I remember trying my first white tea years ago, before I was introduced to loose leaf tea. I believe it was a ginger pear white tea, and it tasted like water. Maybe. It was a bagged tea from the grocery store. After that I was completely uninterested in white tea until I tried White Nectarine from DAVIDsTEA. Oh my. The flavour in this tea completely blew my mind. It was mild and gentle but completely...THERE. White nectarines are my favourite fruit and so to taste a tea that captured the taste so perfectly was amazing. I was sold.
White tea is a real 'tea'. It comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, the sinensis variety (as opposed to the assam variety). Upon tasting it, however, one might think it's an herbal tea! It's that gentle and mild. It is picked early in spring, only from the very tips of the tea plant. "Authentic" white tea, according to Heiss & Heiss, only comes from the Fuijan province of China. Other sources agree, saying even though other countries grow and pluck white tea, it simply isn't the quality as found in the mountainous region of Fuijan.
White tea is called "White" not because of the colour of the liquor, which is often a light yellow, but because the buds have a soft, downy white fuzz on them that is a silvery white colour, as seen below.
There are two main types of white tea: Silver Needle and White Peony. They will be discussed in further detail below. There are two more rare types of white tea, also from Fuijan: Gong Mei and Shou Mei. They are not uniform in colour or appearance. Blooming flower teas are often made with white teas since they expand so much in water. Below you can see a small experiment I conducted with Buddha's Blend from DAVIDsTEA. The left shows the one teaspoon of tea without water, the right shows the expansion with just two tablespoons of water!
White tea can also take on added flavours and scents beautifully and often is part of high quality jasmine scented teas.
White tea is the least processed of all the real teas. Cheadle and Kilby call it a 'basically unprocessed' tea. It is plucked by hand and left to dry. Therefore it undergoes minimal oxidation, unlike every other type of tea. According to Heneberry, it really is a type of green tea but without the rolling or breaking of the leaves. The leaves are left to dry in the sun. Even rain can cause severe damage, and since plucking season only lasts two weeks of the year, one can understand how this tea can be expensive and sought after!
The tea liquor itself is often a light yellow colour. Heneberry cites that it has the least caffeine of all the teas, but Keating & Long say recent studies found some white teas may have comparable levels of caffeine to other teas. All sources I looked at agree that white tea has large amounts of phenolic compounds, which are antioxidants. Some white teas may, in fact, have the highest antioxidant content of any teas! Why is this so? The reason again comes to how it is picked and plucked and processed. Only the tip of the tea plant is picked and plucked for white tea, and only at the first sign of spring. This part of the plant, at this time of its development, contains the highest concentration of nutrients, volatile oils, chlorophyll and flavour! BUT IT IS ALL DONE BY HAND.
White tea has a light, sweet taste and hardly any astringency. Still, because it is a real tea, you can oversteep it. As stated, the liquor is pale yellow to pale green. It often has a mild, honey like flavour. Heiss & Heiss state that white tea has "a full body, clean, short-finished, soft and sweet" taste.
Silver Needle is the finest, top grade of white teas. It consists of just the shoots and a single tip. It is the most expensive. It is sweet like a honeysuckle and has a clear liquor. Silver Needle is barely oxidized, at about a 5% rate.
White Peony white teas bloom when steeped. White Peony consists of two leaves and a bud. It still has the silver needle but ALSO has two lower leaves. This actually contributes to a more complex, melon like flavour. It can be oxidized between 5-12%. It is less expensive and has a stronger flavour. It takes on added flavours well.
Heiss & Heiss offer a caution: Bai Hao Yin Zhen is the true, original white tea from Fuijan, China, made from large, succulent buds. Other places in China and elsewhere in the world are attempting to make white teas but the non-Fuijanese bud white teas are just not up to par. However, even Heiss & Heiss say these less-than-desirable teas can be quite tasty.
Some of my favourite white teas are:
(pictured below, counterclockwise from top)
DAVIDsTEA recommends steeping white teas at 90 degrees Celsius for 4-7 minutes.
T by Daniel recommends steeping white teas at 80 degrees Celsius for 3-5 minutes.
The Mighty Timer App recommend steeping white teas at 85 degrees Celsius for 4 minutes.
My personal experience recommends steeping white teas at 80 degrees Celsius for 4 minutes.
I have found white tea very weak for resteeping, but you may have more luck than me.
Keating & Long recommend pairing white teas with such delightful foods as brie cheeses, delicate pastries and any lighter faire. Yum!!
If you've never tried white tea, give it a try. I would highly recommend jumping right to the looseleaf type, since the grocery store version is so disappointing. Not only can white tea be beneficial for your health, but it can also be a really tasty treat.
Happy Steeping!
Works Cited
The Little Black Book of Tea M. Heneberry
The Tea Book: All Things Tea Cheadle and Kilby
How to Make Tea: The Science Behind the Leaf Keating and Long
The Simple Guide To Tea C Scott
The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook Heiss and Heiss
DAVIDsTEA.com
TbyDaniel.com
Personal Experience
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