White Tea of Fujian (福建白茶)

White tea is a product of northern Fujian, where the tea plant Camellia sinensis has been grown and processed for centuries, and the district names Fuding, Zhenghe and Jianyang are those most closely tied to it. The style takes its place in this chapter as one of the great families of Chinese tea, set beside green, oolong, black and pu'er, and it is carried by the tea growers and processing houses of those hills. It belongs to the tradition of tea drunk for itself, without milk, sugar or seasoning, and served at the table and in the tea session alike.

White tea is made from the young buds and leaves of Camellia sinensis, picked and then withered and dried with almost no further handling: it is not pan-fired as green tea is, not rolled and bruised as oolong is, and not fully oxidised as black tea is. The leaf stays largely whole and is covered in fine pale down, which gives the style its name. The buds-only grade is known as Baihao Yinzhen, silver needle, and the grades made of buds with leaves, among them Bai Mudan, are fuller in the cup. The dry leaf is soft, silvery-grey to olive-green, and the infusion is pale gold, light-bodied and quiet in aroma.

White tea is drunk on its own, between meals or after them, and suits light dishes whose flavours would be overwhelmed by a heavier tea: steamed fish, plainly cooked vegetables, delicate dumplings and fresh fruit. Its structure is lightness and a faint sweetness without bitterness or smoke, so it cleans the palate without competing with it. In the tea session it is brewed in small quantities and poured often, and the pale cup is meant to be attended to rather than drunk in passing.