Huangjingui is the product name; Huangdan is the cultivar it's made from — the national standard is explicit that these are two different names, not two words for the same thing.
Huangjingui (黄金桂) is a Southern Fujian oolong from Anxi County and one of the four teas Anxi producers call the “Four House Varieties” (四大当家品种), alongside Tieguanyin, Benshan and Maoxie. It’s the fragrance-driven one of the group.
The detail worth getting right before anything else: Huangjingui is the product name, and Huangdan (黄旦) is the name of the cultivar it’s made from. China’s national standard for this tea, GB/T 30357.3-2015, states this directly — the cultivar name and the product name are not interchangeable, even though some listings blur the two.
The standard’s own sensory language, echoed in supporting source material, describes Huangjingui’s aroma as striking and penetrating — a phrase translating roughly as “penetrates the sky” (透天香). That’s not marketing flourish; it’s the documented descriptor, and it tells you what to expect: fragrance that arrives fast and sharp, rather than softly. Taste is described as light, fresh and crisp, with a bright golden liquor.
One honest gap worth flagging: source material disagrees on the dry leaf’s shape. An older source describes it as tight and granular; the standards research compilation instead records the typical form as tight, twisted strips. This page doesn’t pick a side — both are reported, and the mismatch is a reminder that even “documented” descriptions can conflict between sources.
All four Anxi House Varieties go through the same general oolong process — withering, bruising-and-resting, kill-green, wrap-rolling and drying. What separates them is cultivar and finished character, not a different method. Tasted next to Tieguanyin, Huangjingui reads noticeably lighter and more fragrance-forward — a useful side-by-side for understanding what “cultivar” actually changes in an Anxi oolong.
See the Oolong Tea guide for where Huangjingui sits among the Anxi oolongs, and Benshan and Maoxie for the other two House Varieties.
Look · Dry leaf
Source material genuinely disagrees on shape: an older source describes the dry leaf as tight and granular, while the standards research compilation records Huangjingui's typical form as tight, twisted strips (条索紧结). Both are reported here rather than merged into one claim.
Smell & taste
Typical aroma: penetrating floral. Flavor tendencies: light, fresh, crisp. Body: light-medium. These vary by batch, storage and brewing.
Brew · A starting point
Try 5 g in 150 ml water at 90–100°C for 15–30 seconds. Fully decant before tasting.
Read the wet leaves
Not documented specifically for Huangjingui in the source material reviewed.
Sources & review
Compiled by ChinaTea101's editors from Chinese national and industry tea standards and reference material, then fact-checked. Last reviewed 2026-09-25. How we check claims
- Standard GB/T 30357.3-2015 乌龙茶 第3部分：黄金桂 (Oolong tea — Part 3: Huangjingui) — National Public Service Platform for Standards Information (SAMR). Current standard; status checked on the national standards platform. View source ↗