Meng Ding Little Yellow

The result of a request to go heavier than usual on the yellowing process. Yellow tea cultural inheritor Li Hanmin made this batch out of the Guo family's Fuxuan No. 9 cultivar gardens' second flush, producing an entertaining but uncomplicated yellow giving refreshing notes of creamed honey, cucumber/melon rind, with a hydrating mouthfeel with a loose and round texture. The intensive yellowing process, followed by charcoal baking, initiates a mild Maillard Reaction—a type of non-enzymatic browning akin to caramelization, as found in bread crusts, coffee, chocolate, and ghee. Purely a craftsman, Master Li doesn't have tea gardens of his own so he secures his harvests with select farmers, including our friends the Guo family, who we have been working with since 2019. The Guo family primarily manage Fuxuan no. 9 cultivar gardens as well as the rare regional heirloom Lao Chuan Cha, both at higher than average elevations for the area: between 800-1100 meters. Teas in the Sichuan basin flush early—some bushes at lower elevations are ready for harvest as early as February—and while second flushes elsewhere might appear mid-May, their Fuxuan no. 9 gardens can easily see a second harvest by late March. The first flush is naturally devoted to Gan Lu production, but this second harvest proves ideal for leafier grades teas like this Huang Xiao Cha. 1 bud, 2 leaves are plucked, and any woody stems are discarded. Processing follows the labor-intensive 三炒三闷 "three pan-fries, three coverings" method that defines Meng Ding yellow tea. After initial withering and sorting, the leaves go through multiple rounds of pan-firing and warm, humid wrapping—a wet-heat process that encourages internal transformation and gradual yellowing. The timing and temperature of each round are adjusted based on how the leaves respond, with the full process lasting anywhere from five days to nearly a month. This careful, layered technique deepens the tea’s sweetness, softens its bitterness, and yields a mellow, toasty complexity unique to well-made yellow teas. Tea material from select gardens, crafted by a recognized master, usually comes at a premium. While the industry’s focus on small-pluck early spring teas from Meng Ding and the broader Sichuan basin may be problematic for many reasons, one silver lining is the relatively undervalued status of later-harvest, leafier teas. This one is a standout—and available at a refreshingly approachable rate. award decorated veteran #gallery-3 { margin: auto; } #gallery-3 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-3 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-3 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */ Fuxuan No. 9, the ideal Meng Ding cultivar Unlike some famous Chinese teas tied to a single cultivar, Meng Ding teas like Gan Lu and Huang Ya are still defined more by place and process than by plant. But cultivar matters—and increasingly, producers and researchers are asking which ones best represent the mountain’s character. A 2023 study by Guo, Wang, and Li compared the twelve main cultivars used for Meng Ding Gan Lu and found that 老川茶 Lǎo Chuān Chá ("Old Sichuan tea") and 福选 9 号 Fú xuǎn 9 hào (Fuxuan no.9) came out on top, ranked first and second respectively. Lao Chuan Cha scored highest for aroma and overall cup quality, while Fuxuan No. 9 followed close behind—offering a similarly layered flavor but with better, more consistent yield, and fewer garden management headaches. That last point matters. Lao Chuan Cha is still around, and in the last few years has thankfully begun earning more attention again. But its yield is unpredictable, and its cost remains significantly higher. Fuxuan No. 9, on the other hand, offers a kind of sweet spot—a cultivar that doesn’t compromise flavor for efficiency, and that lets producers make an excellent Meng Ding tea without pricing it out of reach. That isn't true of all Fuxuan lines. Fuxuan No. 4, which flushes very early but is generally seen as weaker in the cup, currently accounts for nearly half the planted area in the Mengshan production region—largely due to its speed-to-market advantage rather than quality. Fuxuan No. 9, by contrast, covers only about 10% of the area, making it a far more intentional choice for those prioritizing taste. We’re pleased to source from the Guo family’s ecologically managed Fuxuan No. 9 gardens, located in the Niuniánpíng area on the slopes of Meng Ding Mountain at 800 meters. Definitely worth a comparison with the Big Yellow from Huoshan, another rare rare yellow at a daily drinker pricepoint.