THIS IS THE REAL DEAL! Crafted using traditional methods, including sun withering and a secondary charcoal roasting, this tea is the taste of an heirloom Silver Needle.
We have switched up our source for Heirloom Silver Needle to a producer in the famed village of Panxi. This legendary area is widely regarded as the birthplace of White tea, with a micro-terroir and tea culture which is perfect for the finest White tea cultivation.
When we visited Panxi, we were so excited to taste the teas, but left disappointed because so many of the producers had switched production to make a more consistent (but kinda boring) tea. Withering was mostly done indoors and controlled by machine and there was no charcoal baking.
You can watch the video here:
So, instead we found a producer in Taimu who made tea the old-school way (more on that method below). We have been buying from that producer for years, and his tea always won out in blind tastings.
Until this year!
In our tea tastings, I was smitten by this batch of Silver Needle and was surprised that my favourite tea was not from our producers in Taimu.
So, this is properly sun-withered and charcoal baked Da Hao Yin Zhen from the most sought-after village on Earth.
- This Heirloom silver needle is picked from 65 year-old tea bushes around Panxi. The picking is perfect - fat and furry Da Hao buds.
- The tea is partially sun withered in single layers and then left at body temperature for about 60 hours to develop flavour.
- The Silver Needle is left for a week in a room to release the green aromatics making a warmer and nuttier tea.
- The buds are then baked at about 50 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit) until dry.
- The Silver Needle is then roasted in small batches by hand over charcoal at extremely low temperature (body temperature) for about 6 hours. This concentrates flavour, changes the character and taste of the tea to be warmer, adds thickness and smoothness to the texture and stickiness to the finish. The charcoal baking of tea will improve its ability for ageing.
This tea is perfection - warm, malty and milky with sugared almonds, fennel tops and warm summer meadows. Thick, soft and rounded with a cooling finish.
I expected to find out that the price of the Silver Needle was insane - a tradiitionally made Yin Zhen from Panxi would normally command the most ridiculous price tag. So you can imagine my amazement when I found out that the price was less than our Taimu source!
I genuinely think that maybe they sent us the wrong price becuase I would expect to pay 2-3x the amount for such a special tea.
But I kept quiet, bought the batch and have passed on the savings to you .
Enjoy the luxury of the world's greatest White without taking out another mortgage.
PS Do not expect next year's batch to be priced so low - this is almost certainly one of those unusual moments when a mega-tea is going for a relative steal.
