The habit of drinking tea has existed since ancient times, with a rich tradition and countless varieties. Drinking tea is beneficial to health and can also help cultivate one's character to some extent.
While drinking tea is certainly good, few people understand the differences between different types of tea. Generally speaking, most tea comes from southern regions, so southerners tend to prefer drinking tea more than northerners. For friends in the north, it can be challenging to distinguish between various teas.
Today, let's discuss the differences between White Tea and Yellow Tea.
First, let's introduce Yellow Tea.
Yellow tea belongs to the category of light fermented teas, with processing methods similar to those of Green Tea. The key difference is the addition of a “yellowing” process before or after drying, which promotes partial oxidation of polyphenols and chlorophyll.
The most important step in its production is yellowing, which is crucial for forming the characteristics of yellow tea. This involves wrapping the tea leaves in paper or stacking them and covering them with a damp cloth, for periods ranging from several minutes to hours. This allows the tea to undergo non-enzymatic oxidation due to heat and moisture, resulting in a yellow color.
Yellow tea is a specialty of China and can be categorized into Yellow Bud Tea, Small Yellow Tea, and Large Yellow Tea based on the age and size of the fresh leaves used.
Some famous Yellow Bud Teas include Jinshan Silver Needle, Mengding Yellow Bud, and Huoshan Yellow Bud. Teas like Weishan Maojian, Quancheng Red, Quancheng Green, and Pingyang Yellow Soup belong to the Small Yellow Tea category. Examples of Large Yellow Tea include those from Jindai in western Anhui, Huoshan, Yingshan in Hubei, and Guangdong Dayeqing. The characteristic quality of yellow tea is “yellow leaves and yellow liquor.” Yueyang, Hunan, is known as the hometown of Chinese yellow tea.
The production process of yellow tea is as follows:
1. Fixation (Killing the Green)
Yellow tea goes through fixation to deactivate enzymes, evaporate some water, and eliminate the grassy smell, which plays an important role in the formation of aroma.
2. Yellowing
Yellowing is a distinctive feature of yellow tea production and is the key process that forms the yellow color and flavor. From fixation to final drying, appropriate conditions for yellowing can be created at various stages. Some teas are yellowed after fixation, others after preliminary drying, and some undergo alternating yellowing and frying processes.
The factors that primarily affect yellowing include the moisture content and temperature of the leaves. The higher the leaf temperature, the faster the yellowing process occurs under humid and warm conditions.
3. Drying
Drying for yellow tea usually takes place in multiple stages, with lower temperatures compared to other types of tea.
Yellow bud teas are made from very tender leaves, typically single buds or one bud with one leaf. They include “Jinshan Silver Needle” from Junshan Island in Dongting Lake, Yueyang, Hunan Province, “Mengding Yellow Bud” from Mount Meng in Ya'an and Mingshan, Sichuan Province, and “Huoshan Yellow Bud” from Huoshan, Anhui Province.
Famous yellow teas include: Jinshan Silver Needle, Mengding Yellow Bud, Beigang Maojian, Luyuan Maojian, Huoshan Yellow Bud, Weijiang White-tipped Maojian, Wenzhou Yellow Soup, Huadaxi Huangda Tea, Guangdong Dayeqing, and Haimagong Tea.
Now let's take a look at White Tea:
White tea is a type of slightly fermented tea that is processed without fixation or rolling, and is instead sun-dried or gently fired after picking.
White tea is characterized by its intact buds covered in fine white hair, with a fresh and fragrant aroma. Its liquor is clear and yellow-green, with a light and sweet taste. It is a special and rare variety of Chinese tea, named for its silver-white appearance, resembling snow.
The main producing areas are located in Fuding, Zhenghe, Songxi, and Jianyang in Fujian Province. The basic processes include withering, baking (or air-drying), sorting, and final firing. In Yunnan white tea, the main method is sun-drying, which preserves the original fresh scent of the tea. Withering is the key step in forming the quality of white tea.
The production process of white tea is as follows:
1. Picking
White tea is picked when the weather is cool, using the young shoots with one bud and one leaf just starting to unfold. Early, tender, frequent, and clean picking is required. The shoots should be handled gently and placed in bamboo baskets for transport.
2. Withering
Freshly picked leaves are spread out evenly on bamboo trays and not turned over. After withering, the leaves are processed based on weather conditions and quality grade, using natural indoor withering, combined withered and dried, or heated withering. When the leaves are about 70-80% dry, they are screened indoors for both natural withering and combined withered and dried.
3. Drying
Initial drying: Dryer temperature 100-120°C, time: 10 minutes; cooling: 15 minutes. Final drying: Temperature 80-90°C; low-temperature long-term drying at around 70°C.
4. Storage
The moisture content of the dry tea should be controlled at 5% or less, then stored in a cold storage room with a temperature of 1-5°C. Three hours after removing the tea from cold storage, it can be packaged.
Main varieties of white tea include: Baihao Silver Needle, Bai Mudan, and Shoumei.
What are the differences between the two?
1. Different production processes: White tea does not require fixation or yellowing, and compared to yellow tea, its production process is simpler, preserving a greater amount of the tea's nutrients.
2. Different appearance and liquor: Taking Baihao Silver Needle and Jinshan Silver Needle as examples, Baihao Silver Needle has a white and silvery appearance, while Jinshan Silver Needle tends to have a yellowish hue. The liquor of yellow tea is generally darker than that of white tea when brewed.
3. Different origins: White tea is mainly produced in Fujian Province, with limited production areas, while