Yellow Kukicha

Tea: Yellow Kukicha(霍山棒棒茶) Type: Yellow Tea, Huangdacha ProcessingHarvest: July 2024Region: Shangtutushi Town, Huoshan City, Anhui.Producer: Jiahong FactoryTasting Notes:  Sunflower Seeds, Pine Nuts, Toasted Sesame. This is, without exaggeration, the best thing to ever happen to stem tea. Processed as green tea, stems can sometimes give off rough astringency; as a red tea, they can come out weak, albeit sweet.  Yet, as a yellow tea, stems offer up a uniquely rich, nutty, sweet, and roasty taste. The closest analog in the tea world is Japan's Hoji-kukicha, but the balance between sweetness and roastiness is unrivaled. There are no sour or sharp notes lurking below the surface.  The Jiahong "factory" is really just a father-son duo that has converted their two story village home and backyard into a mini reprocessing plant for the twigs. Hu Jiahong heard about the market for heavily roasted, yellowed twig tea in the early 2000's. He learned how to make it after some experimentation, and b