Meng Ding Huang Ya

Tea: Meng Ding Huang Ya
Vendor: Seven Cups
Price: $ 26.10 / 50g
Vendor Description: This rare yellow tea from Sichuan province has been a tribute tea for centuries. It is mostly made from tea buds picked during the early spring to create a nutritious tea with a lightly sweet mild flavor. Enjoy the unique fragrance which comes from the complex processing of this tea. It is ideal for tea drinkers who like green tea for its nutritious and flavor but want to avoid stomach upset that can occur from drinking green tea. Yellow tea is legendary for its healing properties. While this cooling tea is very rich in antioxidants, there are only a few types of yellow tea processed due to the complicated and tedious process in making it. In fact, there are only two rare yellow teas that are still made today including Meng Ding Huang Ya and Jun Shan Yin Zhen. Unfortunately, another rare yellow tea Huo Shan Huang Ya is now only made into green tea. After the complex processing, this lightly oxidized tea has a mild flavor without the grassy smell associated with green tea.

More Vendor Information:
Location: Sichuan Province
Tea Bush: Ming Shan #9
Tea Master: Li Hui
Harvest Time: March 2nd
Picking Standard: 85% tea buds 15% 1 bud to 1 leaf
Brewing vessel: glass cup, gaiwan, glass or porcelain pot,
Brewing Guidelines: 1st infusion 1/2 Tbs per 20 oz 160F for 2 min
Infusions: at least 4 times

This was my first time having yellow tea, and my was it a treat. The buds are so small and uniform, when scooping the tea out it almost seems like you're not measuring tea, but rather like a seed or a bean of some sort. The buds are very uniform and firm, it lacks that risk of breaking like when scooping a White Peony.

The aroma has a certain nuttiness similar to a dragonwell tea. I'm not a very big fan of this aroma, but once I had tried the tea it matched up well with it. It is a delicate aroma though, not overpowering and not overbearing.

The taste of the tea is smooth. That was the first thing that came to mind, it slowly builds up in flavor and then tails off just as slowly as it came. There is a long aftertaste that leaves you with just that slight sense of astringency that makes you notice that you've just finished a nice sip of tea.

Rating: 8/10

Conclusion: While this tea is very delicate and graceful, it has a problem matching the price tag. It is very nice for a special occasion tea, but definitely not a regular every day tea. It's worth trying out, but I wouldn't commit to much of it unless you like Dragonwell.