Return to T Ching Classics: White Day, White Tea
What is your favorite tea? This is a question whose answer for many varies by season, time of day, and reason for drinking it. For me, it’s remained pretty consistent for the last four years – Silver Needle. It seems people either really like white tea, have never tried it, or say it doesn’t taste like anything.
The last reason always surprises me. Working with end consumers directly has given me insight into why some people find white tea tasteless. I do think there is more than one reason why people are not fans of white tea.
White tea, as we know it today, is a relatively new tea, with roots in the 18th century. Green and black teas, however, have had centuries to make their way into people’s teapots, cups, and daily routines.
In America, there is more coffee in people’s cups than tea. So, it’s understandable if people are comparing the delicate, sweet, sublime taste of white tea to the strong, bold, acidic, roasted notes of coffee. And we’ve all had bad green tea in a teabag. I remember my pre-loose-leaf days when I used to drink green tea in a bag. It was bitter, roasted, and hot. Nothing else. So, one problem is that consumers are comparing white tea to other drinks.
However, the biggest obstacles to people loving a cup of white tea are the brewing instructions and the tea itself. At work, I have been conducting white tea tastings for the last few weeks and decided to bring in a competitor’s white tea. Even though I am a loose-leaf tea drinker, I know that people buy teabags, so I also added tea bags to the samples I tested. Among the four white tea samples, I included one Rishi loose-leaf Silver Needle, one competitor’s loose-leaf Silver Needle, and two teabag samples of Silver Needle. I was shocked at what I found in terms of the different brewing temperatures, brewing times, and amounts.
- Silver Needle loose-leaf tea/1.5 tsp/175°F/steep 4-5 minutes
(I measured out 1.5 tsp and came up just short of 2 grams) - Silver Needle loose-leaf tea/1 tbsp/185°F/steep 4-5 minutes
(I measured out 1 tbsp, which came to about 3 grams) - Silver Needle teabag/1.6 grams per teabag/water just short of boiling/steep 30-60 seconds
(I opened up the teabag and there was dust inside) - Silver Needle teabag/1.8 grams per teabag/195°F/steep 3-5 minutes
(I weighed 5 teabags and took an average. The weights ranged from 1.4 to 2.3 grams.)
It’s no wonder people are brewing bad cups of white tea. They are given dust in place of leaves, are told to use boiling water, or just aren’t using enough leaves.
Photo “Thirsty?” is copyright under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License to the photographer Bonita Suraputra and is being posted unaltered (source)
Thanks for sharing your test results. Yes, it is amazing that incorrect information is still being given by retailers. I often see recommendations to boil tea bag teas containing green tea. I just don’t understand why this is so hard to get right.
I believe water, temperature, time and quality of the leaf are the 4 critical issues which brought me to my formula a number of years ago. It is fool proof and guaranteed!
W 3T = the perfect cup of tea. As Water is the most prominent feature in a cup of tea, it must be free of chemicals.
I know many people would not agree with me on this – but I do as much as I can to encourage people to use hottest possible water (boiling) to steep top grade silver needle for 4-5 minutes. A tea being delicate doesn’t always mean it would be ruined by hot temperature. Sometimes it’s the fear of boiling temperature that holds people from getting full flavor from a tea. But of course it’s fine if people can get good flavor from cooler temperature.
Love this topic. We actually sell a lot of white tea but we have no white tea without something blended in..blueberries, coconut, raspberry..subtle but enough to add the flavor people crave. (Flavor as in the U.S. palate’s desires) There’s something else: Cost. White teas are generally quite a bit more expensive and, to people like those in our area just getting into loose leaf, cost is important. It’s good that we can brew tiny samples in 1 minute of any tea so they know how it will taste at home, but our steeping instructions on the front of our packages is the same for green and white: 170-175F for 2-2.5 minutes. If they don’t have a thermometer and don’t want to use one, we say to bring water to a boil and then wait about a minute to infuse. It has been working very well and preventing bitterness in green teas. You have to be somewhat general in the kind of retail environment we are in not to overload people with too much information or it reinforces the old ‘loose leaf tea is hard to deal with’ routine that the tea bag companies seem to exist on. Your instructions above take it out longer in time but we just tell them to let it go longer if the 2.5 minutes doesn’t give them the strength they want.
This is the kind of thing that retailers can do to help the whole industry: Educate and make it fun and an adventure for customers! P.S. We sell ALOT of green tea too using those instructions for home brewing!
I thank Rishi tea and you Susana for teaching me one fundamental rule: Stop boiling my tea to death! I shall spread the gospel to fellow tea drinkers.
Thank you for reading my post and commenting!
Michelle- Water is so important in the making of a good cup of tea. It’s so vibrant, alive and crisp in good water. It’s important that people understand that. It’s like cooking with good ingredients, you can taste the difference.
Gingko- I conduct tea tastings at work and I use boiling water for the tea I am serving. I do it so people can fully taste what the tea has to offer. I also let them know that we offer brewing instructions but it’s really up to them to find what they like. When evaluating teas it is important to use boiling water as many impurities would not reveal themselves with low temperature water.
Diane- I know the challenge of not wanting to make loose leaf tea seem difficult. Educating people is indeed very important in making loose leaf tea accessible. I find that it does help to be a bit more general for those who are new to loose leaf tea and don’t plan on getting in as deep as we are. :)
It’s important to have the basic knowledge for those who want to stop there and also have more in depth information for those who are as interested in tea as we are.
Nery- Glad I could help!!
I saw, Susana, you’re greatest point to be that the general population has a misunderstanding for and of white tea. It may be a matter of quality control..The standards are not yet in place to properly qualify what a ‘white tea’ should be…
With little or no regulation, caveat emptor, and “It’s no wonder people are brewing bad cups of white tea.”
http://www.cooperteablog.com/2011/white-tea-defined-by-industry/
Cheers