Spring Harvest Mingqian Fengyu Organic Yellow Tea

This tea was discovered during Leo’s April 2026 sourcing trip through Hunan, while searching for traditional heicha and yellow tea.

It comes from Youliang Shan, 幽良山 (Yōuliáng Shān), in Pingjiang County, northeastern Hunan. The tea garden sits at approximately 800 meters above sea level, where the mountain is frequently wrapped in mist and clouds and temperatures remain cooler than in the valleys below. This higher elevation slows the growth of the tea plants, allowing the leaves more time to develop sweetness, aroma, and complexity.

One of the most interesting things about Youliang Shan is its soil. The gardens here grow in a distinctive white sandy-gravel soil, surrounded by dense mountain vegetation and forest. Combined with abundant rainfall, clean mountain air, and the dramatic temperature changes between day and night, it creates a particularly vibrant environment for tea.

But what makes this garden truly special is how the tea is grown.

The farming here follows an exceptionally natural, biodynamic-style organic approach, where the tea garden is treated as part of a larger living ecosystem rather than an isolated agricultural crop. No pesticides are sprayed on the tea plants. Instead, pests are managed through physical and ecological methods, while the surrounding wild vegetation, insects, soil life, and mountain environment are allowed to remain part of the garden.

This kind of genuinely low-intervention tea farming is becoming increasingly difficult to find. Many modern tea gardens depend on intensive cultivation and repeated agricultural inputs to maintain production. At Youliang Shan, the philosophy is much closer to allowing the mountain itself to sustain the tea.

The result is something we often describe as beyond organic: not simply tea grown to meet a standard, but tea coming from a healthy, biodiverse environment with minimal interference. You can feel that clarity in the cup.

Unlike green tea, yellow tea goes through an additional and very important processing step called 闷黄 (mèn huáng), often translated as “sealed yellowing” or “smothered yellowing.” After the leaves are heated, they are gently covered or held while still warm and slightly moist. This controlled transformation removes some of the sharper grassy character associated with green tea and develops the softer, rounder sweetness that makes yellow tea so distinctive.

The finished tea is smooth, mellow, naturally sweet, and remarkably comforting.

In the cup, the aroma first opens with sweet yam, followed by flavors of toasted straw and roasted sweet potato. As the tea develops, there is a subtle mineral-like salinity underneath the sweetness, along with a gentle herbal cooling sensation reminiscent of sansho. That cooling quality lingers quietly after swallowing and gives the tea an unexpected freshness beneath its warmer flavors.

It is an unusual combination: earthy without being heavy, sweet without being sugary, and warming while still leaving a cooling sensation in the finish.

Most of all, this is a tea that reflects where it was grown. There is something distinctly mountain-like, clean, and alive about it. The first infusion is immediately comforting, but the real beauty appears over multiple steeps as the sweetness, minerals, cooling herbs, and toasted flavors slowly separate and reveal themselves.

If you love the character of Youliang Shan but want something more affordable for daily drinking, try our After-Rain Youliang Mountain Yellow Tea. It comes from the same mountain and the same high-elevation growing environment, but the leaves are picked later, after the earliest spring harvest. The later growth makes the tea significantly more affordable while still preserving the natural sweetness, mellow body, and clean mountain character that make Youliang Shan so special. It’s an excellent everyday yellow tea—easy to brew, satisfying, and sweet enough that you never feel like you’re settling for a “budget” version.

Brewing Instructions

Use a 90–100 ml gaiwan
Water: 202°F / 95°C
Quick rinse

1st infusion: 15–20 seconds
Following infusions: 10–15 seconds

Region: Youliang Shan 幽良山, Pingjiang, Hunan, China
Elevation: Approximately 800 meters