In my first spring harvest, I tried to process a small amount of tea myself. It had to be easy enough to succeed, so I focused on white tea. White teas, such as 'Yin Zhen' or 'Bai Mu Dan', are quite well-known Chinese teas. Japanese white teas, however, are still pretty niche.

The production process is simple in comparison to other teas. Of course, it depends on the kind of white tea, but the main idea is simply to pick the tea leaves and wait. For green teas, you want to preserve the freshness, so you need to heat the leaves quickly to stop them from oxidizing. For black teas, on the other hand, you want to maximize oxidation by rolling the leaves and crushing the cell walls. With white tea, you do neither. By simply laying the leaves out on a bamboo mat, they will wither over the course of a few days and develop a unique aroma.

Even though the idea is simple, there are many different methods you can use. For example, the leaves can wither in the sun or indoors. Having a thicker or thinner layer of leaves also influences the degree of oxidation. The weather plays an important role because if the air is too dry, the leaves dry out too quickly and the withering time is not long enough. Too much humidity, on the other hand, slows the drying process excessively.

There is also the question of which leaves to use. Yin Zhen uses only the new buds and creates an extremely floral aroma with a very light taste. 'Shou Mei' uses older and larger leaves, which results in a stronger brew, though one that is less floral. An optional step is to bake the leaves after withering. By baking and therefore heating the leaves, you can stop the aging process and focus more on the freshness of the white tea. Bai Mu Dan is an example of such a fresh white tea.

The style of white tea I wanted to pursue is my favorite white tea: 'Moonlight White', native to Yunnan, the birthplace of Pu-erh tea. The leaves are withered indoors and are often not baked afterwards. This gives them the potential to age over several years through oxidation and fermentation processes.

For this batch of white tea, we chose the small Zairai field in front of Hakusan Shrine. These bushes are native to this small plot of land. We picked the bud and up to two leaves, which in theory makes for quite a high-quality plucking standard. After harvesting, we spread the leaves on three flat bamboo baskets, which allowed for good airflow. Because of the approaching harvest season, we could not choose different days and had to take the weather as it was. It was quite humid and not very warm, so unfortunately the conditions were not ideal. Even with only a thin layer of leaves, it took around five days for them to dry, which is longer than I had hoped for. My target was two to three days.

The resulting white tea looks very promising. There are some green leaves, some dark brown leaves, and white hairs on the underside, just as I would expect from a Moonlight White Tea. There is also a faint floral scent coming from the leaves. During the harvest season, there was simply no time to try the new tea, so it was left to develop and deepen in flavor for a month.

The First Tasting

For the first steep, I used water at around 90°C and a steeping time of 20 seconds. This resulted in an extremely clear liquor. The flavor was much stronger than its appearance suggested, though the aroma was unfortunately a little lacking. The tasting notes I had hoped for were honey and flowers, but neither could be found. Instead, there was a slight vegetal character and many notes that were difficult to define. What stood out was the complete lack of bitterness or astringency and, instead, a clear sweetness, almost reminiscent of artificial sweetener.

For the second and third infusions, I used boiling water and much longer steeping times. The liquor remained quite clear, but the flavor became much deeper and, frankly, much better. The sweetness persisted throughout the entire session.

Reflections & Conclusions

• The weather: I believe proper weather conditions are very important, and it may be worth waiting a few extra days for better conditions.
• The cultivar: While I like the idea of using Zairai, I think a single cultivar could improve the overall flavor by focusing on a few strong characteristics instead of spreading in multiple directions.
• The withering process: Indoor withering without baking may be the easiest method, but I would still like to try different styles of white tea. Just because one approach does not work particularly well does not mean that white tea as a whole is unsuitable for this tea material.
• Aging: While the tea may not be at its best right now, I still see potential if it is aged for a couple of months, especially because the sweetness is already outstanding. The aging process should gradually give it some characteristics of a black tea, and I can imagine a very interesting combination of black tea aromas paired with pronounced sweetness.

By Nils G.