White Tea Flashcards
What is White Tea made entirely from?
Leaf buds that are covered in whitish hairs and plucked prior to opening.
Processing White Tea
Fresh tea leaves- Indoor wilting- Baking - Light Rolling- Drying
Kill Green = ______________
Baking (white Tea)
What is one of the rarest, most exotic teas in the world?
White tea- finest, youngest shoots, hand picked at beginning of season. Mainly from: Fujian province in China; some from Sri Lanka, Kenya and Darjeeling (India) =
How are White teas processed?
Sun dried, gently steamed or oven dried at low temp. to remove water content. Not oxidized.
Where and how are Yellow teas produced?
Anhui and Hunan provinces in China. Process like green tea- except longer drying process. Moist leaves left to dry turn yellow in colour and lose some of grassy vegative flavours.
How are Green teas processed?
More processed than white teas, but not undergone an oxidation process. Leaves plucked, withered for few hours, then steaming or pan firing to remove moisture. W/o moisture no oxidation can take place and basic production concluded.
Japan= Steaming, grassy vegetative flavours
China= Pan-firing, subtle peach, chocolate, to smoky flavours.
What are the time honored traditions of oolong tea production?
- The leaves are picked in units consisting of one bud and three leaves and exposed to
the sun. - Semi-oxidized: second stage is to dry them indoors to promote oxidation. The most
crucial part in the production of Oolong
tea is when to stop the oxidation
Oxidation: between 20% - 80% - Leaves are then rubbed repeatedly to generate good flavour, aroma, and texture, then they are dried.
What is the tea that majority of Western world consumes?
Black tea
How is Black tea produced?
- Exposed to hot air for several hours- to reduce water content by 50-60%. this softens the leaves
- Leaves rolled (by hand or machine) allowing essential oils to spread and permeate buds.
- Sorting using a screen. Smallest leaves go directly to next stage, and larger tougher ones get 2nd rolling.
- Oxidation- starts when chemical reaction of the leaves and their components (polyphenols) with air, humidity and heat.
Firing- to dry leaves in oven to stop oxidation process
Describe what oxidation is.
Oxidation- starts when chemical reaction of the leaves and their components (polyphenols) with air, humidity and heat.
______ is a large leaf tea variety, grown and picked throughout the year- no dormant season (unlike other teas)
Pu’erh
What is RAW (Sheng) pu’erh tea?
Leaves picked, sundried, compressed to allow natural aging process.
Taste: milder tasting, more green in character, colour and flavour.
What is Cooked (Shu) pu’erh tea?
leaves picked, processed and partially fired to allow leaves to retain moisture.
Slightly moist tea piled.
Natural bacterium on leaves creates a reaction similar to that of compost pile.
Tea aged in special underground rooms /caves.
Taste: full bodied and earthy.
Grading teas: what is the most important criteria for grading ?
Size of the leaf.
Leaf grading is only done in tea producing countries that were influenced by British (India, Sri Lanka, Kenya) and only describes physical char. of the leaves, not the flavors of the cup.
Leaf grading divided into Fannies / Fines and Broken Leaf Grades.
Grading in India & Sir Lanka
Fannings / Fines =
made up of the finest siftings and used in blends for tea bags.
Grading in India & Sir Lanka
Broken Leaf grades:
FP =
P =
FP = Flowery Pekoe- leaves are rolled into balls P = Pekoe- short coarse leaves
Grading in India & Sir Lanka
OP
FOP
GFOP
OP= Orange Pekoe, contains long, pointed leaves, larger than FOP, harvested when end buds open into leaf FOP= Flowery Orange Pekoe, tea made from end of a bud, and fist leaf of each shoot. Contains fine, tender young leaves rolled with correct proportion of tip, good quality GFOP= Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, FOP with golden tips- the very end of golden yellow bush
Grading in India & Sir Lanka
TGFOP;
FTGFOP;
SFTGFOP;
TGFOP = Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, FOP with large proportion of golden tips
FTGFOP =Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe- exceptionally high quality FOP
SFTGFOP = Special Finest Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe- the best FOP
What are the Grading in China, Japan, Taiwan?
China- differentiated by leaf appearance- no indication of quality. i.e. Mao Feng, Pearls, Pi Lo Chun, Dragonwell, Gunpower, Chun Mee.
Japan - also graded using leaf appearance: grade categories: Choice, medium, common, nubs, fannings, dust (not commonly used). Usually by leaf type- Sencha, Gyokuro, Matcha,,etc.
Taiwan- number system- 1st, 2nd, 3rd., or some still use the govt system (govt removed from the tea industry) : standard, on good, good, fully good, good up, good to superior, on superior, superior, fully superior, superior up, superior to fine, on fine, fine, fine up, fine to finest, finest, finest to choice.
What are challenges / benefits to tea grading?
Challenges- no standards, not universal system, no regulatory body- left to tea garden, only describes physical characteristics of dry leaf, not flavours.
Benefits- used by tea blenders
Smaller leaf grade increases the surface area of leaf to water- imparting stronger liquor.
