Three ways to brew Yellow tea
Yellow tea is rare and expensive, which changes how you should think about the three methods. Waste is a real cost here.
Gongfu is the method to use. It gets the most from a small dose and it gives you several chances to correct a mistake.
The Western method can work but it is risky, because one bad steep writes off the whole dose.
Grandpa style is possible and is actually a reasonable daily method, provided the water stays below 85 degrees.
The narrow temperature band, roughly 80 to 85, is what decides. Any method that cannot hold it will waste the tea.
Most of what is sold cheaply as yellow tea is a light green in disguise. It will not behave as described here, whatever the label says.
Gongfu: small pot, high leaf, short pours
Three grams in a 110 millilitre porcelain gaiwan, water at 82 degrees, 45 seconds for the first steep, then add 10 seconds per round.
It will run five or six steeps, and the second and third are usually where the corn silk sweetness appears.
Use thin white porcelain. Clay absorbs the aroma that defines the category, and thick walls push the water past the band.
Decant fully every time. Liquor left on the leaf keeps extracting, and the next steep starts from an already over-brewed base.
This is the method to learn first, because it gives you the most feedback for the least leaf.
Taste the first steep and the third side by side. The difference between them is the clearest lesson the category offers.
A small pitcher beside the gaiwan is worth having. Decanting into it keeps the leaf out of the liquor while you drink.
Western: a normal teapot, longer steep
Three grams in 250 millilitres at 82 degrees for two minutes is the Western version, and it is serviceable.
The risk is that two minutes is easy to overshoot, and overshooting turns yellow tea dull rather than bitter, which is harder to notice.
Use a timer and pour the whole pot out. Guessing is expensive with this category.
A white glazed pot is worth using, because you can see the colour. Pale gold is right, and dark amber means you have passed it.
If the cup tastes of hay rather than sweet corn, the water was too hot. Drop it by three degrees next time.
Pre-warm the pot with the rinsing water and discard it. A cold vessel steals about five degrees, which is the whole width of the band.
Grandpa: leaf in the cup
Grandpa style works for yellow tea better than most people expect. Two grams in a 300 millilitre glass, water at 80 degrees.
The low ratio keeps the cup gentle, and because the water cools as the glass sits, it drifts further into the safe band rather than out of it.
Use good whole leaf. Broken yellow tea turns dull quickly, and there is nothing worth watching in the glass.
Top up before the glass empties rather than after. Letting the leaf sit dry and then flooding it gives an uneven cup.
It is the cheapest way to drink a rare tea, and it is a legitimate daily method rather than a compromise.
Keep the glass away from direct sun. Heat pushes the liquor past the band again, and a windowsill is the wrong place for it.
Which to choose
Use gongfu when you want to taste the tea properly. Five or six steeps from 3 grams is the best value you will get.
Use the Western method when you want one cup, and use a timer. Two minutes, no longer.
Use grandpa style for a working day, with water at 80 and a light dose.
Whichever you choose, keep the water between 80 and 85. That band matters more than the method does.
And buy from someone who can name the picking year. Yellow tea without a date is a poor bet at any price.
Buy in small quantities and drink it within a year. Yellow tea fades, and a large tin is a false economy at this price.
None of this is complicated, but all of it has to happen at once. Miss one variable and the tea is average, and hit all three and it is worth the price.