By Helen Xu Fei
White tea is a rare type of specialty tea mainly produced in China’s Fujian Province. It has longish silvery buds that are coated with fine white hairs which give it its name. The infusion of white tea is very clear, the color of pale, yellowish champagne, and the taste is mellow and smooth with no trace of the "green" sensation.
The most popular white teas types are white silver needle and white peony. The former is made of buds, and the latter is made of a bud and one or two leaves. Recent western researchers have discovered that white tea has remarkable anti-bacterial and anti-viral effects and it is a good source of flavonoids, natural antioxidant compounds.
White tea originated much earlier than Anji white tea. White silver needle was first produced over 200 years ago in Fuding County of Fujiang province. Local tea planters selected unopened leaf buds and wilted them under the sun to produce the refined dehydrated tea. This was the earliest white silver needle. The initial white silver needle was small and thin, and did not stand out compared to other local teas. By the mid- to late-nineteenth century, new cultivars with larger and fleshier leaf buds were successfully bred and transplanted at Fuding, Zhenghe and other nearby counties.
White silver needle made from these tea bushes was larger and full of white hairs and had a better aroma and taste. Since then, it has established a reputation as a superb gourmet tea and these new characteristics are now unanimously accepted as a benchmark standard for white silver needle.
Leaf grade white tea was introduced in the early 1920s, giving white tea drinkers more economical choices depending on the tea plant variety and leaf grade. Types included white peony, tribute eyebrow and longevity eyebrow.
White peony was exclusively made from white silver needle upsized-bud cultivars while both white tribute eyebrow and longevity eyebrow were made from ordinary tea bushes yielding smaller and thinner buds. The former contains more tips, the latter more leaves. In the 1960s a new processing method was invented to cater to the Hongkong market’s requirement for a stronger taste. This process involves gently rolling the leaf after wilting; the additional rolling step enhances the taste but removes many of the spectacular white hairs.
Leading producersFuding and Zhenghe are two leading white tea producers. The former is a coastal city at the north east corner of Fujian bordering Zhejiang province, and the latter is about the same altitude but further inland. White tea from both regions has been granted GI certifications. Fuding white tea cultivars have more voluminous buds which are coated with longer hairs, while the Zhenghe white tea cultivars are slender with relatively shorter hairs.
All Chinese white tea cultivars belong to the sinensis sub-variety, yet with larger leaf buds over two centimeters long. In both counties, these white tea cultivars are also plucked to produce black tea, green tea and jasmine tea.
According to Fuding government, Fuding produces over 4,000 tons of white tea annually, accounting for about one quarter of its total tea output. Local news sources state that Zhenghe produced around 3,000 tons of white tea out of a total tea output of 8,000 tons in 2008.
Traditionally, over 90% of white tea is exported to overseas markets. Japan, US and Germany are leading importers, and southeast Asia is a traditional market. Increased consumer awareness of white tea’s health benefits has triggered more countries, including Sri Lanka, India, and some African nations, to produce white tea.
Traditional harvesting
Traditionally, white tea was harvested during spring, summer and autumn. Spring tea has the best mouthfeel and appearance, autumn tea comes next, and summer tea brings up the rear. Spring harvest of white tea starts around mid-March and ends about mid-May. Autumn plucking takes place from late August to October. Summer white tea is no longer produced due to the below-average quality. Spring harvests (first flush) are conducted before Qingming (the fifth solar term that begins around April 5) and are chiefly plucked for the production of white silver needle, as the earliest flush yields the most succulent and voluminous leaf buds. Production of leaf grades of white tea begins around Qingming, starting with a bud and one leaf, and followed by a bud and two or three leaves. Plucking of top grade white tea should be avoided on rainy days and should wait until after the morning dew has dried. Excessive moisture causes the tea to blacken and lack briskness.
Withering is the crucial step in white tea production. During the process fresh leaves are dehydrated and a series of biochemical reactions slowly take place. Among all the reactions, oxidation is greatly restricted as most of the cell membranes are unbroken, which effectively blocks the activity of oxidative enzymes.
There are natural withering and heated withering processes that are used according to weather condition.
Natural withering is carried out on fine days and is mostly used in the making of gourmet grade white tea. A full cycle of natural withering takes 40-60 hours. Fresh harvests are spread one leaf deep on wilting screens made of bamboo slices. The loaded wilting screens are either racked in a well ventilated room (indoor withering) or shifted outdoors and moved indoors to cool at intervals (combined withering).
Indoor withering takes longer while combined withering engages more labor and prudent judgment on the time the product is exposed to the sun. To optimize indoor withering quality, some producers have built greenhouses to serve as withering rooms. The withering is completed when the leaf buds turn white or the leaves turn grey-green and the edges curl up. The moisture content is then around 10-20%.
Wilted leaves are collected for drying, either in the sun or by baking. Dried tea needs to be sorted to remove broken pieces or leaves with obvious color variance, followed by a light bake to increase aromas and further bring down the moisture level.
Heated withering is applied during rainy days by blowing hot air into and ventilating the withering room continuously. Normally, room temperature is controlled to around 25º-35º Celsius. The withering cycle is reduced to 16-24 hours. By the end of the withering session, some desirable biochemical reactions are still not completed, thus the leaves are accumulated into small piles and kept for 3-5 hours to speed up the reactions without further dehydrating the leaves. White tea thus produced would lose some complexity in both aroma and mouthfeel. Heated withering consumes more energy, so this method is only used during periods of continuous rain.
White tea consumption in the domestic market is very marginal, and quite a few people still confuse the name with Anji white tea.
In fact, there are obvious differences between the two.
Firstly, white tea has both bud-only grades and leaf grades, while Anji white tea has only leaf grades.
Secondly, leaf grade white tea is of medium-leaf size, frosted with white hairs, while Anji white is the small-leaf type, its tiny hairs almost unnoticeable.
Thirdly, white tea is by itself a category with distinctive taste, while Anji white is a green tea, and this may explain why Anji white rose to fame and popularity much faster in the domestic market.
White tea is another type of tea that can be stored. In rural area of north Fujian, aged white tea is used to treat measles, fevers and mouth ulcers as it is is believed to be the most cooling of all teas.