Yellow tea is a particular lightly oxidized tea, either Chinese huángchá and Korean hwangcha.

Chinese huángchá

Huángchá is increasingly rare and expensive. The process for making it is similar to that of green tea but with an added step of encasing, or sweltering, giving the leaves a slightly yellow coloring during the drying process. Chinese yellow tea is often placed in the same category as green tea because of its light oxidation. One of the primary aims of making it is to remove the characteristic grassy smell of green tea.

Varieties

Korean hwangcha

In Korean tea terminology, domestic tea is categorized mainly as either green (nokcha; ) or fermented (balhyocha; ), "fermented" here practically meaning "oxidized"; "yellow tea" (hwangcha) denotes lightly oxidized balhyocha without implications of processing methods or a result that would qualify the tea as "yellow" in the Chinese definition. Unlike Chinese huángchá, Korean hwangcha is made similarly to oolong tea or lightly oxidized black tea, depending on who makes it. The key feature is a noticeable but otherwise relatively low level of oxidation which leaves the resulting tea liquor yellow in color.