Bai Hao Yin Zhen means white hair silver needle and describes the appearance of the dry tea buds. This is why it is often seen sold or referred to as Silver Needle Tea. White Tea can mean the tea category, or it can mean a tea that is lightly colored. We enjoy this tea for its balance of exuberance and lightness; it's mellow but substantial.
Once known as the "Northern Needles," the most hailed Fu Ding locations are within the townships of Dian Tou and Pan Xi. Though teas from Pan Xi are often more expensive due to higher elevation, Dian Tou is more renowned due to the concentration of tea trading. Some top micro-lots are Huang Gang of Pan Xi and Bai Liu of Dian Tou. The Fu Ding method of processing white tea, where the tea spends much more time under the sun, is now the standard for making white tea. Like all historically famous teas, this designation refers to the highest picking grade of white tea, coupled with being produced from specified locations. Bai Hao Yin Zhen has two true origins – Fu Ding and Zheng He, about a 4-hour drive away from each other. It is specifically Bai Hao Yin Zhen, not different styles of white tea also made from the region, which made the highly honorable list.
We taste sun-soaked cotton, fresh hay, melon, tender greens, yeast, honey, and sweet flowers while drinking this tea. It is its light but exuberant feeling that creates a unique tasting experience for us.
There are two ways to meet the Yin Zhen grade, by picking just the buds from the tea trees or picking the teas with one or two leaves first and then going through a sorting process to pick out just the buds. The latter method is considered more authentic and sophisticated because the first method is subject to human error, hurting the tea trees. Picking style is vital to ensuring the health and ongoing quality of tea trees. Experts can use an extrapolation method to determine how valuable the tea is based on how much the producer cared about the trees. There are two varietals of Bai Hao Yin Zhen we carry at Tea Drunk: Wild Dian Tou vintage: Wild Hua Cha Er Hao (Wild China Tea No.2) and Pan Xi vintage: Hua Cha Er Hao (China Tea No.2).
