白茶与黄茶对比：工艺相似但本质不同的两个品类

White tea and yellow tea are most easily confused — both yellowish, both simple processes, but fundamentally different. Process: white tea — withering + drying (all low-temp, no kill-green); yellow tea — kill-green + rolling + 'men-huang' (key smothering step degrades chlorophyll, slight polyphenol oxidation). Appearance: white tea has dense white hairs on leaf back, yellow tea has none; white tea silver-gray-green, yellow tea golden yellow. Taste: white tea fresh-sweet brisk with hao-xiang; yellow tea mellow-sweet with 'scorched rice' aroma. Aging: white tea ages long-term (gains value); yellow tea best within 1-2 years (no aging value). Representatives: white tea — Silver Needle/Peony/Shoumei; yellow tea — Junshan Silver Needle/Mengding Yellow Bud/Huoshan Yellow Bud.