There are two white tea producing areas in Fujian, China: Fuding and Zhenghe. These two regions have slightly different teas. I wrote about a white peony from Zhenghe a few days ago, and the link can be found here. When I tasted the white peony from Zhenge (2020), I was surprised as to how mature it tasted. My baseline was Fuding white teas. Like this one. The dry leaves were scentless, but they turned into freshly cut grass, and meadow flowers smell as soon as they were soaked in hot water—almost a miracle. And the taste that followed had floral and mineral notes, which is what I expect from a young white tea. However, this tea had a distinctive bitter edge. I do not know where it came from.
The seller explains that white tea’s sweetness increases through different steepings. They keep describing that the tea gives out jujube, flower and medicinal (it is a thing in China) fragrance. The taste may be transformed into honey and camphor flavour. Of course, the description continues the flavour will be different each year. Usually, jujube takes about 3 years to come out, and medicinal camphor flavours will take longer to come out. I love these descriptions, I feel like they are written by non-commercial people who enjoy tea, and this level of information believe me is hard to gather without speaking Chinese. I have been trying hard with other dealers.
Tea Profile:
Type: White
Origin: Fuding, Fujian, China
Harvest time: Late spring 2020
Leaf colour: Tones of light green with visible white fuzz
Liquor colour: Dark yellow
Tea aroma: Vegetal (freshly cut grass) and floral
Tea taste: Sweet, fresh with floral and mineral notes a bitter kick
Steeping/brewing: Place 6 g of this tea in a teapot and add about 100 ml water at around 90°C. Rinse after 5 sec. Steep for 10 seconds for the second time and increase the consecutive steeping time by 5 seconds each time. You can steep this tea six or seven times.
Shelf life: Can be aged.