White tea - production

White teas are lightly fermented. (Some claim that white tea is unfermented,  - but this is not the case.)

In China, the vast majority of white tea production is in the Fu Jian providence of  southern China. There are pocket areas of Fu Jian that produce top quality white teas, such as Fu Ding, Zheng He and Jian Yang. 

These are typical hill counties with mild temperature all year round (18.5^oC on average) and plenty of rain fall (1700mm/year).  

 FuDing, for example, has a year average temperature of 18^oC  and rain fall 1660mm. The soil condition in these areas is typically red or yellow.

Apart from China, Darjeeling and Sri Lanka also have very limited production of white tea. As such the overall supply of White tea in the world is scarcer then some other teas.

The original white tea was made of leaves from of particular tea plant called ‘Fu Ding big white tea’ (a special sub-type of the tea plant Camilla Sinensis - which is what all teas are made of). One of the characteristics of this plant is that its leaves are large with a strong needle like tip. When young, these leaves are covered by thick white fur.

This plant is still used for making the top white tea :  Silver Needle.

The  second or third quality leaves from the ‘Fu Ding big white tea’ plant are also used for manufacturing white tea. These are known as  ‘Tribute tea’ or ‘Eyebrow tea’ respectivey. This forms a hierarchy of quality : Silver Needle is the top, followed by‘Tribute tea’ considered to be better than ‘Eyebrow tea’.

White teas are also  made from the tips of leaves from other tea plants.

White tea is one of the least processed teas. They are made by a relatively simple tea making process of picking tender young leaves, allowing these to "wither" in natural air, then sun dried or using a drying processor. Unlike many other Chinese teas, the dry leaves largely preserve the original shapes of the tea leaves on the plants.

• The withering process is delicate and crucial for white tea production, requiring careful assessment of the natural weather conditions (season, sunlight and air moisture etc) and selecting adequate withering method with careful control. This may occur indoors or out in the sun – depending on the weather at the time. At the end of process involves a leaf that is no longer “crisp” and rigid but appears “withered”. The conclusion of this stage involves selecting out all the “non-tea” elements  ( ie stems, yellowed leaves, odd shaped leaves etc).
• ‘Dehydrating’ is the next stage that involves deliberately drying the leaves out using moderate heating to leave approximately 5% water content in the final product. 

A characteristic of white tea production are techniques not used for other tea categories :  ie no ‘rubbing’, 'rolling', 'pressing' or ‘baking’.

Thus white tea is almost ‘unprocessed’, minimising unnecessary breakdown of the enzymes and tea’s worst enemy – oxidization. This is also why white tea leaves are covered by the original white fur – this fur seems to enhance the taste. 

To order our premium quality white teas, please visit WHITE TEA.