White Tea

White tea emerges as a lightly oxidized variety, with a content of around 12%, according to ancestral practices, originating from the Fujian region of China. It is distinguished by its remarkable purity and finesse. After green tea, it represents the category of tea with the most minimal oxidation, thus falling between green tea and blue tea (or Oolong).

Traditional harvests of white tea are rare and often expensive, particularly Baihao Yinzhen, which consists exclusively of buds. The production of white leaf tea involves a specific drying technique of the leaves of the tea plant, an evergreen tree native to the Far East. This plant, belonging to the Theaceae family, is now cultivated throughout the world for its leaves rich in antioxidants.

At the green tea stage, white tea undergoes very light oxidation. In fact, it retains most of its nutrients, since tea undergoes the least post-harvest processing. Compared to black and green teas, its oxidation content avoids 12%. This characteristic results from its minimal transformation process, thus preserving a significant proportion of the enzymes responsible for its oxidation.

It should be noted that this oxidation remains superficial and shallow, limited to the surface of the leaves, due to the poor treatment they undergo (notably the absence of rolling). Thanks to this traditional method inherited from the Chinese, particularly from the population of Fujian, a large part of the active compounds contained in the tea leaves is preserved.