White Flowery Pekoe White Tea 8 oz: V

This is loose tea, not bagged. One pound is the equivalent of approximately 200 tea bags. Slightly sweet with a creamy flavor. Very light in the cup with a fresh lingering taste. Highly recommended. White tea is one of the most glamorous and expensive teas in the world. It is difficult to obtain, as production is extremely limited. White tea is produced in China exclusively, mainly in Fukien province. The subtle taste of Flowery Pekoe White Tea requires an experienced palate already initiated into the exquisite, subtle flavors of green and oolong teas. Its name, a literal translation from the Chinese, probably comes from the very pale color of its liquor. This tea has a very mellow taste and a hint of sweetness. Although similar to green tea, white tea is very different from other types of tea such as green or black tea. White tea leaves are plucked from a special varietal tea bush called Narcissus or chaicha bushes. Secondly the leaves are not steamed or pan-fired (the process used in green teas) or fermented and fired (the process used in black tea). The leaves are naturally withered and dried in the sun. If mechanical drying is required it is a baking process at temperatures less that 40"™C. Thirdly only special "˜two leaves and a bud"™ are selected. These leaves must show a very light green almost gray white color and be ideally be covered with velvet peach fuzz down. Modern-day white teas can be traced to the Qing Dynasty in 1796. Back then, teas were processed and distributed as loose tea that was to be steeped, and they were produced from "chaicha, " a mixed-variety tea bush. They differed from other China green teas in that the white tea process did not incorporate de-enzyming by steaming or pan-firing, and the leaves were shaped. The silver needle white teas that were produced from the "chaicha" tea bushes were thin, small and did not have much silvery-white hair. It wasn't until 1885 that specific varietals of Camellia sinensis tea bushes were selected to make "Silver Needles" and other white teas. The large, fleshy buds of the "Big White, " "Small White" and "Narcissus" tea bushes were selected to make white teas and are still used today as the raw material for the production of white tea. By 1891, the large, silvery-white down-covered Silver Needle was exported, and the production of White Peony started around 1922. According to the different standards of picking and selecting, white teas can be classified as Yin Zhen Bai Hao (Silver Needle), Bai Mu Dan (White Peony), Gongmei (Tribute Eyebrow), and Shou Mei (Noble, Long Life Eyebrow). All of these white teas are widely produced in China. The highest-quality white teas are Silver Needle and White Peony, both of which have various grades and are primarily produced in the Fuding and Zhenhe districts of Fujian, China. Silver Needle is carefully hand selected from the tender fleshy sprouts of the "B