White tea

"Marco" ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Tea usually produced from varieties with fat and hairy buds, such as Fuding Babai and Fuding Baihao. The picked branch top is splitted in order to produce different grades: Baohao Yinzhen (top bud), Baimudan (first leaf) and Shoumei (third leaf). It is first sun withered then warm temperature dryed. It differs from green tea because it is not steamed nor pan-fired, and it undergoes some slight oxidation in the processing. This also means that it contanis less antioxidants then green tea. L

Livio: Are you sure this isn't *Baihao* Yinzhen?

/Lew

Thank you Lew. It is Baihao Yinzhen. Sorry, I found out also another mistake!: it should be Fuding Dabai, not Babai L

tea.<

Are you sure about this? I thought white tea would contain more antioxidants (flavonoids) because it is made from young leaves - or at least the Baihao Yinzhen and Baimudan types are.

But then again, it still hasn't been proven that the so-called antioxidants really have that effect in the human body.

Jon

"Livio Zan> "Marco" ha scritto nel messaggio

it

such as Fuding

order to

(first leaf)

temperature

pan-fired,

also means

THIS IS NOT AN ADVERTISEMENT! :)

Linus Pauling Institute Study on White Tea:

No, it isn't an ad, but it does claim that white tea is steamed, which is pretty strange. It also asserts that white tea has a high bud content, which is true of some but hardly all white (or, for that matter green) teas.

/Lew

Exactly. White tea is definitely not steamed. The process consist of withering and low temperature drying. Polyphenolic components undergo a light oxidation. I am not a chemist, but the author of the essay surely has never entered in a tea manifacture. L

Lew: I found out that also Shuixian bud and leaves can by processed in white tea

By the way: MARCO, are you from Italy?

Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com11/26/03 16: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com

It's most likely true in the case of silver needles, certain not for baimudan. Whatever.

The article appears to support the conclusion that white tea, not to mention the homocentric race, is harmful to rats, mice, and trout. Since I have befriended variouis mice and rats over the years, with whom I have taken tea daily, I fear that the moral implications of the article might be lost in the mire of the pseudo-science. Linus, not withstanding.

Best, Michael

I have friend rats too. One has a real liking for licking a finger that has been dipped in green tea. I figure one drop is about a cup in rat scale.

--crymad

Well, why not? With all the interest in white tea these days, I would imagine we'll be seeing white teas made from all sorts of cultivars before long. There's been white tea from Darjeeling for a year or two, for example.

/Lew

Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com11/28/03 18: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com

I was under the impression that, production techniques not withstanding, "white tea" was something of a cultivar in and of itself.

Michael

I think that not all cultivars are suitable to make baihao yinzhen, since you can you use only those with very fleshy and hairy buds. L

Livio ZaniniE7Hyb.159728$ snipped-for-privacy@twister2.libero.it12/1/03

Livio,

I realize that mine are superficial observations, hardly botanically sound, but I have drunk a "white" silver needle pu-erh which looked to be from a leaf of a yinzhen type. Likewise, I've drunk a "white" Ceylon tea that looked nearly the same. I've heard that tea garden men in Darjeeling are using the Chinese "white tea" cultivar to produce their white teas -- most of them, I think are in the bai mudan class. I've drunk one of those also and it looked to be just like classsical bai mudans. So, based on this "evidence" -- I put the word in quotes -- I got the feeling that there might be a "white cultivar".

Best, Michael

When I said "all sorts of cultivars" I was speaking loosely. To be more precise, I would imagine that some number of cultivars will be used for white tea just as e.g. a number of cultivars are successfully used for oolong. (Not the same ones, of course!)

/Lew

Lewis and Michael, I think you are both right. I think we can put it in this way: there are some cultivars, such as Fuding Baihao and Fuding Dabai, which are used (for what I know) only for the production of white tea, and can be indeed called "white cultivars"; others, such as Shuixian and some other kinds, might be used for the production of white tea as well oolong or maybe other types (I must admit that I haven't ever tryed anything but Chinese Fujian and Zhejiang whites). Apart this, I can hardly imagine the thiny and tender buds of cultivars such as Longjing 43, or Japanese Asahi or Midori, used for making white tea. Regard to silver needle Pu'er and Darjeeling white, I don't have any direct experience nor available literature on them. Can you tell me something about these teas? L

Livio ZaniniUGRyb.157177$ snipped-for-privacy@twister1.libero.it12/1/03

snip snip snip

Livio,

Here is the web page for the Darjeeling white, which is in the style of a Bai Mudan. The tea is acceptable, actually quite pleasant. It is in no way spectacular. The leaf is very Bai Mudan-like. I usually buy my Darjeelings from Kevin at Kyela Teas.

Here is a web page for the Ceylon Silver Tips, another white tea, which is in the style of a yinzhin. I drank it some time ago. It was nearly tasteless

-- sorry, guys -- but absolutely beautiful in a glass. I got this from IPOT.

Here is a web page for the the Silver Needle Beencha, produced in a "green pu-erh" style from "white" tea leaf. This is a remarkably beautiful and complex tea. Another one I get from IPOT, and this one I highly recommend..

I have no other information, and my observations of the leaf are pretty superficial, as I've said. I know enough about biology, systematics, taxonomy, and evolution to realize that casual similarities do not a relationship make.

Michael