When it comes to Tea, one often thinks of the complex flavors brought about by various manufacturing processes: Green Tea requires fixation, Black Tea needs fermentation, and Pu'er tea must undergo maturation before it can be consumed…
But there is a type of tea that closely captures the natural taste of the leaves themselves: white tea.
White tea is one of the six major types of tea and is renowned for its fresh, unroasted, and unrubbed character.
If we liken tea production to cooking, some green teas would be stir-fried, black teas would be braised, while white tea would be blanched, preserving the most basic and original flavor of the tea. It's like human relationships – they don't need to be dramatic, just consistently warm and sincere.
Some people say that white tea should not be brewed in a purple clay pot.
They believe that white tea is delicate and easily spoiled by the heat retention of a purple clay pot; its fragrant aroma can also be partially absorbed by the dual-pore structure of the pot, affecting the overall flavor.
Is this really the case? Can white tea be brewed using a purple clay pot? Absolutely.
The distinctive feature of white tea's aroma is its freshness. When brewing white tea with a purple clay pot, as long as the right clay is selected, the resulting flavor will be even more fragrant.
Which type of purple clay pot is best for brewing white tea?
New white tea picked in spring, which has not undergone long-term storage or transformation, contains active compounds and has a fresh, refreshing aroma. Its diverse grassy, fresh bamboo shoot, and floral aromas are sweet, smooth, and rich, making it a particularly commendable characteristic of new white tea. This kind of aroma is very suitable for being infused with a red clay pot.
Red clay pots typically have a high mesh number and high density, allowing for quick and strong aroma release, with minimal loss of the aroma from highly aromatic teas. They can perfectly preserve and enhance the tea's aroma, providing an excellent mouthfeel.
For aged white tea with an orange-yellow infusion color that can withstand high-temperature brewing, its stable aroma can be easily managed by zini, red clay, green clay, and duanni clays.
How to brew white tea with a purple clay pot?
Brewing white tea in a purple clay pot preserves its original flavor without dispersing its aroma. Purple clay is a material with a dual-pore structure and fine, dense pores, allowing it to capture the true essence of the tea.
Due to the production process of white tea, where fresh leaves are laid out to dry (a process called withering), allowing them to naturally evaporate water and form their natural shape, and then dried and stored, it belongs to the category of slightly fermented tea.
Unlike green tea, black tea, and Pu'er tea, the brewing process of white tea requires longer Steeping times in the pot and a relatively larger amount of tea, so a larger-bodied purple clay pot should be chosen.
A spacious purple clay pot allows the buds and leaves to fully unfurl, releasing the flavors from the white down covering the leaf surfaces and buds.
Pour a cup to taste, first savor the aroma – the fresh fragrance of white tea carried by the steam of the tea soup gently rises. Take a small sip, and you'll experience a fresh, smooth, and sweet taste that is neither bitter nor Astringent, instantly refreshing the spirit. With further appreciation, you'll notice a lingering sweetness, a pleasant aftertaste, and an endless stream of flavor.
Nourishing a purple clay pot with white tea is slow but produces a very delicate and gentle finish, pleasing to the eye.
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