Over years of tea-seeking journeys across Sichuan, we have built deep connections with local tea masters. Mengding Mountain is revered as a sacred peak of tea culture, and its yellow tea is regarded as one of the rarest and most distinctive teas in China. There are several reasons for its uniqueness as we were told. Firstly, the authentic craftsmanship is extremely elaborate, allowing no compromise at any step. Secondly, from the perspective of traditional Feng Shui and Five Elements philosophy, yellow tea belongs to the Earth element—mild, balanced, and suitable for people of all constitutions. Thirdly, tea masters widely recognize its core benefits: improving digestion, boosting immunity, and regulating vital energy.
“What’s more, its warm tea color resembles the natural complexion of the Chinese people,” said Monica, assistant to Master Xie.
We spent two immersive days with Master Xie and his team, studying the essence of Mengding yellow tea and tangerine black tea. We experienced the sacred bond between master and apprentice and the timeless charm of a tea tradition that blends ancient heritage with modern life.
The Sacred Origins
As the old saying goes:
“Water from the heart of the Yangtze River;
Tea from the summit of Mengding Mountain.”
This ancient verse is chanted by Sichuan tea artisans to honor the noble status and thousand-year heritage of Mengding Mountain tea. Located in the Mingshan District of Ya’an City, Sichuan Province, Mengding Mountain is the world’s earliest site of tea cultivation. Its history dates back over 2,000 years to the Western Han Dynasty. In ancient times, Mengding tea was exclusively reserved for the imperial court as a tribute tea.
During the Ganlu reign of the Western Han Dynasty, Master Wu Lizhen settled on Mengding Mountain, domesticated wild tea plants, and planted seven tea saplings by hand. Honored as the “Ancestor of Tea,” he laid the foundation for global tea culture.
These seven ancient tea trees are praised as “Immortal Tea,” arranged in alignment with the Big Dipper constellation. Growing on a secluded peak, the garden was later named the Royal Tea Garden. When viewed from above, the garden is surrounded by five peaks shaped like lotus petals, sitting directly at the “lotus heart”—a location of perfect, auspicious Feng Shui.
Waking up to tea mountains in sight;
Tea fragrance filling every room.
— Jiang Zhaoyi (Pen Name: Chunjiang)
We revisited the famous peaks of Mengding Mountain, taking a cable car up against the sunset instead of hiking for hours as we did two years ago. We were accompanied throughout by Ms. Tao, daughter of the late grand tea master Mr. Jiang Zhaoyi (Chunjiang) and official inheritor of Mengding tea’s intangible heritage.
She is well-known locally and familiar with every tea tree on the mountain. Her small tea shop in Ya’an never locks its door; passersby may walk in freely to taste tea at any time. She practices self-cultivation by offering tea to all people.
Mr. Jiang dedicated his entire life to the inheritance and development of Mengding tea culture. He passed away a few months ago at the age of 91, and his ashes were buried on Mengding Mountain, forever guarding the tea mountains he loved.
To preserve the authenticity of Sichuan tea, he devoted his life to selecting superior tea varieties and establishing a local tea germplasm gene bank. Even in his seventies, he traveled all over Sichuan with tea officials to collect more than 500 native Sichuan tea varieties.
Without an official title or monetary reward, he offered free guidance to local tea enterprises, supporting brand building and cultural development, and was respectfully called “Master Jiang” by the entire tea industry.
Walking along the mountain path, Ms. Tao told us these stories serenely. We entered Tiantai Temple, the oldest temple on Mengding Mountain, where the statue of Wu Lizhen is enshrined. Beside the temple stand two 2,000-year-old ancient ginkgo trees covered with red blessing ribbons.
Living among tea mountains has long inspired scholars and artists. Master Jiang was not only a grand tea master but also a renowned poet and calligrapher, with works collected by museums worldwide.
We still remember his sincere devotion to tea culture from our last visit. He has cultivated numerous outstanding disciples, all of whom are leading figures in the tea industry.
Master Xie is one of his most distinguished students and has become our mentor in tea learning. As Ms. Tao introduced, traditional Chinese apprenticeship follows strict rituals: selecting an auspicious date at the sacred temple on Mengding Mountain, with the master choosing disciples personally.
When we asked if there was an official yellow tea farmers’ association, Master Xie replied:
“We form a community of Master Jiang’s disciples. We are like family, supporting each other and promoting yellow tea together.”
Besides yellow tea, they inherit all tea-making techniques created by Master Jiang, among which tangerine black tea stands out for its unique flavor and wellness benefits, becoming greatly popular nowadays. Before introducing Mengding yellow tea in detail, let us first appreciate this remarkable tea.
Tangerine Black Tea
Ode to Tangerine Black Tea
In bitter winter frost, wild red tangerines ripen on remote mountains.
Ms. Tao climbs steep ridges, walks through dense woods, thorns, and rough land, picking wild red tangerines from high branches.
Her hands are pricked, her clothes torn; she returns fully laden after long journeys.
Under consecutive sunny days, she washes the fruits, removes the pulp, and dries them naturally to make tangerine shells.
Filled with aged wild black tea, the tea is sun-dried for days, blending citrus sweetness with tea aroma, attracting butterflies and bees.
After four days of slow, low-temperature sealed aging, it becomes a perfect winter wellness tea.
Brewed with spring water, it warms the body, improves appetite, dispels cold, relieves coughs, and clears phlegm.
— Written by Jiang Zhaoyi (Chunjiang), October 2023
This Sichuan-style tangerine black tea was created by Master Jiang around twenty years ago. He also developed a series of characteristic wellness teas at the same time, including lotus-scented tea, ginger aroma tea, and lemon ginger tea.
With countless tangerine tea styles across China, authentic Sichuan tangerine black tea follows strict selection rules:
Only wild red tangerines growing above 1,500 meters altitude in the Sichuan mountains are used. The tea base adopts wild, ancient-tree Sichuan black tea, aged naturally for 7–8 years, produced entirely through elaborate handmade procedures.
When asked about the popular Yunnan Xiao Qing Gan Pu’er tea, Ms. Tao shared her honest view:
The citrus varieties are completely different, and most tea bases of those commercial products are of low quality. True tea connoisseurs in Sichuan never drink them.
Brewable in a gaiwan or teapot, tangerine black tea is highly infusion-resistant. Every brew presents layered changes of citrus fragrance and rich tea flavor. We all love this tea deeply—premium tangerine and tea leaves bring warm comfort and relief from cold discomfort.
Origin and Prosperity of Mengding Mountain Yellow Tea
Back to the story of Mengding yellow tea.
The Tang Dynasty marked its golden age. Since the Tianbao reign, Mengding tea was designated as imperial tribute tea, enjoying exclusive royal status for over 1,200 years. Famous varieties such as Mengding Shihua were dedicated to royal rituals and daily enjoyment, celebrated for supreme quality and exquisite craftsmanship.
Through cultural exchanges, Mengding tea spread to Japan and Southeast Asia, becoming a core cultural ambassador of ancient China. After years of studying ancient tea documents, Master Xie verified that the earliest prototype of yellow tea originated right here on Mengding Mountain in the Tang Dynasty.
During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, tea-making techniques underwent major innovation: steamed green tea was replaced by pan-fried green tea, and compressed tea gradually evolved into loose-leaf tea. It was during this period that the traditional craftsmanship of Mengding yellow tea was finalized, standing out among all tea types for its mild, mellow taste.
Master Xie & His Dedication to Yellow Tea
Master Xie is a top-tier national tea master and an official inheritor of China’s national intangible cultural heritage of yellow tea craftsmanship. He holds multiple authoritative certifications and honors and has repeatedly won gold awards granted by the government in recognition of his outstanding tea quality.
In his forties, he delved deep into the tea mountains to study tea culture in 2006, with nearly 20 years of experience to date. From 2012 onward, he focused entirely on yellow tea, aware that this ancient tea type had long been overlooked by the market and neglected in traditional craftsmanship.
His lifelong ambition is clear and firm:
To establish the first unified national standard for Chinese yellow tea and bring Mengding yellow tea to the world.
In Master Xie’s view, yellow tea is the most balanced wellness tea: it possesses the digestive benefits of fully fermented tea and the antioxidant advantages of lightly fermented tea. With a profound historical heritage and huge market potential, it is truly the healthiest tea for daily wellness.
Master Xie runs two tea brands: one focuses on Yunnan Pu’er, white tea, and black tea; the other is his core yellow tea brand—Zhonghuang Tea Industry.
His future development plan includes:
Building a modern, high-standard tea factory combining handmade craftsmanship with intelligent machinery, and creating a Tea Station Study Base integrating tea tasting, traditional tea-making courses, and tea cultural inheritance.
Traditional Yellow Tea Craft: Thirty Refined Procedures Create Premium Tea
Mengding yellow tea is precious precisely because of its extremely complicated production, consisting of nearly 30 elaborate handmade procedures. Every temperature and timing must be perfectly controlled.
Master Xie generously shared his core craftsmanship. His exclusive secret lies in selecting raw leaves from ancient tea trees over 600 years old on Mengding Mountain—rare ancient tea resources barely preserved today. But technology is also very important. And he shared with us the main stanges.
Fixation: High-temperature pan-firing to stop oxidation and lock in the fresh tea aroma.
Rolling: Hand rolling to shape the tea strips and release inner nutrients.
Sealed Yellowing (Menghuang): The core soul of yellow tea production. Tea leaves are divided into portions, wrapped with special tea paper, then unwrapped and re-wrapped up to seven times within one day. This modern paper-wrapped technique enables precise control of temperature and humidity, which is far more stable than ancient large-stack aging.
Drying: Traditional bamboo cage charcoal drying with a unique three-stage fire control: mild fire for aroma nurturing, medium fire for flavor settling, and strong fire for taste finalizing. Tea leaves are turned every 3–4 hours, or every 2 hours in hot weather, to avoid sticking and uneven heating.
Many tea artisans have come to learn and imitate his skills, yet none can fully replicate the authentic flavor. The difference lies entirely in the master’s decades of experience in controlling temperature, capturing aroma, and locking in the tea’s essence—an irreplicable craft cultivated by lifelong dedication.
Despite the complex procedures, Master Xie insists on making premium yellow tea accessible to the public. He plans to launch three product lines at different price levels: Ancient Tree Premium Collection, Enthusiast Quality Edition, and Public Affordable Edition, allowing everyone to taste this balanced wellness yellow tea.
Ancient Tree Tea Trend & Original Persistence
In recent years, ancient tree tea has grown extremely popular in the market, mostly dominated by Yunnan’s abundant ancient tea resources. Decades ago, many ancient tea trees were cut down; now their value is fully recognized and highly sought after.
We also learned the professional identification method for ancient tree tea: after brewing, the tea leaves show strong toughness when gently pulled, with fine silky fibers at the break, just like thin threads. Ordinary terrace tea breaks easily with no such silky texture. Master Xie demonstrated this method and mentioned that Mengding Mountain still preserves around 600 ancient tea trees, plus a large number of naturally wild tea plants planted over 70 years ago. We picked fresh buds in person, which were later made into yellow tea by Master Xie.
We truly understood how tough tea picking is: exposed to the scorching sun and rough mountain woods, each person could only pick a small handful in half an hour—far harder than picking in flat modern tea gardens.
Master Xie adheres firmly to a zero-pesticide, organic natural philosophy: “If no grass grows under tea trees, pesticides must have been overused—such leaves can never make high-quality authentic tea.”
He contracted vast wild mountain forests to let ancient tea trees grow naturally alongside wild plants. He hires local tea farmers paid by fresh leaf weight, while he personally oversees every core procedure from dawn till dusk. “For him, stir-frying, rolling, and sealed yellowing are no longer just a job—it is his lifelong spiritual practice,” Monica commented.
The “Wu” Tea Space—A New Concept of Contemporary Tea Aesthetics
Besides tea making, Master Xie is also a talented artist and calligrapher. All inscriptions on his tea packaging are written by himself. He designed a unique tea space in Chengdu, with its name derived from ancient Chinese poetry.
It is the most distinctive tea space we have ever visited, a two-story building blending tradition and modern lifestyle.
First Floor: Combines boutique coffee, creative Chinese cuisine, designer fashion, and art exhibitions. It displays aged dark tea, Pu’er, white tea, and yellow tea, together with contemporary sculptures and paintings that go beyond traditional tea themes. The piano, ancient calligraphy, and fine Chinese paintings create an elegant artistic atmosphere.
Second Floor: Dedicated purely to tea appreciation, with exclusive, elegant tea seats for tasting rare Mengding yellow tea and aged Pu’er. Every utensil is carefully selected. Monica brewed tea for us with an antique Qing Dynasty teapot—an old vessel for new tea, carrying a profound artistic conception.
The second floor collects auction-grade aged Pu’er and Master Xie’s handmade teas. Its yellow tea collection is complete: uniquely crafted compressed yellow tea cakes, and natural fruity loose-leaf yellow tea with pure mango, apple, and corn fragrances without any artificial essence, layered just like high-grade Phoenix Dancong tea.
Seemingly mixed in style, the tea space is actually perfectly arranged, integrating contemporary lifestyle, thousand-year tea culture, and fine art aesthetics, pursuing perfection in every detail and quality in every cup.
We sincerely thank Ms. Tao, Master Xie, and Monica for sharing all these precious stories and knowledge with us.