Seventh in a series about Teas in China
A thousand years ago white tea was singled out by the Song poet-Emperor Huizong as the pinnacle of refinement, and many would argue that white tea still deserves the honor. Yinzhen or Silver Needle White is the veal of tea, technically flowery pekoe leaf buds that are plucked on the very day just prior to their opening. Steamed and dried – no rolling or firing occurs – the finished product looks exactly like its name – silver needles. 
Yinzhen has no caffeine or chlorophyll and very slight polyphenol content. It looks much larger than it weighs so that there’s always a danger of using too little leaf, but otherwise it’s hard to go wrong preparing this tea. It has the freshest of flavors, with an evanescent sweetness to the lingering finish. Chinese like to add a dried rosebud or chrysanthemum. The other forms of white tea are less distinguished by far. Shou Mei (or Cantonese “Sowmee”), which means Longevity Eyebrow, is raggedy-looking whole leaf which has been steamed and sun-dried; Bai-Mudan or White Peony is a novelty item made by tying many tea leaves together to form the shape of a peony flower which “blossoms” as it infuses. Quite fine flavor, too.
Next week: Oolong (Wu-lung)
Photo “Jun Shan Silver Needles 2” is copyright under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License to the photographer Tim Regan and is being posted unaltered (source)
I always enjoy JNP’s posts and respect him greatly, but his information about white tea is a bit off. Not surprising given the confusion throughout the industry. There is no steaming, but it is whithered and sun dried initially, which is why there is additional controversy about the levels of caffeine in comparison to green. White tea does not have less caffeine than green. Green tea is less processed, so has less caffeine due to the processing, but as we have been learning, it appears that the caffeine content in all of the teas can be similar depending on many different factors.
As knowledgeable as Mr Pratt is about tea, he is way off in this post. It is not surprising given the information about white tea has been so confusing for so many years not only in the West but in China as well.
There has been a lot of confusion about ‘white tea’ and it’s origin. In the west, the confusion began with John Blofeld’s book The Chinese Art of Tea. Blofeld, who had never come across a white tea said that it was rare and highly prized and had been more common during the Song Dynasty. He thought that there may have been some at the time in Fujian but he had not tasted any. The Song reference is from the Da Guan Cha Lun written by the Song emperor Song Hui Zhong Zao Jie. He loved what he named “Bai Cha” which means white tea, but was really green tea, which was the only kind of tea that was produced at that time. He named it not for the characteristics of the leaf, but because the tea liquid was the color of white jade, a very light shade of green. This tea was rare at the time, and he made no reference the the area where it had been produced, though tea scholars feel that it had come from Anji in Northern Zhejiang province. During the time that Blofeld was writing his book a Bai Cha bush was discovered by researchers there in the 1980s. From that single bush the current crop of Anji Bai Cha has been propagated. It is important perhaps to note that all tea produced during the Song Dynasty was made into cakes which were then ground into powder, and then whipped tea with a whisk in to say way as matcha is prepared today. It is possible that the ancestor of the Da Bai Hao bush, Lu Xue Cha was being consumed during the Song, it is unlikely that it is the ‘Bai Cha’ mentioned by Song Hui Zhong Zao Jie. At least Chinese scholars don’t think it to be likely, because it is supposed the tea produced would be a very rich green color. Fujian tea marketing would like to make the connection, but tea scholars disagree.
The origins of white tea production are not very old. Not until somewhere between 1772 and 1782 was white tea first produced. The process was developed by the Xiao family in Jiang Yang County in northern Fujian and the technique quickly spread to Fuding, Zheng He and Song Xi. The Xiao family wanted to establish a tea making process that would be more economical. They eliminated pan frying and shaping and minimized roasting. Still, not until the early nineteenth century did the evolution of the Da Bai Hao bush produce enough buds to make Bai Hao Yin Shen (Silver Needle) as its own distinct tea.
There is no steaming involved in the production of white tea, no in Chinese green teas in general. Unlike green tea production which is exposed to relatively high temperatures to remove moisture, white tea is dried naturally using sunlight or lower temperatures in doors helping to preserve tea polyphenols. The preferred method is drying by the sun, up to 90% if there is sunny weather. It is not often, however, that there is enough sunshine to provide this function. The alternative process begins with the tea after being withered in covered open sheds, then is placed on bamboo ranks inside of rooms that are radiator heated at about 40 C. It is important to note the care that Bai Hao Yin Shen is given when laying the buds on the racks, as if they were solders in formation, neatly lined, spaced and in formation. The room is well ventilated to remove the humidity with fans. During this natural drying white tea will naturally oxidize very slightly. Masters skill is shown in temperature control though the drying process, consideration for ambient temperatures during the all natural process and how thick the leaves are piled on to the bamboo drying trays. The tea is dried in this way to 70%. The final stage in either case is a slight roasting, in the past done by charcoal, is now heated artificially. Great care is used in protecting the color of the hair or fuzz so that it does not yellow.
Mr Pratt is also mistaken in saying that Bai Hao Yin Shen does not contain caffeine or chlorophyll and like all bud tea is very rich in tea polyphenols. The research of Lou Shou Jun, director of the Chinese National Tea Quality Control Center indicates that the bud of the Da Bai Hao bush is one of the richest in tea polyphenols of the Chinese varietals. In does in fact contain caffeine and chlorophyll, this were early myths about Bai Hao Yin Shen to explain the name, but have no basis in fact. The Bai Hao Yin Shen looks just as green on the bush as any other bud.
The other myth is that white tea is a rare tea. Actually the Da Bai Hao bush has been widely propagated through the support of the Chinese government. It is a major export crop. In the domestic market, because it buds early in the spring there by bringing a better price, and is made into green tea. You can find vast Da Bai Hao gardens as far north as the Ningbo area in Zhejiang province producing green tea. Ironically the once truely rare Bai Cha bush from Anji is also spreading quickly through the tea growing areas of Zhejiang and Anhui.
Still, it is all great tea.
Austin
Thank you Austin for sharing your knowledge with us. I appreciate the information that you’ve generously offered. My initial reaction is upset over the inconsistencies within the industry. I’ve evolved however to understand that as a natural product, each tea leaf is different, from one plant to the next and from one tea garden to the next and from one region…….and so on. I’ve been intrigued by the differences reported by “scientists” regarding caffeine content. Short of testing each batch, it would seem impossible to verify the exact amount of caffeine in any given cup of tea. I’ve personally made my peace with caffeine, coming from tea of course. I suspect this will be……..to be continued.
Yes, there are a lot of inconsistencies. I think it is due to the difficulty of getting information in English about Chinese tea. China has been very slow about translating tea literature into foreign languages. I a bibliography of tea literature published on another blog that contained over 400 volumes but just a handful that were Chinese in origin. So it is hard for tea students like us to get information from the source. What is out there very often just scratching the surface. To me the caffeine isn’t so much the issue. There isn’t a major difference from one kind of tea to the next, something like 3 to 5 percent, of the chemical makeup, not much difference. The problem to me is how little China plays in the international market as the place to go for information. Perhaps a metaphor for me would be like going to Australia for information about wine and ignoring France and Italy. Not that Mr Pratt is doing that, just that there isn’t an easy way to do that research. I’m a lot more interested in the cultural issues that the scientific. Mr Pratt has done a great job of opening up the West to Chinese tea culture, but he is in the same place as us in our access to information, and I see almost no motivation in the commercial American tea industry to change the quality of information about tea. I’m sure that will change as our customers ask for more knowledge and more people learn Chinese, at least my kids can speak Chinese…
I apologize for mis-informing readers about white tea processing. Ten years ago I myself was either mis-informed or else misunderstood what I was told about this processing when I wrote this sentence. Let me note, on this subject, the definition of white tea given before me in the 1980 Dictionary of Coffee & Tea by John Frederick Walker “An obscure Chinese curiosity of no commercial importance.” Yet today we Americans shell out tens of millions for white teas. Two among the first to visit white tea factories were Joshua Kaiser and Roy Fong, from whom I learned the error of my ways. We students of tea require constant correction.
I appreciate your openness, Norwood, but I really don’t think you have to apologize to anyone. That was the information available at the time. You have added so much important information to the industry and have been the teacher for most of us. We all owe you a debt of gratitude for all that you have done. There is still a great deal of confusion about all of this and, I suspect, it will continue for quite some time.
I agree. The Chinese have a saying that you can study tea all of your life and never learn the names of the teas. I think most people outside of China would me surprised to learn that there are three respected universities in China offering PhD degrees in Tea science and culture. You have done a great service in opening up Chinese tea culture to people in the West and you certainly have nothing to apologize for. I haven’t written much online in a couple of years because I didn’t feel it was my place to correct anyone, being in the tea business myself, and I so dislike the tit for tat that goes on in blogs and newsgroups online. Lately I have been encouraged to participate more. I hope you will forgive me. It was not my intention to correct you, but to add what I have learned. There is a great deal of misinformation about tea, especially Chinese tea, and it is as hard to do the research as it is to find the teas.
i am so happy to read this two foot long discussion on this post, since it was hardly commented upon in the past.
Since i am a white tea manufacturer myself, this one has really made me understand many aspects.
thanks everybody
http://www.doketea.com