Yellow Pill: Reloaded

What is yellow tea? What isn't yellow tea? Tea producers and drinkers in Huoshan County, Anhui provided us with a variety of a different answers. There, ostensibly in one of China's three central yellow tea growing regions, the "yellow" tea we drank was sometimes new sometimes old, sometimes made from tender buds and sometimes made from aged leaves and stems. In aroma and taste, some were indistinguishable from green tea, others seemed little different from Oolong tea, and others yet tasted like they truly belonged in a category of their own. These variations reflect different processing methods and picks, but the fact that all were presented as Huoshan Huangya is a testament to how much yellow tea here remains a work in progress. The creators of all the teas in this sampler all agree on one fact alone: yellow tea is hard to sell. Neither they nor the Chinese market is quite sure what yellow tea should be. The producers we met here have contradictory opinions on the optimal pick time,