What is white tea?
I. What is white tea?
White tea is one of the six major types of tea in China, and is a slightly fermented tea. The degree of micro-fermentation is generally in the range of 5%-15%, and it is a type of tea with the simplest process.
White tea looks white, because of the picking of the buds and leaves are mostly tender, the back of the leaves more white hairy leaves, tea green after picking down after drying or shade drying to make it naturally withered, withering process is an important process of white tea to distinguish it from other types of tea, the weather is also used in humid weather, drying with a gentle fire. Processing without frying and kneading, so that the white velvet hairs in the appearance of the tea is retained intact, so the finished tea is mostly buds, the appearance of buds and hairs intact, full of white hairs, such as silver like snow, such as the autumn of the white dew, refreshing and no trace.
The most important feature of white tea is the silver color of the hairs, which has the beauty of “green makeup”.
White tea’s simple production process, so that the tea hair to the maximum extent of retention, other types of tea also have tea hair, but after layers of procedures, it is inevitable to fall off. White tea, however, can still be full of hairy white hairs after it is made, and the roots are clear. White tea is not only beautiful, its main component is amino acids, can bring a unique tea “fragrance”, after the water is crystal clear, yellowish-white or greenish-white soup color, taste sweet and mellow.
Types of White Tea
Types of white tea According to different regions, different tree species and different standards of picking fresh leaves, we can categorize white tea into bud tea and leaf tea. White tea is a specialty of Fujian, the main production areas in Fujian are Fuding, Zhenghe, Songxi, Jianyang, etc. Meanwhile, Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, etc. also produce white tea. The main varieties of white tea are White Hair Silver Needle, White Peony, Gong Mei and Shou Mei. Among them, White Hair Silver Needle is a bud tea, while White Peony, New Craft White Tea and Shou Mei are leaf teas.
Bud Tea: As the name suggests, it is white tea made from the upper buds of the white tea tree, and the quality of this tea is very good. The tea products include white hair silver needle tea.
(1) white hair silver needle: referred to as silver needle, also known as white hair, because of its white hair is dense, color white as silver, the shape of the needle and so named, its aroma is fresh, yellowish soup color, fresh taste, is the best white tea. White Hair Silver Needle is produced in Fuding County, Fujian Province, at the foot of Mt. Tai Mo Shan and Zhenghe County, nowadays, the tea buds of White Hair Silver Needle are all picked from Fuding Dabai Tea or Zhenghe Dabai Tea’s good kind of tea trees, the Dabai Tea is a late-budding kind of tea, the tea buds are fat and strong, with a high polyphenol and water leachate content, which makes the tea taste fresh, fragrant, and the soup is thick.
(2) Tai Mo Silver Needle: Tai Mo Silver Needle buds and needles fat, full of white hair, hair aroma, the World Expo Top Ten Tea reputation, she was selected in the foothills of the Tai Mo Mountain in the national superior tea tree species Fuding large white tea (Huacha No. 1), Fuding Large Haocha (Huacha No. 2) before the dawn of the single buds. Since only the first one or two rounds of silver needles are picked in spring for the production of Tai Mo Silver Needle, the production is very limited and extremely rare.
2, leaf tea: is the use of white tea tea tree tea leaves made of white tea products. White tea varieties such as Peony, New Craft White Tea and Shou Mei belong to the category of white tea leaf tea.
White Peony: Why does white peony have such an elegant name? White Peony is named after its green leaves with silver-white centers that resemble flowers, and the green leaves hold the buds after brewing, as if they were buds in their first blossom. White Peony is made from one or two leaves of the short buds of the large white tea tree or Narcissus species, and is the finest white tea.
Shou Mei: Also known as Gong Mei. It is one of the most productive varieties of white tea, with its production accounting for about half of the total white tea production. It is made of vegetable tea tea tree buds and leaves, the buds will be drawn off to make silver needles, plucked leaves by withering, drying made of leaf edge slightly curled, this kind of vegetable tea buds and leaves made of tea known as “small white”, in order to differentiate it from the Fuding Dabai tea, Zhenghe Dabai tea tree buds and leaves made of “big white” gross tea. “gross tea.
How to Taste White Tea
Tea in the brewing process must master certain skills in order to make the brewing out of the tea soup fresh and sweet, strong fragrance. There are five ways of brewing white tea, including the gaiwan method, the big pot method, the pot brewing method, the cup brewing method and the boiling drinking method.
White tea brewing should pay attention to control the amount of water each time you make tea, general white tea lighter good to drink, 150 ml of water with 3 to 5 grams of tea is more appropriate, in addition to the water temperature requirements in the 90 to 100, the general situation of a cup of white tea can be brewed four or five times, the brewing time, the first bubble time of about 5 minutes, after filtering the tea broth will be poured into the tea cup can be consumed. The second bubble as long as 3 minutes can be, that is, to do with drinking with the bubble. Of course, according to different drinking needs, white tea brewing method is specific:
1, cover bowl method: suitable for two people to drink, take 3g of Fuding white tea into the cover bowl, with 90 degrees of boiling water to wash the tea warm smell, and then like kung fu tea brewing method, the first bubble 30-45 seconds, and then each time decreasing, so that you can taste the fresh taste of Fuding white tea.
2, large pot method: suitable for group drinking and long time drinking, take 10-15g of white tea into a large bottle of porcelain pot, with 90-100 degrees of boiling water directly brewing, drinking water, white tea has a resistance to bubbling, long time shelved, the taste is still elegant and mellow characteristics, can be drank from the morning to the evening, suitable for the family summer with tea.
3, pot brewing method: suitable for three or five people gathered, big belly purple sand pot tea best or large-capacity floating cup, take 5-6g Fuding white tea into which, with about 90 degrees of boiling water to wash the tea warm smelling, 45 seconds after you can sip and drink, features: milli-fragrance mellow and thick.
4, cup brewing method: suitable for one person to drink alone, with the cup brewing method, with 200ml transparent glass cup, take 3-5g with about 90 degrees of boiling water, first wash the tea to warm up and smell the aroma, and then use the boiling water to brew the white tea directly, brewing time according to the individual taste to grasp freely.
5, cooking and drinking method: suitable for health care purposes, with water into the 10g Chen 3 years old white tea, boil to 3 minutes to the thick juice filtered out of the tea, to be cooled to 70 degrees to add chunks of rock sugar or honey to drink by the heat, commonly used in the treatment of inflammation of the throat fever treatment of soil and water disorders, mellow and peculiar taste. There is also a summer chilled to drink a different flavor.
