White Monkey Tea comes from the Wuji Mountains in China's Fujian Province, and the leaves themselves are the first thing people notice: large, twisted, and covered in a silvery down. Despite the name, it's a white tea rather than a green one, which trips up plenty of drinkers expecting something grassier. The story behind that name is part of its appeal — the tea is said to be named for white monkeys once trained by monks to pick leaves from the mountains' harder-to-reach slopes, though how much of that is legend versus record is hard to say at this distance.
The leaves are picked early in the morning during spring and left to sun-dry, a traditional method that preserves the delicate character white teas are known for. In the cup, expect something smooth and mellow, with floral and nutty notes layered over a light grassiness and a faint coffee-like depth. It steeps to a pale gold and re-steeps well, with each subsequent infusion pulling out slightly different nuances as the leaves continue to unfurl.
Brew it cooler than you would a black tea — around 85°C — using roughly 5g of leaf per 200ml of water, and let it sit for about two minutes. Because the leaves are larger and twisted, they need a bit more time to open up than finer-cut teas do. Like other white teas, it carries a modest amount of caffeine, generally on the lower end of the tea spectrum, and it has long been valued in Chinese tea culture for its antioxidant content, though that's a traditional association rather than a documented effect.
