Why has Fuding White Tea become so popular in recent years? Some say that the ultimate charm of white tea is its “liveliness”; it awakens your entire being, not just passing through your mouth but permeating your whole body, stirring your soul.
Therefore, when drinking white tea, you should not only savor its taste but also appreciate its aroma. The correct method is essential!
01
Understanding the Aroma
In general, white tea has a rich and fragrant aroma. However, if processed properly or stored well, it can also have a pure and intense scent.
The high-grade white teas like Silver Needle and premium White Peony have a downy fragrance, which is an important criterion for judging their aroma, with a requirement that it be prominent. Due to their early picking and tender leaves, they also exhibit a distinct fresh aroma.
1. The “Aroma” of Silver Needle
A well-aged, cleanly stored, and high-quality Silver Needle has a refined style and lingering flavor. Its aroma is elegant, varied, and enduring. The taste is clean and sweet, with continuous sweetness in the mouth and a long-lasting salivation effect, accompanied by a throaty aftertaste.
2. The “Aroma” of White Peony
The aroma stands out, blending a rich floral fragrance with downy notes. The tea soup is fresh, sweet, and gentle, providing a refreshing sensation. Overall, it is well-coordinated and holds up well through multiple infusions. This is a rare, intensely aromatic style of white tea, with excellent performance in both aroma and taste.
3. The “Aroma” of Tribute Eyebrow and Longevity Eyebrow
For white teas like Tribute Eyebrow and Longevity Eyebrow, the aroma is primarily rich and strong. High-quality Tribute Eyebrow has prominent downy tips, a verdant color, an orange-yellow or deep yellow liquor, uniform, soft, and bright leaves at the bottom, and main veins that appear red when viewed against the light. The taste is mellow and refreshing, with a fresh and pure aroma.
Well-stored aged white teas also have such aromas, just lacking the freshness of new tea. Instead, their aroma becomes more concentrated and aged.
During the natural withering process of white tea, if the relative humidity is low, the fresh leaves dry too quickly, resulting in insufficient withering time, and the tea can develop a grassy aroma. If there is rain, with high relative humidity, the fresh leaves do not dry easily, causing slight Fermentation and producing a fermentative aroma. Overlong withering can lead to mold.
If the baking temperature of white tea is too high or the duration too long, a smoky aroma will develop. During storage, if the tea itself is not sufficiently dried, stale or moldy aromas can occur.
The aroma of good white tea should be the natural aroma of the tea itself, without stale, smoky, grassy, or other off-aromas. With lighter off-aromas, the tea aroma can still be detected; with stronger ones, the off-aromas dominate.
High-quality white tea has a natural and comfortable aroma that does not irritate the nose, with a strong diffusion, fresh, pure, and lasting aroma, as well as the distinctive downy aroma of white tea. Some even have a brief throaty aftertaste.
02
Tasting the Flavor
Many people fall into a misconception when drinking aged white tea, thinking that a tea that smells very fragrant must be a good tea. This is not necessarily true.
The fragrance of high-quality tea is not the ordinary fragrance of regular tea, neither too strong nor too weak. It does not merely linger on the surface but is contained within. Even after swallowing, the fragrance remains and continues to be savored.
There are five levels of white tea fragrance: floating-on-water aroma, aroma in water, water containing aroma, water-born aroma, and water-as-aroma.
1. Floating-on-Water Aroma
This is the most basic level of tea fragrance, where the aroma floats on the surface. Its characteristic is that the air, tea soup, and cup lid smell very fragrant, but the aroma is much weaker when tasted.
2. Aroma in Water
This is slightly better than the previous level, where the aroma mostly dissipates but partly blends into the tea water. This type of aroma gives the experience of smelling and tasting fragrance, although it is less fragrant than when smelled.
3. Water Containing Aroma
Reaching this third level indicates a superior quality tea. The aroma partially dissipates, while the majority blends into the tea water, sinking into the liquid. Part of the aroma disperses from the mouth and part from the throat.
To experience this kind of tea aroma, the method is: when the tea water enters the mouth, hold your breath. After the tea water goes down the throat, close your mouth and exhale slowly through the nostrils, paying attention to the source of the aroma.
4. Water-Born Aroma
This is an excellent level of tea fragrance, where the aroma and tea water blend extremely well. When smelled, it is almost not fragrant, but after drinking, the aroma slowly returns from deep within the throat, lasting for a long time. This type of tea typically has a smooth and oily texture.
5. Water-as-Aroma
The top-level tea fragrance, where the tea must be made from high-quality raw materials and undergo excellent processing. Its aroma is rich and full, yet not cloying, completely blending with the tea water. Wherever the tea water flows, the aroma follows, creating a delightful feeling of “water as aroma, aroma as water.”
03
Savoring the Aroma
Savoring the aroma is a crucial step in evaluating white tea. Poorly processed inferior white teas often have off-aromas, smoky flavors, miscellaneous flavors, and musty odors, which do not belong to the normal characteristics of white tea.
By using the correct method to savor the aroma, we can initially determine whether our white tea is of inferior quality.
Since savoring the aroma is so important, how should we appreciate the aroma of white tea?
White tea is a tea with a rich range of aromas. Typical aromas include downy, rice, floral, medicinal, jujube, and reed leaf. To learn how to savor the tea aroma, we start with the dry leaf aroma of white tea.
Let's use Silver Needle as an example.
Whether using a gaiwan or a purple clay pot to brew white tea, we need to first warm the vessel. After warming the vessel, take advantage of the residual heat and pour the prepared dry leaves into the pot. Cover the pot and gently shake it a few times. Use the remaining heat of the pot to warm the leaves for a moment. When you lift the lid, you will smell the characteristic downy aroma of Silver Needle.
Do not linger; continue brewing while the pot is still warm. After brewing, cover the pot and start smelling the aroma on the lid.
After pouring out the water, lift the lid. At this point, the aroma is the strongest. Good white tea can give off downy, banana leaf, and other aromas, all of which adhere to the lid.
When savoring the aroma, place the lid below your nose and inhale twice continuously, then move the lid away and exhale slowly. This way, you can feel the aroma of white tea.
Next, appreciate the water aroma. When tasting the tea, we need to learn to sip. Take a sip of tea, let the tea water swirl in your mouth, and naturally, you can taste the aroma.
Many tea enthusiasts wonder why we should sip. Sipping creates small air currents in the mouth. Under the influence of these air currents,