. I have no idea of ehat to compare it to. Dry grass mixed with hay?

Infusion 30 seconds. too light for taste
1 min.-3 min. A bit of nuttiness. Truly this is a unique tea. They will need to come up with more descriptive words.