White Tea

Rare and luxurious, for centuries white tea was reserved for royalty alone—and rightly so. Taken from the first spring pluckings of particular strains of the tea plant and processed instantly, white tea is sublimely light, sweet, and incredibly refreshing.

Silver Needle, or Bai Hao, is the rarest of white teas. Nearly 80,000 young buds make only one pound of this tea. Buds are unfurled leaves, still immature, that have a light, downy coating on them. (White tea, which is not actually pure white, gets its name from this coating.) When steeped, these buds produce a really luscious cup with light honey notes and a full, complex body.

 White Peony, or Bai Mudan, is another highly-desired white tea. It gets its name from the gorgeous color spectrum of its leaves, which is reminiscent of the peony flower. The higher grades of White Peony contain some of the silver needles along with the next set of leaves down on the plant. Like Silver Needle, White Peony is only plucked for a few days each spring and is sun-dried immediately after picking. White Peony tends to be more popular in the West, as its flavor is more pronounced than Silver Needle.  (This quality also makes it a fantastic base for exotic blends.)

Zhi’s White Blueberry is the most popular of our white teas. Since we start with a super-high-grade White Peony as a base, we felt it was only appropriate to use real blueberries in our blend!

All of our blends are totally organic, so when we add a flavoring it is a natural essential oil, never an artificial ingredient. Using natural botanicals makes a major difference in the tea. The aroma is never overpowering. The taste is far more subtle. We always make sure that the flavor profile of the tea itself is enhanced, not obscured.

Low in caffeine and very high in antioxidants, white tea is not only delicious and refreshing—it is a very healthy drink.