Best quality Baihao Yinzhen White Tea - Bai Hao Yin Zhen White Silver Needle #1 – Goodtea

Bai hao yin zhen also known as White Hair Silver Needle, is a white tea produced in Fujian Province in China. Silver Needle or Bai Hao Yin Zhen or usually just Yin Zhen is the Chinese type of white tea. Amongst white teas, this is the most expensive variety and the most prized, as only top buds (leaf shoots) of the camellia sinensis plant are used to produce the tea. Genuine Silver Needles are made from cultivars of the Da Bai (Large White) tea tree family. Chinese Silver Needle (Yin Zhen) is widely considered the best white tea in the world. It is a beauty to behold with all the fuzzy tea buds, the light brew is a subtle and slightly sweet delight.

In the early years of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1796), Baihao Yinzhen was successfully cultivated from vegetable tea in Fuding. The export of Baihao Yinzhen started in 1891. Baihao Yinzhen used to be called Luxueya, which is regarded as the ancestor of white tea. The mother tree is planted in Hongxue Cave on Taimu Mountain in Fuding. A genuine Silver Needle is a white tea. As such, it is only lightly oxidized. The most sought after productions are from the first flushes, which generally take place between late March to early April, when the year’s first new buds “flush”. For the production of Silver Needle, only the leaf shoots, i.e. the leaf buds before opening, are plucked. Unlike the plucking of green tea, the ideal time and weather for plucking white tea is a sunny morning when the sun is high enough to have dried any remaining moisture on the buds.

Traditionally, the plucks are laid in shallow baskets to wilt under the sun for an extended period, and the best quality produced today are still made this way. To avoid loss due to sudden rain, gusts, or other accidents, some producers are taking the plucks indoor to wilt in a chamber with artificial warm air flow. The softened shoots are then piled for the required enzyme oxidation (often incorrectly referred to as fermentation) before they are taken for a low temperature bake-dry.

General flavor profile: Flavor is on the light side but with lots of potential complexity: it can have fruity, floral, herbal, grassy, and hay-like notes. The texture is light to medium, which can read as being “crisp” or juicy and satisfying in the right contexts!