| Yellow tea | |
| Type: | Tea |
| Origin: | China |
| Color: | Yellow |
| Ingredients: | Tea leaves |
| Related: | Tea |
| Region: | East Asia |
Yellow tea can refer to Chinese huángchá and Korean hwangcha .[1] [2]
| Chinese name | |
| T: | Chinese: 黃茶 |
| S: | Chinese: 黄茶 |
| L: | Yellow tea |
| P: | huángchá |
| W: | huang2-ch'a2 |
| Mi: | pronounced as /xwǎŋ.ʈʂʰǎ/ |
| H: | vòng-chhà |
It is an increasingly rare and expensive variety of tea.[3] The process for making yellow tea is similar to that of green but with an added step of encasing, or sweltering, giving the leaves a slightly yellow coloring during the drying process. Yellow tea is often placed in the same category with green tea due to its light oxidation. One of the primary aims of making yellow tea is to remove the characteristic grassy smell of green tea.
| Korean name | |
| Hangul: | Korean: 황차 |
| Hanja: | Korean: 黃茶 |
| Rr: | hwangcha |
| Mr: | hwangch'a |
| Koreanipa: | pronounced as /ko/ |
In Korean tea terminology wherein domestic tea is categorized mainly as either green tea (nokcha;) or fermented tea (balhyocha;) – "fermented" practically meaning "oxidized" with this term[4] – "yellow tea" (hwangcha) is used to denote lightly oxidized balhyocha without implications of processing methods or a result that would qualify the tea as "yellow tea" in the Chinese definition.[4] Unlike Chinese huángchá, Korean hwangcha is made similarly to oolong tea or lightly oxidized black tea, depending on who makes it – the key feature is a noticeable but otherwise relatively low level of oxidation which leaves the resulting tea liquor yellow in color.