Is white tea oxidized?!?!
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Is white tea oxidized?!?!
by needaTEAcher » Nov 14th, '12, 08:10
Normally I find myself on the other side of the forum, but I thought I would take a walk today. 
I spent some time in the Teaware Museum in Hong Kong, and read a few different things that put white tea as "Slightly Fermented", pushing the spectrum as Green-White-Oolong-Red-Black.
My understanding is that the word "fermented" is what we used to call it, but these days chemists chimed in and said, "No, that's oxidation-puerh is fermented." So switching "Fermented" with "Oxidized", is white tea lightly oxidized?! I always thought whites and greens were not, oolongs scaling along partial, and reds being the most oxidized, and puerhs/blacks being fermented (though people with far more chemical and biological understanding than I have hammered into my head that the idea of "fully oxidized" is a simplification of rather more complicated ratios of this chemial to that chemical, with "fully oxidized" meaning "optimum ratio of this to that for flavor and smell"). Also, I figure that no teas are truly without fermentation, since they get jostled and bruised when they are picked, and it is several hours at least between stem and fixing station, so I don't think it is about that (since they listed greens as "Not Fermented").
So am I crazy? Is white tea partially oxidized? Any chimes here? Thanks!
I spent some time in the Teaware Museum in Hong Kong, and read a few different things that put white tea as "Slightly Fermented", pushing the spectrum as Green-White-Oolong-Red-Black.
My understanding is that the word "fermented" is what we used to call it, but these days chemists chimed in and said, "No, that's oxidation-puerh is fermented." So switching "Fermented" with "Oxidized", is white tea lightly oxidized?! I always thought whites and greens were not, oolongs scaling along partial, and reds being the most oxidized, and puerhs/blacks being fermented (though people with far more chemical and biological understanding than I have hammered into my head that the idea of "fully oxidized" is a simplification of rather more complicated ratios of this chemial to that chemical, with "fully oxidized" meaning "optimum ratio of this to that for flavor and smell"). Also, I figure that no teas are truly without fermentation, since they get jostled and bruised when they are picked, and it is several hours at least between stem and fixing station, so I don't think it is about that (since they listed greens as "Not Fermented").
So am I crazy? Is white tea partially oxidized? Any chimes here? Thanks!
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needaTEAcher - Posts: 487
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- Location: Hong Kong, next China
Re: Is white tea oxidized?!?!
by SilentChaos » Nov 14th, '12, 11:16
Well, as far as I know, white teas are 'spontaneously' oxidized during withering before kill-green; whereas green tea pretty much go from plucked to kill-green. So green tea is not oxidized in the sense that it doesn't go through controlled oxidation, and measures are taken to minimize spontaneous oxidation as well.
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SilentChaos - Posts: 337
- Joined: Feb 2nd, '1
- Location: Taipei
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