TeaChat

Local store here has some tins of tea on sale. It comes from tea-spot and they call it snowflakes. There are some silver buds or silver needles in the mix but other white tea is included.Here is a pic of the tea.

and the url for the company and tea http://theteaspot.com/snowflakes-loose- ... ?catid=257

Looks like a lesser grade Silver Needle or a better grade Bai Mudan.

Lots of broken bits going on there as well.

Looking at the site, I am not a big fan of the general statements regarding caffeine content, etc.

Broken bits could be because of packaging and being rough with the tin. Will pick up another tin for 4.00 and see if I like it more.

I'm happy to see your interest in "snowflakes". I saw your post and wanted to give you a bit more information about this tea, since I work for The Tea Spot.

Our Snowflakes is a Drum Mountain White Cloud (Gushan Baiyun) white tea that is grown at the Buddhist Drum Mountain Monastery in Northern Fujian, China. The delicate leaves infuse into a fragrant and sweet cup that is low in caffeine. The White Cloud tea is harvested near the peak of the mountain, where clouds and mist shroud the tealeaves from sunlight. This natural form of shade growing causes the plants to grow slowly, and slow growth encourages the leaves to have a sweet, dense flavor when processed.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Happy sipping!

btw I poked a bit in google for "Gushan Baiyun" following the lead of The Tea Spot´s post and it seems to be a Bai Mu Dan (Pai Mu Tan, White Peony...same thing) with an unusually high count of whole buds. Don´t worry too much about the broken bits...Bai Mu Dan...even if it´s fairly expensive from good vendors...is usually more broken than the tea you photographed.

Well I hate to be the one to point this out but this is one of the most commonly incorreclty marketed tea situations. The origin of that tea is not what they are leading you to believe. It is a Sheng cha 生茶 in the Black tea category 黑茶类 but it is commoly marketed as white tea. These leaves are from Yunnan as they are large leaf varieties 大叶种 not from Fujian. The tea you have would be related to Yue Guang Bai which I explain here http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13194 and the correct origin is also listed in the post quoted from Tea trekker. These are good teas if only they were not marketed falsely. If you have seen true forms of white tea than you will know this. Here is an example of Yin Zhen Bai Hao 银针白毫 notice it is only the terminal bud 一芽 and Bai Mu Dan which is a terminal bud and one leaf - 一芽一叶.

The Tea Spot wrote:a fragrant and sweet cup that is low in caffeine.

I have always been a little confused about the "low (or high) in caffeine" claims. For what I've learned about tea I can't see how white or green tea should be lower in caffeine than f.e. red tea.
How can you claim that this tea is low in caffeine without measuring it? How low is the caffeine content of this tea?

The little story about the origin of that tea is pure fiction, if you actually believe that you are deluded and have never read any simple account of how or where tea is grown. This nonsense is what passes for explanations on the origins of teas from distributers who dont know or dont want to share the real origin of the leaves they sell. I assure you tea is neither grown in monastaries nor on mountain tops. Anyone who believes this has never been to a monastary or a tea estate. These are fairy tales used to sell all too common teas. The type of tea above- if it is good it came from very normal circumstances in Yunnan, if it isn't so good than it is an inferior product from Guangdong. Tell me how many good brews you get in a gaiwan and I will tell you which of the two places it came from.
This is the case for all but the true white teas from Fujian, Guangxi, or Guizhou which are explicitly one bud or one bud and one leaf in content.

legend wrote:It is a Sheng cha 生茶 in the Black tea category 黑茶类 but it is commoly marketed as white tea.

So, you are saying this is a black tea? Not white tea? Not really understanding what you are saying.

Perhaps I am not understanding your meaning, but these do not appear to be fully oxidized leaves ... regardless of origin, etc. I just do not understand your black tea category reference at all.

It is my understanding that Yunnan produces white tea in addition to the "whites" used for pu-erh.

White tea refers to how it is manufactured, not so much leaf form ...

Chip wrote:

legend wrote:It is a Sheng cha 生茶 in the Black tea category 黑茶类 but it is commoly marketed as white tea.

So, you are saying this is a black tea? Not white tea? Not really understanding what you are saying.

Perhaps I am not understanding your meaning, but these do not appear to be fully oxidized leaves ... regardless of origin, etc. I just do not understand your black tea category reference at all.

It is my understanding that Yunnan produces white tea in addition to the "whites" used for pu-erh.

White tea refers to how it is manufactured, not so much leaf form ...

Chip while I do not agree with him, I think he is saying this tea actually belongs in the same category as Sheng, which is in general lumped into the category Hei-cha which is literally "black tea" not the same as black tea in the west which would be Chinese Hong-cha or red tea.

Although that being said I thought I read somewhere that there is huge uncertainty as to whether or not Sheng should even be considered Hei-Cha, especially when it is young, as most true Hei-cha's fall under more under the processing methods of Shu Puerh.

Thanks Adam. I figured this was a pu thing that was getting lost in translation with me.

But how to determine from the OP 's link, etc. that it is pu? The vendor claims otherwise.

Also, Legend is making a statement that white is as much an indication in form as it is in manufacture. I disagree. White can be across the spectrum in form including no bud at all.

Although I am sure someone could buy up the cheap teas intended for making pu, and sell it as white at a hefty profit, there is room for such abuse as we all know.

Just saying ...

I see where you may heve been confused Chip. there are different things in what legend says:
> that this tea we see on the picture is not what it claimed, but that it is in fact yue guang bai. I think that from a picture only it would be difficult to be certain, although the looks of this tea is consistent with how yue guang bai looks, and not so consistent with usual looks of white teas.
> that yue guang bai is not a white tea, but sheng cha (so, pu er). that is correct considering the material & region. But, let's keep in mind that yue guang bai does not fall in usual categories : it is made of leaves that provide pu er (originally it seems from simao, camellia taliensis, but some is processed with other species in other regions); yet it is not processed as mao cha usually is (you can see the yue guang bai thread about that), in a way that would not really make it 100% a white tea either.
>that pu er falls into the hei cha category. this makes sense and is perfectly arguable, but this point is subject to different views among professionals, for different reasons. as you know, a tea can be categorized according to the cultivar/species, choice of leaves, to region, to processing(s), even habits in naming... some teas share criteria, so according to the criterion/criteria that is considered categorization can be discussed (and it is, a lot ).
(about the differences in definitions/categories with pu er, ginkoseto wrote an interesting post on her blog, it will give you an idea of issues in categorization vs evolution of market).

However going back to the OP and his reference link for the tea in question ... is there something to draw a conclusion that this is NOT white tea? (albeit the site's photo and the OP's are quite different!)

Chip wrote:However going back to the OP and his reference link for the tea in question ... is there something to draw a conclusion that this is NOT white tea? (albeit the site's photo and the OP's are quite different!)

no certain way (because light and image quality may always bring surprises).
In fact I would conclude something else : site is full of ignorances.

alan logan wrote:

Chip wrote:However going back to the OP and his reference link for the tea in question ... is there something to draw a conclusion that this is NOT white tea? (albeit the site's photo and the OP's are quite different!)

no certain way (because light and image quality may always bring surprises).
In fact I would conclude something else : site is full of ignorances.

... which is basically what I said about the site in the FP.