Anji Bai Cha
安吉白茶 · Anji White
Green
Everyone calls it a white tea. It is green. The reason is in the leaf. Each spring this plant comes up almost without colour, snow-pale for about twenty days, until the weather warms and it turns green like any other bush.
A Song emperor praised a tea like this nine hundred years ago. Then it disappeared from the record entirely. In 1982 a single wild bush was found on a hillside in Anji, and every plant grown since has been taken from that one.
The short pale window is where the sweetness comes from. It steeps thick and savoury for a green tea, with orchid sitting on top.
- umami
- soybean
- orchid
- Origin
- Anji, Zhejiang, China
- Water
- 80°C / 176°F
- Ratio
- 3 g / 100 ml
- Caffeine
- Medium
- Rinse
- Not needed
modern-named green (cultivar discovered 1982)
How much leaf
Gong fu brewing is leaf-heavy and short. Set your gaiwan or pot size and this is what to weigh out.
Vessel volume
100 ml
Recommended dose
Use ~3.0g of tea
The session
4 infusions, about 3m 5s of total contact time.
- Steep 140sUmami deepens, savory and full.
- Steep 230sSoybean rounds the vegetal body.
- Steep 345sA nutty citrus brightens through.
- Steep 41m 10sOrchid sweetness lingers clean.
Also sold as
Anji Bai Cha green, Baipian
Steaper times this session for you
A countdown per infusion, a gong when each one is up, and the whole library in your pocket. Coming to iPhone.
Get notified at launchThese numbers are a median of independent gong fu sources, not a law. Leaf age, vessel and water all move them. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.