Guides
Aging
How a kept white tea changes: the chemistry that softens astringency and darkens the cup over years, why Shou Mei and Bai Mudan get pressed into cakes, and the standard that governs the pressed form.
Brewing White Tea
The complete reference for brewing white tea: water temperature by grade, dose, gongfu and western parameters, multiple infusions, cold brew, aged and compressed cakes, and what the ISO and GB tasting standards specify.
Fuding and Zhenghe
White tea's two home counties in Fujian, how their terroir, cultivars, and withering traditions differ, and what an origin does and does not tell a buyer.
White Tea Grades
How white tea is classified into silver needle, bai mudan, gong mei, and shou mei, keyed to what is plucked and which cultivar under China's GB/T 22291 standard, and why grade sets price more than quality.
Health and Science
What the peer-reviewed literature says about white tea and human health, what has been tested in a person against what has only been tested in a cell or an animal, and why the trade's health claim for it has no trial behind it at all.
The History of White Tea
The white tea class, the withered-and-dried leaf, is a Qing-dynasty Fujian invention and not the Song tea that shares its name: silver needle from about 1796, the Da Bai cultivars and the export century.
What Is White Tea
White tea is the least-processed tea class: the bud and leaf of Camellia sinensis, withered and dried, no pan-fire and no rolling. What that names, the four products, and the standard behind it.
Withering
How the leaf loses its water and becomes white tea: sun, indoor and heated withering, what the enzymes do during the wither, the moisture at which it ends, and what light has been found to change.