White tea (Chinese: 白茶; pinyin: báichá) name is driven from tiny tender white hairs often present on its unopened buds. It is a lightly oxidized tea, mostly grown in Fujian province, China. The more white hairs the more precious is the tea. Farmers usually have only 5-8 days of the early spring, between the time period, when the first buds become fully mature and the time they open.
The leaves and buds are allowed to wither in natural sunlight before they are lightly processed to prevent oxidation or further tea processing. White tea is believed to be most natural, because of it light processing.
Many varieties include silver needle and White Peony, in Chinese called Bai Mu Dan or Pai Mu Tan. The silvery bud is enfolded by green leaves, and it looks like a flower. When steeped, the green leaves unfold resembling petals of a peony blossom.
The beverage itself is not white or colorless but pale yellow. The taste is mellow and delicate.
Moreover, some high quality Yunnan black teas are also having white hairs.
Since I had to cut back on my coffee itkane, I’ve turned into something of a tea snob at least in that I’m very fussy about my tea. I’m not as snobby as I could be tho, I think because I like flavored tea much better than plain black (except for on those mornings when I’m wishing my tea were actually coffee ) and I’m not at all scientific about how I brew it. (I don’t know if tea snobs are the same as coffee snobs, but coffee snobs tell me you can’t drink flavored coffee if you want to be taken seriously ;P) You can buy measuring spoons for loose tea and a timer for brewing time, if that helps I usually make black tea tho, and I find you can’t generally ruin that the way you can green tea (that gets much more bitter if it is oversteeped) and I like my tea strong anyway, so I generally go by instinct. If you drink the same tea a few times and experiment a bit on brewing time, you’ll eventually figure out just when the taste is perfect for you ^^