What's the differences between New and Aged White Tea?
When talking about Fuding White Tea, people always mention about the aged White Tea and how to age it. In Fuding, there is a saying about the aged white tea going like this “one year Tea, three year medicine, seven year treasure”. (In Chinese：一年茶，三年藥，七年寳). There is some researches found that Fuding White Tea is special in its medicinal value, the more year it was aged, the more medicinal benefit it can bring. As a Tea sommelier, despite all that findings about the medicinal value of aged white tea, it is more about the taste dimension to us. So, Let’s talk about the transformation of the aging white tea!
What’s included in mastertasting collection #21 ?
Four unique kinds of Fuding White Tea curated, each of them shows the unique taste of the year! You can try the newly harvested 2021 award-winning Gong Mei; the white tea at the early stage of maturity; and the aged white tea with more than 10 year old.
1. Award-Winning Gong Mei 2021 (25g)
2. Gong Mei Tea Cake 2018 (10g)
3. Bai Mu Dan Tea Cake 2013 (10g)
4. Shou Mei Tea Cake 2010 (10g)
Dry Leaves Appearance of New and Aged White Tea
The longer it was stored, the darker it will get. The newly harvested Tea is bright green in colour; and Tea stored for 2-3 years is still very green, but slightly become darker; and aged Tea with more than 10 years, will basically turn into brown but still with some green colour tones.
The Colour of Liquor of New and Aged White Tea
Similar to the transformation of dry leaves, the liquor will also get darker when it was aged. The newly harvested Tea is light yellow in colour, and Tea stored for 2-3 years is still yellow, but slightly become darker into light golden yellow; and aged Tea with more than 10 years, will basically turn into orange.
Taste and Mouthfeel of New and Aged White Tea
For almost every aged Tea, there is a saying “the aged the better in taste”. For us, both new and aged white tea include different unique taste characteristics we can appreciate. For new Tea, it is relatively lighter and soft, smooth and refreshing, slightly grassy but flowery with lingering aroma and sweetness. And for aged white tea, It become rich and full in its mouthfeel, the more age it get, the sweeter it become. Aged White Tea is usually having layered sweetness, mixed with honey, jujube, woodsy and sometimes even herbaceous or Chinese medicine notes.
Making Process of White Tea
The making process of White Tea is simple, only requires withering and drying after picking the tea leaves. We took the below picture in the organic tea farm in Panxi last year. Although the process is simple, skills is still very important, like time controlling, humidity controlling, change the angle for placing the tea leaves for sun-drying… all make it the best way to show the simple beauty and natural taste from the Fuding White Tea.
How to age and store White Tea?
Temperature: no need to store in the fridge, just store it in a ventilated room with room temperature, remember to avoid the high heat from the room heater in Winter
Sun-shine: avoid direct sunshine
Container: White Tea need to be stored in a relatively more air-tight container, you can store it in a sealed bag/jar/ bottle/pot/ aluminum foil bag
Odorless: Avoid getting in touch with any Odor, as the Tea may absorb any unfavorable odor in the environment around them
Humidity: Keep it in a dry environment, beware of the level of humidity (Level of humidity in the storing environment is recommended to be less than 70%)
What is waiting for you in the tasting box?
This newly harvested Gong Mei is an award-winning Tea, received the champion at the 2021 “Zhang Tian Fu Cup” award. It fully represent the freshness and elegant taste of the White Tea, it is very soft, smooth and refreshing, slightly grassy but flowery with lingering aroma and sweetness.
This Gong Mei Tea Cake is stored for 3 years. At this stage, the tea cake is just slightly transformed, as the aging time is still short. You can still find the freshness of the tea, the glassiness faded, and the tea become a bit sweeter.
This beautiful Bai Mu Dan is full of downy white pekoe and silvery buds. As it is made of fine buds and small leaves, its transformation is not as intense as the aged Shou Mei, which is made of mature leaves. Instead, aged Bai Mu Dan transformed as very high and elegant in sweetness, like the crystal sugar.
This is a rarely found aged white tea stored for almost 10 years. Transformation result in high sweetness and smoothness. It is rich and smooth in its mouthfeel, with long-lasting sweetness, mixed with honey, jujube, and woodsy notes.
