Bai Hao Yinzhen
白毫银针 · Silver Needle
White
The oldest story puts the first bush in a cave on Taimu mountain, where the leaf was used as medicine for measles. They called it green snow bud, long before anyone used the words white tea.
What is picked now is only the fat spring shoot, covered in fine silver hairs, and only for a few days each year. Nothing is done to it after that. It is not rolled, not fired, not shaped. The leaf is withered in air and sun and then it is finished.
Doing nothing is the difficult part, and the whole tea depends on it. It steeps pale and cool, with hay and melon underneath.
- hay
- melon
- honeysuckle
- Origin
- Fuding, Fujian, China
- Water
- 90°C / 194°F
- Ratio
- 5 g / 100 ml
- Caffeine
- Low
- Rinse
- Not needed
China famous tea (1982); white-tea apex
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 ~5.0g of tea
The session
5 infusions, about 4m 45s of total contact time.
- Steep 145sA faint hay, barely there.
- Steep 240sMelon sweetness opens soft.
- Steep 350sHoneysuckle lifts the hay.
- Steep 41m 5sA sugared-almond warmth rounds it.
- Steep 51m 25sCool sweetness lingers, clean and long.
Also sold as
Baihao Yinzhen, Yinzhen, White Hair Silver Needle
Nearby in the family
- Lu Xue Ya · ancestral name
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.