As days continue to get shorter and evening brings a slight chill, thoughts start to turn towards the comfort of warm tea. Finally, tea season is here, and with it, an in-depth look at some of our most esoteric teas to continue your journey through tea.

Our favorite tea of the season is Jun Shan Yin Zhen Yellow tea from Hunnan. We love the beautiful uniformed leaves, pungent aroma, and deep taste that represents a classic Chinese green tea bitterness. Yellow tea is a hybrid style between white tea in appearance and leaf picking and green tea. It is quite laborious to process the green tea and then wrap it in cloth to oxidize from green to yellow. The final step is a flash roast at high temperatures over charcoal which fixes the tea from further oxidation and imbues it with this hint of smoke that is sharp and mysterious.

Yellow tea is one of the rarest teas in China due to the very short picking window and overall harvesting compared to other teas. The standard of quality requires that each bud contains two developed leaves inside and the picking timing is crucial. After brewing this tea, please take one of the buds and open it, you will be amazed!

This year's Yellow tea is quite exceptional in both shape and overall taste and aroma. The complexity of sweetness at the beginning compared to the sharpness of the ending is remarkable. This aftertaste is not just simple bitterness but also a mouthfeel that resonates in the empty cup and on the palette. It is a big flavor that surprises you every time considering it is a relatively light tea and the aroma makes your eyebrows pop up in amazement. Boil some water, brew the tea, smile, and enjoy the moment.

Shin & Stefen