Longjing vs Anji Bai Cha
Two flat-leaf Zhejiang green teas that look similar and taste quite different. One difference is shaping; the other is a cultivar mutation that changes the chemistry of the leaf.
tea
What is being compared
Why these get confused
'Anji Bai Cha' translates as Anji white tea and it is a green tea. The name describes the pale leaf of an albino cultivar.
Point by point
| Aspect | Longjing | Anji Bai Cha |
|---|---|---|
| The plant | Conventional green-tea cultivars — Longjing 43, Zhongcha 108 or old seed-grown stock. | Bai Ye Yi Hao, an albino mutant whose shoots emerge nearly white in cold spring weather. |
| Why it looks the way it does | Pressed flat by hand against a heated wok during pan-firing. | Naturally narrow and pale; the flatness is far less pronounced and less deliberate. |
| Flavour | Toasted chestnut and fresh grass, from direct contact with the hot pan. | Sweet pea and bamboo, with a savoury depth and almost no bitterness. |
| Why they differ chemically | Ordinary catechin-to-amino-acid balance for a spring green tea. | The chlorophyll deficiency raises amino acids relative to catechins, which is the direct cause of the sweetness. |
| Harvest window | Several weeks, with the pre-Qingming picking the most prized. | Days rather than weeks — the leaves green as temperatures rise and the character is lost. |
| Is it a white tea | No, and nobody claims it is. | No, despite 'bai cha' in the name. The reference is to leaf colour, not to white-tea processing. |
The short answer
Longjing is nutty and Anji Bai Cha is sweet and savoury. Someone who finds green tea bitter will usually get on better with the second.
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