Brewing White Tea

White tea is the withered-and-dried leaf of Camellia sinensis. Brewing it means controlling four things: the water temperature, the leaf dose, the steeping time, and the number of infusions. Those four settings decide whether the cup is sweet and full or thin, flat, or sharp.

The laboratory tasting standards brew hot and long. ISO 3103¹ specifies freshly boiling water for six minutes on black tea and five on green, and has no entry for white tea at all; GB/T 23776² does test white tea, and specifies boiling water for five minutes. The peer-reviewed optimum⁵ for antioxidant polyphenols with a pleasant cup was 98 °C (about 208 °F) for seven minutes. The consumer convention does the opposite with the tender buds: cooler water, shorter time, to hold the sweetness and keep astringency back.

Water temperature, by grade

The trade sorts its water by grade. The buds take the coolest water; the leafy grades take the hottest.

These grade temperatures are trade convention, not a codified figure. No standard assigns a temperature by leaf size. A rolling boil on silver needle pulls astringency to the front of the cup, which is why the buds are given water just off the boil. The leafy grades, gong mei and shou mei, are coarser and open slowly, so they take boiling water.

Dose, and the two ways to brew

Dose is a ratio, and the ratio depends on the vessel. The same leaf gives a different cup according to how much water sits on it and for how long.

The western method uses one vessel and a few long steeps. About 4 to 5 g of leaf per 250 ml (about 8 fl oz) of water, which is roughly 16 to 20 g per litre. About 5 g of buds is roughly a heaping tablespoon. Steep 3 to 5 minutes; take 3 to 4 infusions.

The gongfu method uses a small vessel and many short steeps. About 1 g of leaf per 15 ml of vessel volume, so 7 to 10 g in a 100 to 150 ml (about 3.4 to 5 fl oz) gaiwan. Short infusions beginning at 20 to 30 seconds, 6 to 10 pours from good leaf, the water allowed to rise a few degrees across the session.

Time, and multiple infusions

Time is set with temperature, not apart from it. Cooler water wants a little longer; boiling water wants less.

In the gaiwan, the trade times the first infusion by grade. Silver needle, about 8 g in a 150 ml gaiwan: first infusion about 30 seconds, adding about 5 seconds to each infusion after. Bai mudan, about 8 g: first infusion about 20 seconds, second about 15 seconds, then adding about 5 seconds each pour.

The leaf opens across the session. The first pours are the top of the leaf; the middle infusions are usually the fullest; the last run thin and sweet. Good silver needle carries 6 to 10 infusions before it gives out.

What the tasting standards specify

Two standards fix a method so that different teas can be judged on the same terms. Neither is a recipe for the best cup.

ISO 3103:2019 specifies 2 g of tea per 100 ml (about 3.4 fl oz) of freshly boiling water in a white porcelain or glazed-earthenware pot, then strained: 6 minutes for black tea, 5 minutes for leafy green tea, 3 minutes for green tea fannings. It is the second edition, replacing the 1980 first edition, and the revision's purpose was to bring green tea under the same method as black. It exists to make infusions comparable in laboratory sensory testing, and its only distinction by leaf size is in the timing, never in the water's temperature.

GB/T 23776-2018 assesses white tea by the column-cup method: 3 g of tea to 150 ml (about 5 fl oz) of boiling water, a tea-to-water ratio of 1:50, a single infusion of 5 minutes, in a lidded column cup of at least 150 ml.

The categories themselves are fixed by a third standard, GB/T 22291-2017³, White tea, which defines silver needle (single buds, from the Da Bai cultivar or Shuixian), bai mudan (one bud with one or two leaves, same cultivars), gong mei (from group-variety caicha shoots), and shou mei.

Brewing aged and compressed white tea

Aged and compressed white tea inverts the rule for the buds. Here the water is full boiling, 100 °C (212 °F).

Pressed and aged leaf is dense and slow to open, so the trade gives it 1 to 2 quick rinses first: boiling water on the leaf, poured off within seconds, to loosen the pressed cake and clear any storage note before the first real infusion. Once open, aged and pressed leaf gives up its flavour fast, so the infusions run shorter than for fresh leaf. It also takes to being simmered in a kettle.

The compressed form is a standard of its own. GB/T 31751-2015⁴, Compressed white tea, defines it as a reprocessed tea made from finished white tea by blending, steaming, shaping (pressing into cakes or bricks), and drying.

Cold brew

Cold brew trades heat for time. About 5 g of leaf per 400 ml (about 13.5 fl oz) of cold water, roughly 12 g per litre, refrigerated 1 to 12 hours.

The cup is sweeter and low in astringency.

The common mistakes

Scalding fresh buds. Give the buds water just off the boil, 85 to 90 °C (185 to 194 °F).

Under-dosing a leafy shou mei with too-cool water, then calling the tea weak. Leafy grades want a full boil, 95 to 100 °C (203 to 212 °F), and enough leaf on the water.