Aged White Teas

[William]

Poseidon, I think the lack of response shows aged white tea is not for "real". Many teachatters know much, much > than I do; yet, I will venture to say now that aged white tea does not make sense as a concept. White tea is green tea which is tea one wants fresh.
I was lucky enough to buy some wonderful white tea (the only white tea I have ever liked). It is so good that I would order much more (enough to last years) but fear time would hurt the tea.

Maybe, the lack of responses is due to the working in progress situation about them.

I know a few tea enthusiasts here in Europe who have accumulated more than a few grams, we will see in the future if the white tea ages well or not .. from the few that I tried, if well stored, aged white tea can be absolutely delicious.

[Poseidon]

Poseidon, I think the lack of response shows aged white tea is not for "real". Many teachatters know much, much > than I do; yet, I will venture to say now that aged white tea does not make sense as a concept. White tea is green tea which is tea one wants fresh.
I was lucky enough to buy some wonderful white tea (the only white tea I have ever liked). It is so good that I would order much more (enough to last years) but fear time would hurt the tea.

Maybe, the lack of responses is due to the working in progress situation about them.

I know a few tea enthusiasts here in Europe who have accumulated more than a few grams, we will see in the future if the white tea ages well or not .. from the few that I tried, if well stored, aged white tea can be absolutely delicious.

Im glad Im not going crazy. hahaha

[William]

Poseidon, I think the lack of response shows aged white tea is not for "real". Many teachatters know much, much > than I do; yet, I will venture to say now that aged white tea does not make sense as a concept. White tea is green tea which is tea one wants fresh.
I was lucky enough to buy some wonderful white tea (the only white tea I have ever liked). It is so good that I would order much more (enough to last years) but fear time would hurt the tea.

Maybe, the lack of responses is due to the working in progress situation about them.

I know a few tea enthusiasts here in Europe who have accumulated more than a few grams, we will see in the future if the white tea ages well or not .. from the few that I tried, if well stored, aged white tea can be absolutely delicious.

Im glad Im not going crazy. hahaha

Enthusiasts are a bit crazy after all!

[kyarazen]

aged white tea is for real! if they had internet in the 1920s you might end up thinking that aged pu-erh is not for real either.. the tastes of people are constantly evolving and changing, so whatever was not in trend end up going into trend with enough time, and trends do fade out with time as well.

white tea is way different from green tea due to the following :

Green tea is "heat inactivated" after picking, this arrests and prevents further oxidation.

White tea is not "heat inactivated" after picking, instead it is allowed to wither/oxidize before one final drying by heat.

so all in all green tea is a snapshot of fresh green leaves of a tea plant "frozen" in a certain state. white tea instead is like old leaves on a tree, turning yellow, withering and falling off in autumn.

higher grade white teas will take the fresh buds and wither them.
low grade white teas will take the almost dying, or other unwanted big leaves and wither them.
some leaves that were never made into pu-erh tea like "huang pian" are now becoming popular as they contribute a "white tea nature/taste". (in the 80-90s if you see huangpian in a pu-erh tea cake, the cake's inferior/poorly made).

the manufacture of many common white teas are rough, coarse, the tea brew have rough edges in taste. aging it properly, and a re-bake can smoothen it a lot. i have several six-seven year old white tea cakes and some yue guang bai from that period too.. turning out very nice

[kyarazen]

From what ive been reading on blogs, white tea is starting(or has been) to get pressed into bings for aging. It takes on the same fermentation a puerh would.(according to what ive read) I know there is a "new technique" of processing in the white tea world that does essentially allow it to age like puerh.

http://www.tching.com/2014/07/three-yea ... ign=buffer

also, I missed this thread.

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 1&start=15

i had a "fake" yellow label pu-erh yinzhen tea cake that came from the 90s.. that could have been the early days when people thought about pressing whites into cakes. i think 06-07 was the start of large volume pressing of whites into cakes. i bought a 357g baimudan cake for $60 then, and most people whom saw it thought it was rubbish, since the social norm was not to press white tea into cakes.

[mith242]

Actually I'm pretty sure aged white tea is a 'real' thing. It's just something that hasn't become popular yet around the world. Right now it seems interest is mostly limited to areas of south China and Hong Kong. It wasn't that long ago that white tea over all wasn't that well known outside of some areas of China. I'm not predicting it will become the next 'big thing'. But I also don't think you can dismiss it as some sort of fad. Aged white tea has been around a while in areas like Hong Kong. I also don't think you'd see some of the ages some of the aged white teas have if it was just a fad either. I've recently taken an interest in it and have been doing some research into it. Been looking forward to trying out some different types of aged white teas. If you find some retailers that deal with tea for Hong Kong you can actually find quite a few different aged white tea cakes.

[kyarazen]

Actually I'm pretty sure aged white tea is a 'real' thing. It's just something that hasn't become popular yet around the world. Right now it seems interest is mostly limited to areas of south China and Hong Kong. It wasn't that long ago that white tea over all wasn't that well known outside of some areas of China. I'm not predicting it will become the next 'big thing'. But I also don't think you can dismiss it as some sort of fad. Aged white tea has been around a while in areas like Hong Kong. I also don't think you'd see some of the ages some of the aged white teas have if it was just a fad either. I've recently taken an interest in it and have been doing some research into it. Been looking forward to trying out some different types of aged white teas. If you find some retailers that deal with tea for Hong Kong you can actually find quite a few different aged white tea cakes.

could be a promising trend if poo-erh loses its luster. i cannot get over the "sappy" note of young/high grade white tea so its not something that interests me, but last month, I had the fortune of tasting a white tea from the 80s where this note absolutely disappeared! but the price was high (few dollars a gram?), the tea was limited, so I did not procure.

[stockman]

I have ne doubt...

This aged white teas, have the same properties that fresh white teas have?

[kyarazen]

I have ne doubt...

This aged white teas, have the same properties that fresh white teas have?

no idea.

i suppose many more drink it for the taste than the properties? (health?)

[Poseidon]

So since Ive posted on this thread I have picked up a bag of new technique aged white tea from Dragon Tea House. I remember trying it but I cant remember how it was. Ill try to dig it out soon and re-try it for this group.

[KyleRut]

The best distributor of aged white teas I've ever ran into is Shang Tea Co.

I met personally with the owner of the company Zehua Shang three years ago who actually personally works on the farm the shop sources from. Ive never had quality like he produces. Luckily ive been offered a job to work for him so I get to enjoy his tea all the time now )

I have a wild white tea cake thats been aged 4 years already that I plan on aging for at least another two years before I break into it. I wish I could upload a picture of it but I dont have any at the moment.

[MEversbergII]

Saw this posted up on FB recently, thought it belonged here:

http://www.teaguardian.com/quality-vari ... ite-peony/

M.

[hawaiianlungs]

Does whitevtea have grades? Mudan.

I am in mainland China and went to a few expo.
They had Bai Mudan from 2008 for Rmb 150 each, about US$18.00 per cake.

My question is if this White Peony is of lower quality. Or is there only one grade. This was a reputable tea dealer from the giant Maliandao tea market in Beijing.

[ethan]

hawaiianlungs,

do they give or sell samples at the expos you attend?

Can you drink some at the expos?

I would think you would enjoy the adventure of trying tea based on what you percieve: What your senses tell you about teas & what your sense tells you about vendors.

Every harvest is different. Try enough tea & you may find some that is truly special. Taste a lot of white teas while you are there; & you will probably know more about white tea than you'll be told about here. Then you can add to our collective knowledge.

[hawaiianlungs]

They do not give samples of tea, but you can taste all day, any tea, for free. Once you find whatvyou like, you can buy it.

The expo has about 20 or 30 reputable companies, all with a tasting table. They will allow you to taste any tea you want.

They will open the same "bing" or get fresh leaves for you to taste.

The expo was 3 days. I went all 3 days.

Day 1 I tasted Silver Needles

Day 2 I tasted White Peony and fresh hjust picked green white tea.

Day 3 I tasted different kinds of Puereh. Roasted and raw. Some Puereh aged 30 years.

When I was leaving on day 3, a car pulled up. He did not want to carry back to Beijing a lot of Top Quality Da Hong Pao. My favorite tea.
He sold it at 80% off the already cheap China price. Packed in nice boxes and tins. I teasted it. Very good tea. I bought 5 huge boxes. I got
7 "bings" of Mudan, a "bing" of aged Puereh. And a kilo of loose Da Hong Pao. All tea tasted before. A "bing" of Silver needle.

It is a real learning experience. I had a good translator who likes teas. I had most all questions answered.

Expos are great places to buy tea. You can taste for free.

Another good place is in wholesale tea markets.Once I tasted 40 different kinds of Da Hong Pao in such a market in Guangzhou. Too much tea.

In Beijing, go to Maliandao. Over 200+ wholesale tea vendors. All tasting free.