Profile : Pai Mu Tan
Loose - White Tea
March 13, 2019
CUP CHARACTERISTICS: Clear
slightly pale cup with a fresh aroma and a smooth velvety flavor.
Delicate jammy notes reminiscent of Keemun or a mild Bordeaux.
Ingredients: White tea.
INGREDIENTS FROM: China
REGION(S): Fujian Province
SHIPPING PORT(S): Fuzhou
GROWING ALTITUDES: 1500 - 4900 feet above sea level
GRADE(S): Spring Grade #1
MANUFACTURE TYPE(S): Non fermented, Traditional process, Naturally withered and dried, Small batch crafted, Hand sorted.
ANTIOXIDANT LEVEL: Very High
CAFFEINE LEVEL: Low
VEGETARIAN: Yes
VEGAN: Yes
INFUSION: Pale yellow
INFORMATION:
This
is the highest grade of white tea available before one enters the
stratosphere in pricing for white teas such as Peony White Needle Tea.
Pai Mu Tan leaves are plucked from a special varietal tea bush called
Narcissus or chaicha bushes. Secondly the leaves are not steamed or
pan-fired (the process used in green teas). The leaves are naturally
withered and dried in the sun. If mechanical drying is required it is a
baking process at temperatures less that 40°C. Thirdly only special 'two
leaves and a bud' are selected. These leaves must show a very light
green almost gray white color and be covered with velvet peach fuzz
down. White teas that are withered in conditions that are too hot with
become reddish and in conditions that are too cold they will become
blackish. You will see on this Pai Mu Tan that the tea maker struck the
perfect balance between solar and indoor withering resulting in a
perfect white tea.
The western cosmetic industry has recently
discovered the benefits of white tea. In addition to its anticancer
properties, tea has a calming and detoxifying effect on the skin. White
tea is especially potent in that it is has three times as many
antioxidant polyphenols as green or black tea and has been shown to be
100% more effective in mopping up free radicals that cause skin to sag.
Some of the world's top cosmetic companies are becoming very interested
in white tea for skin creams and the result is that high grade white tea
is becoming even more rare than before.
Researchers at the Linus
Pauling Institute in Oregon tested white teas on selected rates to test
for the ability of white teas to inhibit natural mutations in bacteria
and to protect the rates from colon cancer. Interestingly, white teas
were found to be more effective than green tea in inhibiting the early
stages of cancer but researchers were quick to point out that their
study was on rats and the effects should not be extrapolated to humans.
The researchers also discovered that white tea contains higher levels of
caffeine compared to green tea brewed under the same conditions. They
suggested that this could occur because white tea oxidizes during
withering whereas in green tea the oxidation process is stopped early in
the tea making process by steaming or panfiring.