"Silver Needle" Bai Hao Yin Zhen White Tea (Thailand 🇹🇭)

One warm summer evening, after a long meditation, a young monk said dreamingly: 

— Ah, how I would love to have something warm yet refreshing, with a sweet taste and a light scent of blooming flowers. 

— This wish is easy to make happen, – answered the wise tea master Lao Cha. – Drink some Bai Hao Yin Zhen – Silver Needle White Tea.

Silver Needle White Tea in Chinese is called "Bai Hao Yin Zhen". "Silver Hair" (Bai Hao) refers to the white fuzz on the tea leaves, while Needle (Yin Zhen) describes the appearance of the thick and straight tea buds, which have tips that are straight and sharp like needles.

The first white teas were produced in Fuding, Fujian province. Silver Needle was the first loose-leaf white tea produced in the early 1800s.

Our "Silver Needle" Bai Hao Yin Zhen White Tea comes from an unusual place – the Chiang Rai district in Northern Thailand. There, the tea trees grow at 1000-1100m, absorbing the rich nutrition of the high mountain soil. Unlike its Chinese counterpart, the buds from these Thai tea trees are much thicker and larger in size, and the resulting brew is more dense, with a fuller body.

What makes "Silver Needle" Bai Hao Yin Zhen White Tea unique? It's the painstaking, time-consuming picking process and the picking standard. Only the buds and tips are plucked for this pure tea, resulting in a gentle and light brew. The farmers pick by hand only the unopened buds, leaving out all other leaves. It takes thousands of tea buds to make a single pound of Silver Needle White Tea. The buds are the freshest and purest part of the tea plant and hold the highest amount of the plant's inner substances. That makes Silver Needle the one with the highest concentration of caffeine, L-Theanine, and polyphenols — all the good stuff — among other white teas. That makes it the highest grade of white tea on the market.

It is also the least processed among all six tea types. After picking, farmers spread out the fresh and delicate tea buds to wither. It helps to reduce the excessive tea moisture before the last processing stage - drying. The result is a tea with subtle flavor, a smooth mouthfeel, and a subtly fruity or sweet finish.

Our Bai Hao Yin Zhen is a rich yet refined tea with a bright, flowery aroma. A rich, fruity taste uncovers accents of peaches, strawberries, and plums on a vanilla undertone. Exceptionally smooth and dense, this tea has a rich inner content that evolves into a light, floral-peachy aftertaste with a strong returning sweetness. Its soft Cha Qi makes you feel weightless - a perfect tool for a quiet, meditative tea session.

We suggest brewing this white tea in a porcelain gaiwan or perhaps a glass teapot. Watching the thick, hairy buds dancing in the water is a true delight. Start with a water temperature of 80 and experiment up to 100C. You might be surprised by how this otherwise delicate tea endures higher water temperatures and reveals an entirely different side.

Watch a short video about "Silver Needle" White Tea