The Tea Detective
Uncovering and Exploring the Facts About Tea
Uncovering and Exploring the Facts About Tea
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| China's Rare and Exquisite White Teas |
| White tea may be the simplest class of tea to describe, but one of the hardest teas to produce. The manufacture of China's white tea is a centuries old process, predating most all other types of tea, dating back to the Tang Dynasty during which it was an imperial tribute tea, under Emperor Huizong (r 626-649). Today it resides on China's Famous Teas list. |
| The original pure form of white tea consists of only the tender, unopened budsets. Specific varieties of China bush tea plants are cultivated especially for this class of tea in Fujian Province, located on China's eastern coast. Ninety-five percent of the cultivars are members of the Da Hao (Big Sprout) variety of Camillia sinensis var. sinensis. These tea bushes must be cultivars of tea bushes developed in the late 1800's, that are indigenous to the three restricted locales where authentic Fujian white tea is produced; Fuding county, Shuijie/Jianyang county, and Zenghe county. All three locales lie north of the geographically important Minjiang River. |
| The unique vegetation of these specific plants including; Fuding Da Bai (Fuding Big White), Zenghe Da Bai (Zhending Big White), Narcissus, and Xiao Bai (Vegetable or Small White), produce buds and leaves that after processing show a cover of soft downy white hair. This downy white covering of soft hairs are called "tricomes," and provide the plants with pro- tection from sun and bugs. The tricomes are what give the leaves their soft pussy willow coat- ing of fine white hairs and can sometimes cause the dry leaves to be coated with a fine, pale dust. The downy fur coating also helps limit water loss and prevents bugs from eating the leaves to get the inner nutrients. |
| Traditional Style Fujian Budset White Tea |
| White tea is plucked in the early spring, before the buds develop into leaves. The weather must be exacting and perfect during the entire tea harvest for plucking Fujian white tea. There cannot be any rain, dew, or frost. The buds must be fully developed and plump, not too long, not too thin. Any slight variations in the condition of the fresh leaf must be countered by the tea maker, to draw out the perfect flavor and style from the leaves, with the end result lightly colored liquor, subtlety sweet, tast- ing slightly nutty, with tones of honey and peaches and no astringency or grassy undertones of green teas. During the final three weeks before harvesting, the white tea budsets are shaded. Traditionally the budsets are only dried in an area shaded from the sun, with good circulation of air. Blocking exposure to the sun prevents the chlorophyll in the leaf from further development, a process called "greening." This allows the fresh leaf to dry faster without the need for external heat. As you can imagine, it's hard to control all the different variables involved in processing traditional budset white tea. That's why this tea is so limited and expensive. But when you consider the fact that it takes over 10,000 handpicked buds, along with the timely, exacting processing to make just 2.2 pounds of this wonderful tea, it's quite easy to understand its cost and rarity. Bai Hao Yin Zhen is the most expensive style of traditional authentic Fujian budset white tea and if you calculate the price per pound (anywhere from $70 to $100) by the number of cups (400 - 600 with multiple infusions) it costs in the range of twelve to twenty-five cents a cup. That sounds like a steal to me, considering the amount of time and hard work that goes into producing a pound of this exquisite tea. Can you imagine how expensive a bottle of wine would cost in comparison, if the workers had to pick 10,000 individual grapes one by one to produce it? Yet that's the case with traditional budset white tea - each bud is individually handpicked. Amazing! Since the days of the Song Dynasty the traditional growing region for white tea has been Fujian Province, but today that is no longer the case. To the ire of the Fujian tea producers, traditional budset white tea is now being produced in other areas, such as Anhui Province in China, and tea growing regions in Assam, Darjeeling, Nilgiri, Sri Lanka, and South Asia. In fact, Ceylon Silver Tips from Sri Lanka is proving to be a challenger to Bai Hao Yin Zhen's crown as best white budset tea, made entirely of slightly curved silvery-green buds just over one inch in length. Bai Hao Yin Zhen (also called Flowery White Pekoe or Silver Needle) is the original traditional Fujian budset white tea, closely related to Silver Pekoe and Silver Tip. These teas are made exclusively from select pickings of full, plump spring buds with Bai Hao Yin Zhen being the most expensive. |
| New Style White Tea - Answering the Demand for More White Tea |
| New style leaf white tea was created in the late 1900s as an answer to providing more white tea at a lower cost. New style white tea is given a light oxidation and bruising (rolling), before it's fired at a higher temperature than usual for white teas. This causes a deepening of the teas flavor and a darkening of the leaf, turning it a gray-green color. This minor adjustment to the normal processing procedure changes the classification just enough so that they are no longer considered to be traditional budset white teas, but form an apt new classification as "new style white teas." Although this makes sense to the Fujian tea makers, it just adds confusion and uncertainty to buyers when labeling the product to be sold in the West. The two versions of white tea are quite different from one another and definitely not interchangeable. Traditional style budset white tea is 100% buds with no leaf, where New Style White teas such as Shou Mei should contain no, or very few buds, and be more oxidized. New style white tea is made from the first leaf bunch on the tea plant, and is processed just as carefully and minimally as its counterpart, traditional budset white tea. The processing is similar for both teas with outdoor withering in the shade and indoor withering with cool air, but the new style tea adds a third step of quickly bake-drying to completely dry the higher moisture leaf cluster before it has a chance to change the balance of the leaf's internal enzymes. There are four different styles of pluck for new style white tea. They are:
Gong Mei (Tribute Eyebrow) and Shou Mei (Long Life Eyebrow) called eyebrow teas for their delicately curved shape, resembling a woman's perfectly shaped eyebrow. These teas are made from a pluck configuration of large leaves, made after the plucking of Bai Hao Yin Zhen and Bai Mudan (White Peony). Bai Mudan is made from a careful plucking of the first leaf and bud. The first leaf is the most porous tea leaf on the bush, and Big Sprout tea bush leaves are much larger. This new style white tea is usually easy to find, but when purchasing take note that the finest has a high ratio of buds to leaves. The added availability of new style white tea has worked to satisfy the increasing demand, allowing more people to enjoy these fine teas. New style white tea can also be broken into smaller pieces for packaging in tea bags, and also blends well with many green teas, full leaf Formosa oolong, and large leaf orthodox black teas. Enjoy. |
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| For more information or to learn more about tea, visit our other pages: Which teas come from China? Learn which types of tea come from China and take a close-up look at individual teas, their qualities, growing season, and which are available as exports. China's Yellow Teas-a close cousin to green tea but with a special added step. China's yellow teas are close to green teas in many ways, but one special step in their processing makes them unique in their own right. Specialty and Gourmet teas - a treat for the taste buds. Learn all about gourmet teas, with a range of flavors from smoky to sweet, and everything in-between, one of the many specialty or gourmet teas available from Silver Leaf Tea Company. |
| For a great selection of quality teas, gifts, and accessories, visit: The Tea Detective's Gift of Tea Store |
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