What Is White Tea? The Least Processed Tea

How white tea is made

After picking, the leaves and buds are spread out to wither in low light, losing moisture slowly over many hours. Once withered enough, they're dried, usually with gentle warm air.

That's the entire process. There's no pan-firing, steaming, or rolling to bruise the leaf, so oxidation happens only slightly and unevenly, giving white tea its pale color and delicate flavor.

Common types

The two names you'll see most often are Silver Needle and White Peony, and they taste quite different despite coming from the same plant and process.

• Silver Needle (Bai Hao Yin Zhen): buds only, downy and pale, very delicate and slightly sweet
• White Peony (Bai Mu Dan): buds plus young leaves, fuller body, more grassy depth
• Shou Mei: older leaves, darker and bolder, often pressed into cakes for aging

Brewing white tea

Use water around 175 to 185°F (80 to 85°C) and steep for 3 to 5 minutes. White tea is forgiving — because it's so lightly processed, it rarely turns harsh even if you leave it a bit long. For every other tea type's target range, see the brewing water temperature guide.

It also re-steeps well. A second and third infusion, each a little longer than the last, often reveals more sweetness than the first cup did.

Aging white tea

Unlike green tea, which only fades with time, white tea (especially Shou Mei pressed into cakes) mellows and deepens over years of dry, dark storage, developing dried-fruit and honey notes similar to aged pu-erh.