Bai Mudan

Where it grows

The districts recorded against this tea, all of them in China. Elevation is given as the band the district is recorded at, not a measurement of the garden this leaf came from.

• Fuding — 100–800 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

The plants it is made from

Cultivar is the level below the variety group: a named selection of the tea plant, propagated as clones from one parent. Most consumer writing stops at the country and the category, which leaves out the layer that decides how the leaf behaves before anyone picks it.

• Fuding Da Bai — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Very large, heavily downy buds and a plump leaf. Sweet and hay-like when withered and dried, and vigorous enough to have been propagated well outside its home county.

• Fuding Da Hao — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Very large, densely downy buds and higher yield than Fuding Da Bai. Sweet and hay-like when withered, with slightly less aromatic complexity by the usual account.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Withering — Reduces water content, softens the leaf for later handling, and permits early enzymatic and aromatic development.
2. 2. Sun-drying (shai qing) — Reduces moisture to a storable level at low temperature, leaving residual enzymatic and microbial activity in the leaf.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Withered and dried white tea — The shortest route in tea, and the one with nowhere to hide. There is no fixation and no rolling, so the wither is not a preparation for the process — it very nearly is the process.

  Where it is practised: Fuding and Zhenghe in Fujian above all, with distinct local practice between the two. Also made in Yunnan from large-leaf material, and in Darjeeling, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malawi to markedly different specifications.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

The compounds that substantially decide what this tea is: Linalool oxides, Theasinensins.

• Withering
  • creates Geraniol
  • creates Linalool
  • creates Linalool oxides
  • creates Theasinensins
  • raises Methyl salicylate
  • raises Nerolidol
  • raises Soluble sugars
  • lowers cis-3-Hexenol
  • lowers Green-leaf volatiles
  • lowers Leaf lipids
• Sun-drying (shai qing)
  • raises Beta-ionone
  • lowers Carotenoids

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

History

Developed in Fujian in the early twentieth century as a grade between bud-only Silver Needle and the coarser leaf grades, aimed at an export market that wanted white tea at a lower price. It has outlasted the market that prompted it.

TeaHQ synthesis — TeaHQ's own reading of well-attested general knowledge, with no single source behind it.

Brewing

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 85–95 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)

  4–5 g/100 ml · 90–95 °C · 6 authored infusions

  Needs: Gaiwan

  Open in the brew assistant

• Cold brew tea

  1–2 g/100 ml · 4–10 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Glass teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

Common mistakes

• Brewing at green-tea temperature, which leaves it watery
• Treating it as fragile — white tea is minimally processed, not delicate

When the cup goes wrong

Written against white tea as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order. 8 apply to the category; the first 6 are shown.

• My cold brew tastes like faintly flavoured water — After a night in the fridge the jug is pale and tastes of very little, with none of the sweetness cold brewing is supposed to give.
• My green tea tastes flat and looks dark in this house — A delicate green tea that tasted bright elsewhere comes out dull and heavy here, with a darker, browner liquor than it should have and none of its aroma.
• My leaf floats on top and will not sink — Dry leaf sits on the surface in a dry-looking raft, and the tea underneath is pale long after it should have been ready.
• My pu-erh cake will not break apart cleanly — The cake resists the pick, then gives way suddenly into powder and fragments rather than intact leaf.
• My tea tastes of the cupboard it was kept in — The dry leaf carries a note that does not belong to it — spice, coffee, cleaning products, or simply a generalised kitchen smell — and the same note comes through in the cup.
• My water is not the temperature the kettle says — The kettle is set to 80 °C and the tea behaves as though it were much hotter or much cooler, and the same setting gives different results on different days.

Every diagnosed brewing problem

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

Compare this tea with another

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison. Each one is a written page with the points of difference argued out.

• Best teas for beginners, compared — Four teas chosen for one property only: they are hard to brew badly. This compares them on how forgiving they are, not on which is best — and makes no claim about anything other than flavour and technique. Put the two side by side
• Fresh tea vs aged tea — Two white teas from the same material, one drunk young and one kept for years. The comparison isolates what ageing actually does, because everything else is held constant. Put the two side by side
• Silver Needle vs White Peony — The top two grades of Chinese white tea, from the same gardens and the same cultivars. The entire difference is what gets picked. Put the two side by side
• White Peony vs Shou Mei — The middle and bottom of the white-tea grade ladder. The counter-intuitive part is that the cheaper grade is generally the better one to age. Put the two side by side
• Young vs aged white tea — The same leaf a decade apart, and the transformation is more dramatic than in any other category. The transformation is more dramatic here than in any other category, and it favours the cheapest grade. Put the two side by side

Journeys featuring this tea

• Discover aged tea — Someone curious about tea that is meant to be kept rather than drunk fresh.
• Understanding tea families — Someone who has heard there are six kinds of tea and wants to know what actually separates them.
• Exploring white tea — Someone who found white tea thin and suspects they are missing something.
• I want lighter tea — Someone who finds ordinary tea heavy, astringent or too strong.
• Exploring Fujian tea — Someone who wants to see how much one province can do.
• Understanding oxidation — Someone who has read that oxidation defines tea categories and cannot taste what it does.

Guides covering this tea

• What is white tea?
• Understanding tea grades
• Infusers, strainers and filters
• Measuring tea without a scale
• White tea has the simplest process and is not the simplest tea