How to brew white tea

It needs some skill to brew white tea

1) hot water should not be too hot , 75 degrees will be fine. 2) put a tea spoon of tea ( 5 gr) into a cup 3) pour 1/4 of hot water into the cup and wait for 2 min 4) after 2 min, fill up the cup with hot water. 5) wait for another 3 min . you will tast a good white tea

thanks, I'll try that now. I don't know how to measure 75 degrees. I have been trying to pour when the kettle starts to make noise. I hope that is about right. I don't have a candy thermometer. I looked all day. LOL Kitty

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There is another school of thought regarding white tea: Steep it at a far lower temperature for more time. The resulting brew might change the water very little, but the aftertaste will be very pleasing. According to this concept, the white tea will affect the water without actually adding much flavor. Your two part method is very interesting. How are the results different/better than starting with a lower temperature? (Not that I doubt you; I'll try it the next time I get my hands on some decent Yin Zhen.)

Michael

Just realized: 75 degrees **C**. Sorry. That's more like 160F. I was responding to a misreading of 175F. Anyway, I'd still try at 130 or 140F for a longer time, just to see what happens.

Michael

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There is another school of thought regarding white tea: Steep it at a far lower temperature for more time. The resulting brew might change the water very little, but the aftertaste will be very pleasing. According to this concept, the white tea will affect the water without actually adding much flavor. Your two part method is very interesting. How are the results different/better than starting with a lower temperature? (Not that I doubt you; I'll try it the next time I get my hands on some decent Yin Zhen.)

Michael

White tea has an ephemeral taste. Till you know what it is, brew it with boiling water and lots and lots of leaf letting it stew in the pot for at least 5 minutes. It can take the abuse. There is no such thing as a astringent bitter overbrewed white tea. The white tea that cries out for a glass pot is Yinzhen. It will look like stalactites in the water. One of my favorite anytime teas is a white tea called SowMee. It is cheap and easily found in Chinatown. It makes a mushy pot of tea. It looks like autumn leaves after a rain. The other white tea is called BaiMuDan. It contains hair particulate which adds a nice foam to the cup. I especially like a White tea when I'm tired of everything else.

Jim

PS Damn that tetanus shot hurts. You never know when a remodeler will need an extra hand besides the > Hi again all,

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Aha! Bai Mu Dan has some buds and some adjacent leaves. Sow Mee -- I'm not sure this isn't Shu Mei -- is all leaf without bud. Yin Zhen is pure bud, no leaf. I was talking earlier about the latter. While I don't think Bai Mu Dan is impervious at all to oversteeping in too hot a temperature, it is certainly more forgiving than Yin Zhen. Yin Zhen and Bai Mu Dan are completely different animals to my taste. Try them both. I'd leave the Sow Mee/Shu Mei (or is that Dim Sum?) alone. It's not very good, but this is clearly a matter of different strokes for different folks. And ephemeral is certainly the right word.

Michael

actually , there is not much choice for white tea, Bai Mu Dan, Shu Mei and Silver Needle, and i strong recommend white tea- Silver Needle, it tastes completely different to the other kind of tea.

Shou Mei.

/Lew

Try C&H Surplus Sales or Edmund Optics and get a 14-inch laboratory thermometer. They are only a couple bucks, and they are just wonderful to have in the kitchen for all kinds of things.

Pour boiling water in an open pan, then wait for it to come down to

75'C (around 170'F). Count how long it takes to come down. Then when you want to make tea next time, you use the same pan and just time it instead of using the thermometer.

--scott

Or, if you're impatient, use a thermometer to add enough room-temp water to the water you've boiled to bring it down to the desired temperature. If you measure the volumes, you won't need the thermometer again.

/Lew

Nothing wrong with different strokes. If I had to drink one tea for the rest of my life it would be SowMee. It's the only tea I can think of with a refreshing taste. It is the most honest tea I've ever tasted. It is more nutrients than taste. It is the Gatorade of teas. One day it struck me. Simple teas taste great. This is the best of the simplest. It has the singularity of aroma and taste. It can't fool anyone. What you smell and taste is what you get. Honestly you can't appreciate this tea till you down lots of pots of everything else.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote: ...Jim deletes Jim...Jim delete Michael...

I just bought seven ounces of this for $3.29 at Ranch 99 Market in Shoreline, WA. FooJoy brand. It's pretty much like the loose-leaf "White Tea with Cantaloupe" from Zhena's Gypsy Tea that I bought at a T.J. Maxx, but that was 2.5 ounces for about four or five bucks. And without the cantaloupe flavoring.

It doesn't really look very white, though. It looks like an assortment of green-to-greenish-brown leaf and twig pieces.

Has anybody tried the "peony white" from CoffeeBeanDirect.com yet? I've got my eye on it, seriously considering ordering a bag.

stePH

-- in cup: blend of Vietnamese green and FooJoy "Mao Feng" green.

If your tap water is about 10 degrees C (50 F), then put in 5/18 (about a fourth) of it and 13/18 (about three fourths) boiling. That will get you

75 degrees.

Rick.

That's the standard Shou Mei found in Chinatown. It's the same as the Sunflower Fujian CNNP SowMee you see occasionally. It is White tea leaves and not the Yinzhen bud. For practical purposes don't consider the two the same. Don't be afraid to mush up a pot with SowMee for the sweet toasty flavor mentioned on the box. BaiMuDan or White Peony is a mid season transition from bud to leaf. The bud is more dry and the hair creates a dust. I'd spend my money on a Yinzhen or save it on a SowMee. If you like a froth that tickles the throat then BaiMuDan.

Jim

stePH wrote:

thanks again everyone. the tea's I was given are silver needle and sowmee both from Englishteastore.com I'm working on enjoying one, then I will work on the other. I reckon that is the best way to decide if I like either and give them the chance to impress me or grow on me. I'll try all the different ideas and maybe something nice will come out. thanks again, Kitty

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Hi guys, I really like silver needles.If you can get the first pick of the spring available now you will love it.. When I first started drinking "white tea" I wasnt sure of it, it seemed weak but with practice in the brewing, it is just wonderful. I have tried all the kinds I can get and I really like them all but they too are very different to each other. I also like the word ephemeral to describe it too. Can be brewed several times also and it changes flavor. cool...

Could be that you just got some bad white tea.

Here's what I've started doing (for greens, whites ...) :

Cold water in cup Leaves floating atop Add freshly boiled water

That's as fast and simple as I've ever come across (and I'm a true fan of simple)

" I really like silver needles.If you can get the first pick of the spring available now you will love it.. "

Well this is 2005 pick since it was bought at christmas. I think it says on it also, 2005. thanks, Kitty