White Tea

Cream Dumpling

Wild Fu’an Da Bai Tasting notes: Zhenge white tea that is more reminiscent of an aged white tea. Vanilla, milk, cinnamon, complimented with light herby notes and a thick, warming mouthfeel. The ~5g bundles are perfect for solo tea sessions and long infusions or cold brews. Since the leaves are larger, thicker, and the stems are more plentiful, this tea can take a little time waking up when brewed but it is surprisingly long-lasting. Cut the twine off before adding the bundles to the brewing vessel and watch them unfold.

Hundred Blessings

Wild Fu’an Da Bai Tea Broom Full and creamy, with dried figs, nutmeg and slight balancing minerality. This is a tea you can and should brew harder and push further than you may usually do with white tea. This tea’s unique shape is a creative utilization of some of the Fu’an Dabai cultivar bushes that have become semi-wild due to less demand for white tea. The shape gives a more tactile than usual experience when handling the brooms, adding to the intimacy of the tea session. The name comes from a Buddhist saying for mindful sweeping: “One sweep, a hundred blessings”.

Mettle Matriarch

Bulang Old Tree White Tasting notes: Leaves from 80+ year old trees yield a fruit salad zestiness, fresh cork bite, with depth, character and finishing dryness. This tea offers Puer sweetness and an elderly tree mouthfeel with almost zero sharpness. A close parallel might be a brown shoumei, but this particular white tea has a more enduring fragrance, thicker soup, and a slightly cork/barky edge.

Purple Buds

Wild Tree Ya Bao Tasting notes: Heated sauna cedar, tulsi, hot stones, sweet pine. A super fragrant, crisp and almost clear brew. Made from var. Assamica Dehongensis, this unique tea is created from the lateral buds of the plant which would otherwise go on to form branches as opposed to leaves. The purple-hued buds are rich in anthocyanins (which offer humans a variety of potential health benefits, including reduced inflammation and improved cardiovascular health) and produce a distinctive and complex tea, characterized by sweet woody notes and a cooling finish.

Silver Needle

Da Bai Yin Zhen Tasting notes: Ripe pear, leather, old wooden furniture, hay and spring flowers. Thick, silky texture and clean, refreshing finish. Also known as White Hair Silver Needle, it is often considered one of the finest white teas available. This Fuding version is slightly less oxidized than Zhenghe versions., which makes for a lighter brew more subtle in flavour.

Treasure Glade

Autumn 2013 Shou Mei White Tea Cake – 357g Tasting notes: Summer forest earthiness, but light with malted rock sugars and pastry; honey and dates, rum-candied fruit and a slightly medicinal forest florality (think also a well-balanced Botrytis Riesling). Warm, thick and velvety smooth texture and mild mineral dryness. One of my favourite teas that is immensely transporting. Everyone will of course have their own associations but for me by the second infusion I’m back in Portugal, rock climbing on a south-facing crag in the very late afternoon sun with enveloping wafts of warm earth and wild flowers. Wrapped for us by our supplier with our art work.

Wild Apothecary

Wild Tree Purple Tasting notes: A layered and smooth tea with bright tropical floral notes, hint of sugarcane. Some savoury notes to start then with an emerging medicinal herbal edge. The initial bitterness present in this tea has now transformed into fruit sweetness with a long lasting syrupy aftertaste.

Wild King Peony

Wild Bai Mu Dan Tasting notes: Fragrant Spring flowers, sprouts, dry hay, cinnamon, fresh clay and nutty milkiness. Smooth, clean and slightly mineral finish. This is a wild-picked, Fuding version of this famous style (the other being from Zhenghe). A stronger, more fruity flavour than Silver Needle, but less strong than a Shou Mei.