Top Flight 2022 Fuding Silver Needle White Tea

Our finest grade of Fujian white tea, this silver needle grade tea rewards attention with a consistently sweet and layered experience that develops with each brew. While delicate in nature, this shouldn’t be confused for weak. Prominent floral and fruity notes in the first two infusions lead into what can be described as a “hoaxiang/豪香” quality in the 3rd, or a “hairy fragrance” due to the large number of fine hairs found on the tips and floating in the soup. With sweetness persisting, the florals come back to the forefront in the 5th and 6th infusion. The higher concentration of amino acids in the tips also give this tea a “xian/鲜”, or “fresh” quality. This character falls a bit short after translation into English, but is often used in Chinese when describing fresh foods, delicacies or things like mushrooms. Hopefully drinking this tea can fill in some of the gaps that language can’t. Although pressing white teas into cakes is now commonplace for the sake of convenience of shipping and storage, we decided to offer this tea in loose form only. Our aim with this choice was to retain as much of the fragrance, layers and complexity that Fujian white teas are known for as possible. $1.05/gram