Huang Guan Yin 黃觀音 — Everyday Collection

Huang Guan Yin is a crossbreed of the famous cultivars Huang Dan and Tie Guan Yin. This aromatic tea is here to delight your every day with notes of toasted biscuits and woodsy herbs. It has a bright aroma with a weighty body. A long vegetal aftertaste follows the toasted biscuit and woodsy-herb notes.

Yan Cha tea is made with only the leaves, making it one of the latest teas to be harvested each year, with Ban Yan picking time around early to mid-April and Zheng Yan early May. After the teas are sufficiently wilted, they remain on bamboo trays for a few hours before being shaken or tumbled to manage enzyme activity. This step regulates how the water inside the leaves travels outward. The process is repeated every hour, 5-8 times throughout the evening and night until morning. Once the leaves reach the desired fermentation stage in the early morning, they undergo Sha Qing, applying high temperature to lock the tea at that stage. During Zuo Xing, or shape making, the leaves are rolled into string shape. The most tedious step in all Chinese tea making is the stem-picking step, which in Yan Cha's case takes place for several months following the rough tea making. It is a step where undesired yellow leaves (old leaves) and stems are picked out by hand. The "cleaned" tea is then roasted on very dim charcoal ash for 8–12 hours, 1-3 times depending on the varietal, to make it a finished Yan Cha.

Huang Guan Yin means Yellow Guan Yin (bodhisattva, goddess of mercy). It is a crossbreed of Huang Dan and Tie Guan Yin. Hence the name incorporates elements of both teas.