--- title: 'Huo Shan Huang Ya' url: 'https://howtotea.me/teas/yellow/huo-shan-huang-ya' markdown: 'https://howtotea.me/teas/yellow/huo-shan-huang-ya.md' lang: en date: '2026-10-23' description: 'Huo Shan Huang Ya is a yellow tea from Huoshan County, Anhui. How it yellows after partial drying, why it is often made as green tea, how to brew it.' --- # Huo Shan Huang Ya 霍山黄芽 Editors · October 23, 2026 · 6 min read A bud with one or two leaves from the northern slopes of the Dabie Mountains. The leaf yellows in baskets after it has been partly dried, and only slightly: of the three famous yellow teas, this one is closest to green. ![Dry Huo Shan Huang Ya: pale yellowish green leaves with buds](https://howtotea.me/images/c/o/v/e/r/cover-a643aa58.webp) Photo: [Pannet](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9B%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%82%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%B9_%D0%A5%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%8C_%D0%A5%D1%83%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%AF.jpg), [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), cropped 霍山黄芽 Huo Shan Huang Ya huò shān huáng yá [Yellow tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/yellow) Province: Anhui, Huoshan County, Dabie Mountains Raw leaf: bud with one or two leaves Harvest: April, before Guyu Yellowing: dry: 1–2 days after the first drying Leaf shape: "sparrow tongue", greenish yellow, downy Flavor: sweet, with a note of boiled chestnut **85°**, water **4 g**, per 110 ml **5**, infusions Huo Shan Huang Ya (霍山黄芽, "Yellow Buds of Huoshan") comes from Huoshan County in western Anhui province. It is classed as a [yellow tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/yellow), but it is yellowed differently from the other two famous ones: the leaf yellows slowly and only slightly, after it has been partly dried. That puts Huo Shan Huang Ya closest of the three to [green tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/green), and a good share of what sells under the name is simply made as green tea. ## Huoshan County Huoshan lies on the northern slopes of the Dabie Mountains, the divide between the Huai and Yangtze basins. The range's highest peak, Baimajian (1777 m), is in the county. Average annual temperature is about 15 °C and rainfall about 1400 mm, and mist rises off the rivers and the Foziling Reservoir. The best tea comes from Dahuaping township and the mountains around it: Jinjishan, Wumijian, Jinzhuping. The county has its own tea cultivar, jinji zhong, with pale green leaves. Its young bud and leaf have a golden sheen, so some of the yellow in the dry tea comes from the bush rather than from processing. Huoshan is also home to large-leaf yellow tea, huang da cha, but Huang Ya is made from tender leaf: a bud with one leaf for the top grades, a bud with two for the lower ones. ## A name older than the method The name "Huo Shan Huang Ya" goes back at least to the 9th century. The Tang writer Li Zhao lists famous teas in his Supplement to the History of the State (Guo Shi Bu) and notes that "Shouzhou has the yellow buds of Huoshan". Tea back then was steamed and pressed into cakes, and the buds were most likely called "yellow" for the color of the fresh leaf. Yellowing came later, under the Ming, when pan-firing replaced steaming. Xu Cishu, in his Cha Shu (Notes on Tea, 1597), scolded the local makers for drying the leaf in a kitchen wok and tipping it, still hot, into large bamboo hampers, where the green buds turned yellow. One theory of how the type began traces yellow tea back to exactly this kind of "faulty" drying of green tea. By the mid-20th century Huang Ya had almost disappeared, and in 1971 the county tea office set out to revive it. In April 1972 its technicians and three veteran growers made a trial batch of 14 jin, about 7 kg, on Mount Wumijian[1](#fn:1). In both method and taste, the revived tea came out closer to green than the old Huoshan yellow tea had been. ## Dry yellowing Makers spread the fresh leaf about 5 cm deep and leave it for 2–3 hours, up to five in damp weather. Fixing takes two woks. In the first, at 120–130 °C, they stir 20–30 g at a time with a whisk of miscanthus tassels for 2–3 minutes. In the second, cooler wok they roll the leaf lightly and shape it into a "sparrow tongue". Next the tea is dried until it is about 60% dry and spread in baskets for 1–2 days. This is gan men, dry yellowing. Nobody wraps or heats the leaf, little moisture is left in it, and so men huang, the yellowing itself, goes slowly. The leaf does turn yellow, but less than [Jun Shan Yin Zhen](https://howtotea.me/teas/yellow/jun-shan-yin-zhen), which is wrapped in paper while still moist. Afterwards workers pick out reddened stems and old leaves, dry the tea until it is 80–90% dry, and let it rest for another 1–2 days. By local tradition, the final drying happens over oak charcoal. People in Huoshan say good Huang Ya takes four things: picking before Guyu (around April 20), even buds, drying over oak charcoal, and skill at firing and drying. ## Yellow by the standard, green in the cup The Anhui standard for Huo Shan Huang Ya describes the top grade like this: dry leaf tender green with a touch of yellow and downy, liquor tender green and bright, wet leaf yellowish green[2](#fn:2). So even the official benchmark for a tea with a yellow name reads like a description of a green one. Local writers point out the contradiction openly: most Huang Ya on the market is green, while the protected name belongs to a yellow tea. Leaf yellowed by the old rules looks plain, dull and yellowish brown, and sells less well than the bright kind. Taste is the better way to tell the two apart. Yellowed Huang Ya brews a soft, sweet liquor with a note of boiled chestnut and barely any bitterness. Unyellowed tea smells of fresh grass and is noticeably astringent. When buying, ask the seller outright whether the tea was yellowed. ## How to brew A bud with leaves does best in a [gaiwan](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/gaiwan) with short infusions, which bring out the chestnut note more fully. Use soft [water](https://howtotea.me/brewing/basics/water) at 85 °C. ![Huo Shan Huang Ya: dry leaf, the brewed tea and a gaiwan to brew it in](https://howtotea.me/images/l/i/s/t/-/list-i-nastoj-f032bda7.webp)Illustration Brewing in a gaiwan 4 g of tea to 110 ml of water at 85 °C (185 °F). The very first infusion goes into the cups, [no rinse](https://howtotea.me/brewing/basics/preheating-and-rinsing) needed. Steep for 20, 30, 40, 60 and 80 seconds. Pour off all the liquor each time so the leaf does not sit in water. The fifth infusion is usually the last. For a glass, 2–3 g to 250 ml of water at 80–85 °C is enough. Drink after 2–3 minutes and top up when a third is left. Store Huo Shan Huang Ya [as you would green tea](https://howtotea.me/brewing/basics/storage), in the fridge and away from odors. To taste what even light yellowing does, brew it next to [Huangshan Mao Feng](https://howtotea.me/teas/green/huangshan-mao-feng), a green tea from the south of the same province. [Meng Ding Huang Ya](https://howtotea.me/teas/yellow/meng-ding-huang-ya), yellowed three times, shows how far yellow tea can move from green. ## Common questions Is Huo Shan Huang Ya a yellow or a green tea? By tradition and by the standard, yellow. The yellowing is light, and many farms skip it altogether, which makes the tea green in all but name. You can taste the difference: yellowed leaf brews a soft, sweet liquor with a chestnut note, unyellowed leaf a grassy, astringent one. How long does Huo Shan Huang Ya keep? As long as green tea, and the same way: sealed tight in the fridge. It is at its best in the first six months after picking and should be finished before the next spring. As it ages, the chestnut aroma fades first and the taste goes flat. Why does leaf color vary so much between lots? Leaf yellowed the old way tends to be dull and yellowish brown, while unyellowed leaf stays bright green. The local cultivar adds some yellow of its own, since its leaf is pale. So the color of the dry tea tells you little; judge by the liquor. Notes 1. The batch was made on April 27–30, 1972. Article "The Development of Huo Shan Huang Ya" (霍山黄芽的发展) on chawh.net. [↩](#fnref1:1) 2. DB 34/T 319-2012 "Product of Geographical Indication: Huo Shan Huang Ya" (Anhui provincial standard). [↩](#fnref1:2) --- ## Navigation - Parent: [Yellow tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/yellow.md) - Previous: [Meng Ding Huang Ya](https://howtotea.me/teas/yellow/meng-ding-huang-ya.md)