Solar withering

The categories this step defines

In tea, processing is not a modifier applied to a category — it is what creates the category. These are the types that exist because this step exists.

• White tea — Withering and drying only, with no fixation and no deliberate rolling.
• Oolong — Deliberate bruising to initiate edge oxidation, halted partway, frequently followed by roasting.

What it is

Freshly plucked leaf is spread thinly on cloth, bamboo or mesh in the open and left in the sun for a period measured in tens of minutes rather than hours, then moved indoors to rest. Sun supplies radiant energy directly to the leaf surface, so moisture leaves faster and the leaf warms in a way that indoor air never reproduces, and the aromatic development that follows is correspondingly different. It is also the least controllable operation in tea: the maker is working with whatever the day provides, cannot slow the sun down, and in Fujian and Taiwan will simply not make certain grades in poor weather. That variability is the reason the same garden’s oolong differs year to year in ways the factory cannot correct.

Also transliterated as: ri guang wei diao, riguang weidiao, shai qing.

What it does to the leaf

Removes moisture rapidly through radiant heating of the leaf surface while raising leaf temperature, initiating aromatic development that a cool indoor wither does not produce.

What it does to the cup

Associated with the honeyed, floral and sun-warmed hay character of solar-withered white tea and with the aromatic top notes of traditionally made oolong.

Variants that matter

Ways this step is carried out that produce genuinely different results, rather than regional names for the same thing.

Oolong solar wither

Short and deliberately incomplete, followed by an indoor cooling and resting period before the shaking cycle begins. Over-doing it makes leaf that will not shake evenly.

White tea sun wither

Long, undisturbed and running for a day or more in Fuding practice, where the wither and the drying are effectively a single continuous operation.

Withering loft

Traditional Zhenghe white tea uses raised open-sided lofts rather than open ground, which trades some of the sun’s intensity for shelter from weather.

Other steps at the Withering stage

• Hard and light withering — How far the wither is allowed to run, which is a separate decision from how it is carried out and shapes the tea more than the equipment does.
• Sieve combining (bing shai) — Part-way through a white tea wither, the contents of two or three sieves are tipped into one, thickening the bed so the last of the wither runs slower and warmer.
• Trough withering — Withering on a mesh bed with fans forcing conditioned air through the leaf, which turns a weather-dependent step into a scheduled one.
• Withering — Controlled moisture loss that makes the leaf pliable and begins its chemical change.

Teas that go through this step

• Jiang Hua Xiang Dan Cong

Guides covering this step

• White tea has the simplest process and is not the simplest tea — White tea is made by withering leaf and then drying it. That is the entire manufacture, and describing it as minimal processing has convinced a great many people that it is therefore an easy, mild, unremarkable tea. Neither follows.
• How oolong is made, and why it is the most labour-intensive category — Oolong is not a tea that was oxidised halfway. It is a leaf oxidised heavily at its edges and barely at all in its centre, produced by a cycle of shaking and resting that runs through the night and is judged entirely by the maker’s nose.