Bai Lu Shou Mei Teacake 2020
A 100g Shou Mei white tea cake, plucking the tea buds with 3-4 leaves in the Bai Lu season, aka Autumn season around the date of “Bai Lu”. This teacake is compressed loosely, which help the tea to be better transform during storage, and it is easy for people to break it for brewing. The Fall season brings a special high aroma and sweetness to this Tea. And after two years of storage, the grassiness of the tea is gone, it become very smooth in the mouthfeel, with high fragrance and honey sweetness.
What is Bai Lu (White Dew)?
“Bai Lu” means “White Dew”, is the solar term of Chinese Calendar, it is the date marks the start of Autumn. As the weather turns cooler and the temperature becomes lower, the water drops begin to condense on the ground or grass leaves. These are typically autumn weather phenomena during the White Dew period.
What is so special about Bai Lu Tea?
White Dew marks the day with the largest temperature difference between day and night of the year. The dry weather and large daily temperature variations of the White Dew season are the favorable factors for creating a special high fragrance and sweetness to the Bai Lu Tea. When comparing with the Spring Tea, White Dew Tea harvesting in Autumn is having better flavor and high aroma, while Spring Tea is layered in taste with sweet and rich mouthfeel. Both Spring and Autumn Tea has its special taste and characteristics. If you like Tea with high fragrance, Bai Lu Tea would be a great choice.
Weight per tea cake: 100g
Tea Farm Location: Organic Tea Farm at Ma Guan Jian, Dian Tou Town, Fuding, Fujian Province, China
Harvest Time: Autumn 2020
Characteristics:
Tasting Notes: smooth, high floral aroma and honey sweetness
Tea Liquor Colour: bright and clear yellow
Dry Leave Appearance: Brown-yellow with white pekoe in between, tea leaves compressed into Tea Cake (100g)
Wet Leaves: greenish brown
History and Story of Fuding White Tea:
Fu Ding White Tea is originated from Tai Mu Shan in Fujian Province. The mythical story said that “Tai Mu Niang Niang” (a Chinese fairy means Great mother of Tai Mu Shan) use the White Tea harvested in Tai Mu Shan to curl the Measles and saved many local kids. In reality, White tea’s mother bush named as “Lu Xue Ya” is located in Tai Mu Shan in Fuding, with more than 170 years old. In 1857, a Tea merchant named Mr. Chen Huan discovered the Fuding Da Bai cultivar in Tai Mu Shan, and started to migrated tea trees from Tai Mu Mountain to Dian Tou Village in Fu Ding. Nowadays, Tai Mu Shan is only a scenic area and tourist attraction rather than a growing area of White Tea.
Making Process:
Plucking Tea Buds with 3-4 leaves. After plucking the tea leaves in Autumn, it undergoes steps of withering, drying and picking. It is compressed into a small little tea cake (100g)
Although the process of making White Tea 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.
