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t first it has a rather unpleasant barnyard smell, then it's like bales of hay and smoke, and later the appetizing smell of broth.

The color is brownish-tinged light ochre, somewhat like the color of oolong tea. On the palate it is markedly tannic, full-bodied and muscular, and has a very strong earthy taste with an impregnating bitter sensation reminiscent of brutish strength and rusticity, which is quite surprising given its appearance of lightness.

A little while later, the smell of this tea turns deeply and sweetly floral, even heady, like frangipani.

This was how I perceived the freshly brewed Jun Shan Yin Zhen (Mount Jun Silver Needle) - a very rare yellow tea said to be the favorite of Chairman Mao Zedong - at a recent Teh (Tea Lovers) club gathering at Cafe Coffeelicious in Thamrin, Central Jakarta.

"This tea costs around Rp 11-12 million per kilogram," said the club founder, Ratna Soemantri, referring to it as "imperial".

The "king" type, which she introduced straight after, was the opposite - delicate, smoky, refreshing, running deep with a sweet, delightful aftertaste - a marked aroma of lychee and a hint of pine-scented mountain air. It costs around Rp 7 million per kilogram, said Ratna, who bought the teas from Purple Cane (www.purplecane.com).

I could not help but think the "imperial" and the "king" had been inadvertently mixed up during our tasting. At www.teaspring.com, "imperial" is offered for US$46.90 per 100 grams and "king" is US$44.50 for 50 grams. It says the yearly production of "imperial" is very limited, with harvesting only taking place just before and early in the Qing Ming (Tomb Sweeping Day) Festival in early spring (April 5). Meanwhile, to make the "king" variety requires 78 hours of non-stop work after picking the tea buds between the seventh to 10th days of the Qing Ming - in compliance with nine stringent rules.

According to tea-shop.lv/store/category/id/12, to produce 1 kilogram of silver needles yellow tea from Jun Shan Island, 25,000 buds must be collected and dried - the entire process carried out by hand. And until the beginning of the 20th century, taking this tea outside China was a crime punishable by death.

It first arrived in Russia, where it was bartered with expensive and very valuable lynx skins, which may explain why it was China's gift to Russia's Vladmir Putin in 2006. Hojo Tea's website (hojotea.com/item_e/y01e.htm ) says currently only around 300 kilograms of the tea are produced each year, compared to mere 0.5 kilogram in imperial China.

"Only a few tea masters are able to produce yellow tea. It's almost a lost, dying art, because supply is so limited one must preorder a year ahead to get it," Ratna said.

Yellow tea is basically green tea made from tea buds subjected to a repeated process called men-huang which determines the degree of yellowness of the buds and infusion, removes the green tea's typical grassy flavor often consi-dered off-putting, and is perhaps responsible for making the buds go up and then descend to the bottom of the container when brewed.

Yellow tea has lately been getting a lot of attention after last seasons' white tea fad and green tea rage.

To find out why "imperial" is darker in color, stronger in taste and (according to Ratna) more expensive than the more sophisticated "king", I interviewed Chinese tea expert Suwarni Widjaja, of Siang Ming Chinese tea shop in Mangga Dua, West Jakarta.

She told me the correct color of brewed yellow tea should be light yellow.

"If the brew turns brown or brownish, the tea is probably old, oxidized or has not been brewed correctly, for example because there are too many tea leaves and not enough water, or because it has been brewed too long. This can make the resulting brew taste harshly tannic and bitter," Suwarni said.

"Use 70 percent boiled fresh water. Don't use water that has been boiled to 100 degrees Celsius or more and then cooled down to 70 degrees Celsius."

The type of water used is also important: Where possible, use (whole) natural spring water. If not, use properly filtered and purified drinking water, she said.

To illustrate the point, she offered me old, oxidized, run-of-the-mill Jun Shan Yin Zhen whose silver tones had gone. Brewed at a higher temperature (above 70 degrees Celsius) in a teapot, the tea still exuded quite a strong frangipani scent, but its color had turned brownish, like that of oolong, and it tasted rather flat.

There was no strong tannins or bitterness. The second brew produced an acidic flavor reminiscent to preserved Malay gooseberry (cermai).

As for the price of the tea, Suwarni said she was not aware of any Jun Shan Yin Zhen sold for more than Rp 4-5 million a kilogram.

"The top grade *AAA* always goes to the government *of the People's Republic of China* - all of them," she said.

In other words, the tea you find in any tea shop in China or elsewhere is of lower quality unless the shop owner has connections in high places.

The term "imperial" denotes that in imperial China the tea was used by peasants to pay tribute to the emperor. It does not necessarily indicate quality.

Quality determination is highly complicated because Camellia sinensis comes in different varieties/cultivars, marked by differences in, say, leaf size and hairiness, and certain varieties are considered more suitable for making yellow tea. Climatic factors play a role, too.

"If the weather is not good, red tea may be produced instead of yellow tea," Suwarni said.

Moreover, only yellow tea that comes from Junshan Island around the Dong Ting Lake has the right to wear the Jun Shan Yin Zhen label. This tea also comes in different grades. To complicate matters, many teas from trees planted in areas around the lake are also called Jun Shan Yin Zhen, not to mention its green tea version bearing the same name!

Suwarni told me she no longer sells Jun Shan Yin Zhen yellow tea because of a lack of demand. The stale brew she offered me for comparison was just her remaining stock.