Baihao YinZhen (Silver Needle)
Baihao Yinzhen Silver Needle White Tea
Silver Needle white tea is renowned and recognized as the finest among all teas and its name [in Chinese] Bai Hao Yinzhen vividly encapsulates the appearance of the tea - white fur, silver needle, consisting purely of the very tenderest tip leaf buds.
The hand-skilled and natural production process preserves this tender tea's maximum antioxidant and active enzyme level, the least concentration of caffeine and of course, its one-of-a-kind white tea characters to spoil your senses. The Chinese have given the aged white tea the praise of one-year tea, three-year medicine, and seven-year treasure
This tea gives a bright, clear golden infusion and a beautifully lingering aftertaste. So light and refreshing that it indeed lifts the day and is a truly spectacular treat for everybody. These greyish snowy white needles resemble one another in a very uniform appearance a prime hallmark of a special white tea.
Tasting Details
Specification
Storage: Store in a cool, dry place, away from sunlight. Re-seal packaging between use.
How to Brew
- Use 1 teaspoon of leaves (roughly 3g) for each person you are brewing tea for.
- Use cooler water for YinZhen white tea, around 75-80 degrees is perfect
- Steep for 2-3 minutes according to taste.
- Reuse the leaves a further 3 times, by simply adding more hot water.
Farming process:
Only the very light-green almost greyish-white coloured leaves which are covered with velvety downy fuzz (a sign of tenderness) are selected during white tea flush seasons. These revered leaves are not harvested if the dew has not evaporated or if there is frost on the ground, therefore it must?be a cool sunny day between mid-March and mid-April). Furthermore, no purple buds (sun or cold burnt) are allowed in the sorting and the stems must not be too long or too short. Any damaged leaves caused by wind, insects or over-handling or that which are partially open are often rejected or classified as a lower grade.
The ideal appearance of this premium white tea is a leaf or two wrappings around a developing new shoot which overall looks like a needle. These tips are plucked and segregated from the rest and then naturally withered and dried under the light sun before a painstaking process of further manual sorting to select the long velvet furry white needles. The tea leaves are not kneaded nor undergo fixation, which preserves much of the white hair on the leaves and gives the tea a relatively mild flavour. If mechanical drying is required, the leaves are gently baked at temperatures less than to preserve its maximum antioxidant and active enzyme level, the least concentration of caffeine and of course, its one-of-a-kind white tea character to spoil our senses.