Yellow Mountain On A Mountain

I have been drinking tea for almost 5 years now, but I have yet to try one of the most famous teas of China – Yellow Mountain green tea, or Huang Shan Mao Feng. I received some of this tea for Christmas and wanted to blog about my first time trying it. I just had the opportunity to do some hiking in the mountains nearby and the idea came to me. Drink Yellow Mountain on a mountain, so that’s what I did.

I also received a big beastly Stanley Thermos for Christmas and I put it to good use. I grabbed my thermos, 7 grams of tea, a gaiwan, a glass and my camera and headed north. I went to Caesar’s Head State Park in South Carolina and decided to hike the Raven Cliff Falls trail.

This session was more about the whole experience of having tea in nature with the sound of the waterfall after a nice hike to get to the top of the trail. There is an overlook at the end of the trail where you can see the waterfall. I was the last person on the trail that day so I had the observation deck all to myself the whole time I was there. That was really nice.

I really enjoyed the tea. I enjoyed nature. I enjoyed the whole moment. I honestly didn’t take detailed tasting notes, but it had that slightly astringent green tea taste, but it was also quite sweet and I just wanted to keep drinking it. It was really nice.

I arrived at the trail 2 hours before it closed and the ranger told me I was out of time for that trail today. Challenge accepted.

I haven’t done much hiking in my life but what I have done, I enjoyed and want to do more of it now that we live closer to mountains.

Did I mention it was cold? It was about 34 degrees which is pretty darn cold for this Florida boy. There was also an occasional white flaky thing falling from the sky and even some…..

I guess if you want a trail to yourself, go late in the day. Not sure if that’s usually the case or if I just got lucky that day. It was on the way back however that I had the harrowing thought that if I were to fall and break my ankle there would be no one coming by to help. So I watched my step carefully and made it back okay.

The tea is from Path of Cha. it’s $20 for 50 grams. If you do 4 grams per 100ml, that’s 12 sessions per bag at $1.67 per session. 5 infusions per session and that comes to $.33 per cup. That’s a bit higher than average other green teas but you could potentially stretch it beyond 5. This felt like a really high quality tea so I don’t think it’s overpriced. Path of Cha usually has very high quality teas that may not be in the daily drinking category.

If you are ever near the upstate South Carolina or Western North Carolina, stop at a state park and go for a hike, if you fancy. I think you will enjoy yourself.

If you haven’t tried Yellow Mountain tea yet, give it a try. I think you will like that too. Cheers!