Chinese White Teas

The Chinese white tea is generally classified into four grades, Silver Needle, White Peony (Bai Mu Dan), Gong Mei and Shou Mei.

1, Silver Needle (Bai Hao Yin Zhen) is made by single bud from either Fuding Da Bai or Zhenghe Da Bai. The tea body of it is all covered by white hair and its shape is slim cute like needle, so is named silver needle.

Silver Needle

2, White Peony (Bai Mu Dan) is made by one bud one leaf and new open one bud two leaves. It looks like white blossom centered by greenish red leaves. So is named White Peony. The material is generally from either Fuding Da Bai or Zhenghe Da Bai.

White Peony

3, Gong Mei is made by one bud two leaves matrial. Unlike Silver Needle and White Peony, Gong Mei is made by the material from Xiao Cai Cha. Xiao Cai Cha is a mixed tea cultivar which is widely planted in North Fujian for long history. There is record of Xiao Cai Cha in the documentary of Tang and Song Dynasty. The farmers planted it along with vegetables. So it was named as Cai Cha (In Chinese, Cai is vegetable). It is small leaf and generally the plant is low. So farmers often add a Xiao before the name (In Chinese, Xiao is small). That’s why the mixed cultivar is naed as Xiao Cai Cha. The tea made by Xiao Cai Cha has strong fragracne and deep taste. Though the material leaf standard of Gong Mei is a bit lower than Bai Mu Dan, the quality of Gong Mei (in flavor and taste) is not worse than Bai Mu Dan.

Gong Mei

4, Shou Mei is either made by the grown tea leaves of Fuding Da Bai or the left material after picking up the single bud for silver needle of Zhenghe Da Bai. Shou means Longevity and Grown in Chinese. So we know that Shou Mei white tea is made by grown tea leaves.