Yellow teas go through a light oxidation stage to mellow and smoothen the flavour. To make yellow tea, the leaves are panned to de-enzyme them, then while still warm and damp, they are wrapped or heaped and left for 2-3 days. Then, they are panned again and then re-wrapped or heaped and left for 3-4 days. Again, they are panned for a third time to remove most of the remaining water in the leaves. The water content remaining in the leaves is reduced to 2-3%.
The wrapping or heaping stages hold water and warmth in the tea and these cause light oxidation to take place imparting a smoother mellower character to the tea than the characteristic green tea.