Teas / yellow / Junshan Yinzhen (Junshan Silver Needle)
Junshan Yinzhen (Junshan Silver Needle)
Jūn Shān Yín Zhēn · 君山银针 (君山銀針)
Junshan Yinzhen ("Silver Needles of Jun Mountain") is the most famous Chinese yellow tea, harvested only on Junshan Island in Hunan's Dongting Lake during a 7–10 day window around the Qingming Festival using a local cultivar with tight slender buds. After pan-firing at a relatively gentle ~120 °C, the buds undergo menhuang — sealed yellowing — wrapped in paper made from local Dongting Lake plants for 40–48 hours, then re-roasted over ash-covered charcoal. It is one of the Ten Famous Chinese Teas and was reputedly Mao Zedong's preferred tea.
Quick facts
- Region
- Junshan Island
- Harvest year
- 2025
- Harvest season
- early-spring
Brewing
- Leaf
- 3.0 g / 100 ml
- Water
- 80°C
- Rinse
- no
- Gongfu steeps (s)
- 30, 45, 60, 90
- Western (min)
- 3.0
Per-Seven-Cups, traditional brewing uses ~80–85 °C water for 2–3 minutes the first infusion; the buds famously rise and fall in a tall glass.
Tasting notes
- Aroma
- sweet hay, light honey, chestnut
- Flavor
- mellow, sweet, faintly nutty
- Mouthfeel
- silky, soft
- Finish
- long, sweet
History
Wikipedia lists Junshan Yinzhen as "one of the Ten Chinese Famous Teas" and notes it is "considered to be China's rarest tea". Its sometimes-confusion with the white-tea Bai Hao Yinzhen is genuine — the two share a "silver needle" appearance but the yellow processing (sealed yellowing + double roast) makes Junshan a yellow tea.