White tea has caught the wide attention of tea lovers, nutritionists, and scientists. The many studies indicating that white tea is rich in anti-oxidants, anti-viral and anti-bacterial benefits, are leading the best way to to consume white tea. Combined with improving demand for services, more brands and in many cases tea producing countries are actually offering white tea. Yet it’s important to know that you will find great differences in quality at brands that provide white tea products. Just how do the consumer distinguish the high quality and value in the white tea that they’re buying? Bill Lee, tea master of China Flair Tea Company and founding father of the Institute of Masters of Tea Arts, explains the best way to distinguish the standard of white tea by its most significant aspect–taste.
Types of White Tea
White tea is a group of tea produced in many aspects of China, Taiwan and countries such as India and Nepal. White tea gets its name from the beautiful silvery white down that covers the young leaf buds. However, to get considered a white tea it must be also processed in accordance with the orthodox white tea method. That is why silvery young leaf buds can also be found in other tea categories including green teas and black teas, but you are not viewed as a white tea.
One of the most traditional and prized white tea arises from Zhenghe and Fuding counties in China’s southeastern province of Fujian. Traditional white teas from China are broken into several grades, each with a different name. Each grade represents the quantity of young leaf buds which can be included and whether or not the lower leaves within the bud are incorporated. White teas with an increase of silver leaf buds are usually considered a finer grade. Listed below are the regular grades of white tea by name:
o Bai Hao Yin Zhen (White Downy Silver Needles, or simply just Silver Needles) – made entirely of young silver leaf buds
o Bai Mu Dan (White Peony) – is made up of the young silver leaf bud and the two lower leaves
o Shou Mei (Longevity Brows) also referred to as Gong Mei (Tribute Brows) – almost entirely made up of mature leaves, with few silver buds.
Names Silver Needles, White Peony, and Shou Mei represent grades of white tea, however, these names particularly indicate design for white tea, rather than the specific quality of white tea. Each name only indicates the percentage of young silver buds and mature leaves which can be incorporated to produce that type of tea. Forms of white tea with increased silver leaf buds and much less mature leaves can provide a lighter flavour along with a more delicate character. Incorporating more aged leaves will create a warmer and nuttier style.
Precisely why these styles are known as grades is simply because producing white tea with more silver leaf buds requires higher costs. White teas including Silver Needles, which are composed of 100% silver leaf buds, therefore are higher priced and considered a greater grade.
And so the issue of quality is not actually about the grade we choose, nevertheless the actual tea we buy within that particular grade. We might opt to drink a White Peony because we enjoy that design of white tea, but we should distinguish its quality by comparing it with other White Peony teas. Many brands now provide a white tea called White Peony, yet the quality of White Peony provided by brand X isn’t necessarily precisely the same quality as brand Y. Factors that determine its quality including the duration of harvest, age the trees, their environment, and also the proper processing from the foliage is not indicated by its name.
To learn more about <a href="http://www. thewhitetea.org /”>thewhitetea.org browse the best net page.