White Tea

Chinese poet Tian Yiheng (田艺蘅) (1524-1574), who lived in the times of the Ming dynasty, in his essay “Minor grading of springs for simmering” (Zhuquan Xiaopin 煮泉小品)  wrote the following: “The best in its quality is tea whose fresh leaves are dried in the sun rather than tea dried by roasting on fire. Sun-dried tea is more pure, closer to nature and free of the smell of smoke”. This passage refers to the ancient white teas, so even the new varieties of the white teas, which appeared quite recently, can rightfully be called both ancient teas of the past and modern teas of the present.

White tea is a very special kind of tea produced in China. It belongs to the category of teas with a very light degree of fermentation, which means that it is the least processed of all tea types. The tea pluckers pick the tenderest of buds together with one or two leaves from the top of a young spring shoot. Due to the gentle processing of fresh leaves, white tea retains more of its useful properties, vitamins, and microelements. The plant tissues of its fleshy buds contain a large number of polyphenols and tea extractives.

The main processing steps for creating white teas are called:

wei diao - withering (wilting) of fresh leaves (outside in the sun and/or inside)

bei gan - baking

jing zhi – refining or final processing of raw tea

gan zao - drying.

The surface of the dry tea leaves of the white tea is densely coated with tiny white hairs whose silvery-white hues barely show the greenish colors of the plant. White tea features fresh and pure taste very close to the soul of the tea plant. This tea brews up a light colored infusion with pale orange, yellow, apricot tones which fills the mouth and nose with a delicate mellow flavor.

A special kind of white tea is the tea made from the young buds of the shrub. The infusion of this particular type of tea has a woody, sweetish enveloping taste with noble hints of resin resembling the smell of the sun-warmed bark. The volume of production of the tea buds is limited and controlled by the state because when a young bud is plucked from a bush, the shoot stops its growth and does not yield a big harvest of fresh leaves. Therefore, such tea is the rarest and the most precious type of tea which is more likely to be served for special guests rather than for daily drinking.

Blooming tea

Flowering teas, also called blooming teas, is another variety of white teas. The earliest recordings of them were found in the works of the Qing era writers (1644 - 1911). Lu Tingcan in his work “The Sequel to Classic of Tea” tells about the Long Xu tea (Dragon Whiskers) and Feng Wei (Tail of Phoenix), which were made from the tea flushes skillfully tied together into bundles. The tenderest buds with two or three young leaves, collected during the Qingming season (also known as Pure Brightness, which falls on either April 4th or 5th of the Gregorian calendar) serve as the raw materials for this variety. Freshly plucked tea leaves are withered on bamboo mats, roasted, and then hand-shaped into different forms. Small dried flowers folded in a bouquet are placed inside the bundle so they can unfurl into beautiful, artful shapes when brewed. The shape of a finished bundle is then fixed with steam or dry air. Blooming teas combine the aesthetic beauty of teas and flowers gracefully unfolding in clear water together with the taste and fragrance of the high-end white tea.