Tagged: cultivar
The purple leaf that was never rolled
A 2025 Indonesian study made white tea from two purple-leaf cultivars and one green-leaf clone, withered and dried only, then measured what each one carried.
The White Tea That Isn't White Tea
A billion-dollar Zhejiang industry sells tea under the name white tea. By the process that defines this site's subject, withering and drying alone, it is a green tea.
Silver Needle's Down Carries the Least of Its Flavor
A 2020 study on the same Fuding cultivar used for Silver Needle separated the visible down from the leaf tissue beneath it and found the hairs chemically poor in catechins, caffeine, and amino acids by comparison.
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.