Huangshan Maofeng (Yellow Mountain)

Green Tea 2021

Huangshan Maofeng green tea dry leaves in a wooden display box.

Cupped infusion of Huangshan Maofeng green tea and strained leaves.

One of the great teas of the world, Huangshan Maofeng is a direct descendant of the earliest modern green tea production techniques. Brews a crystalline infusion that is sweet, clean and blooming with cool floral aroma. Made by one of Huangshan’s most eminent tea makers from the heirloom quntizhong tea bushes.

Related Years:

2023 $26.00

Tea Origin: She County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, China
Tea Bush: Huangshan Daye Quntizhong (Yellow Mountain Large Leaf Heirloom Tea Bush)
Tea Maker: Wang Fangsheng and Wang Huizhou
Harvest Time: Early April
Plucking Standard: One bud, two leaves

Huangshan Maofeng’s taste is very clean and smooth with a delicate sweetness and a fresh floral aroma. Maofeng tea leaves are not aggressively kneaded; the kneading step needs to be done very gently, only just enough to twist them into shape without breaking the fragile buds and young leaves of spring growth. The resulting natural leaf shape looks like it was just plucked from the bush. This particular tea is dried in an oven rather than pan fired, resulting in a very clean and soft aroma. All together, a green tea tea both easy-drinking and pleasingly complex.

Tea Makers

Our Huangshan Maofeng is produced under the leadership of renowned tea makers Wang Fangsheng and his son, Wang Huizhou. Natives of Huangshan, the father and son team are 5th and 6th generation tea makers. Mr. Wang senior is well-known in Huangshan for inventing display tea as well as his devotion to teaching tea cultivation and production to other tea producers. Their teas exemplify the high standard that ranks Huangshan Maofeng one of the famous teas of China and have been used as state gifts.

We made our first trip to meet Wang Fangsheng in 2006 and Seven Cups is honored to have imported his tea every spring since then.

Read more about the Wang family and their extraordinary tea factory in our tea producer section.

Origin

Rows of tea bushes for Huangshan Maofeng in front of the buildings of the tea factory. — Huangshan Maofeng tea factory and garden.

Huangshan Maofeng is produced in She County, Huangshan City. The Huangshan mountain range is not only famous for producing green tea, the area is also well known a historic center of Chinese culture.

The leaves of this Huangshan Maofeng are grown in an organic tea garden 1,000 meters above sea level, far away from industrial areas. This garden does not have a formal organic certification because of the high cost of paying a certifying body, but the tea makers still take great care to grow their tea without the use of agricultural chemicals.

Harvest

Close-up view of the young leaves on a tea bush. — The Huangshan Daye Quntizhong tea bush used to make Huangshan Maofeng.

Plucking season for this tea begins just after the Qing Ming festival on April 5^th. We have selected Huangshan Maofeng from the second harvest of the spring for its rich character and affordability. Producers will continue picking tea until early May for lower grades of tea, but this Maofeng is made only from leaves harvested early in the season. The plucking standard for this tea is one bud with two newly-opened leaves.

Processing

Fried green tea leaves on a conveyor belt. — Huangshan Maofeng dried by an oven on a moving conveyor belt.

This tea is picked by hand and then carried back to the factory for processing. The leaves are withered naturally for a few hours before they are roasted at high heat in an oven to prevent oxidation. Then a lower-heat oven will slowly roast the tea in the span of two or three further sessions. The length and intensity of each roasting will depend on how much moisture is in the air.

The dry tea leaves are a fresh green color. When you brew this tea, the leaves will look just like the fresh leaves growing on top of the tea bush. The tea color is clean and translucent with a floral aroma. These bushes were grown around wild flowers and trees, which translates through the flavor of the tea.