White Tea Perfection: Finding Pinnacle Tea in China | Fujian Tea Trip (Part 2)

Hey teaheads! This is Don from Mei Leaf. Welcome to the concluding episode of our white tea trip extravaganza. If you missed our first episode then go check it out, where I tell you everything that you need to know about Chinese white tea. I'll put a link in the description below. But if you're all caught up then let's return to Zheng He in Fujian province, where we're on our last couple of days of white tea sourcing, and the pressure is on to find some spectacular white tea. Wakey-wakey! I'm hungry. It's very bright. Sorry, but it's time to go up. We've got some tea to find. Give me some food first. Okay. That can be arranged. It's the next morning up here in Zheng He. I'm sipping on some Zheng Sheng Xiao Zhong black tea, just to reset my palate so that I can taste more white teas in the coming days. I had a very sleepless night last night, and that's not just because of all the tea that we've been tasting, but also because I'm genuinely worried about the state of white tea in this area. I can't get one phrase out of my head, and it just kept circling in my as I was lying in bed last night. We visited many producers in Fu Ding and in Zheng He. We filmed at a couple of them, and at the first place that we visited they have the most immaculate tea plants growing in the most incredible micro-lot on earth. And yet, the producer said to me that he hopes that in a few years' time he will not have any people touching his tea leaves, and it will all be produced by robots. That made my heart absolutely sink, and it reflects a wider tension here in China. China has such great heritage, has incredible tradition and craft, and has so much potential for growth. However, in the state of modernization, in this drive to become more influential in the world, it seems to be moving towards a trend of standardization, of consistency, of making sure that everything meets certain standards and certain parameters. And the worry is that in this drive for modernization what's going to happen is that you are going to lose craft, and as you lose craft you're going to lose quality. And that great potential that China has to be a positive and beautiful influence in the world may become watered down. Couple that with the fact that the economy here is booming, and so many people are getting rich very quickly. That means there's a lot of pressure on producers to increase yield, increase speed to market, and to focus on branding and looks versus quality in the cup. And that is what we've been noticing here. Over the past few years, with the samples that we've been receiving with fooding, we're seeing a massive divergence between price and quality, and we're seeing that there's been much more focus on the way that the tea looks, and the way that the tea is packaged and branded here, rather than quality. This is even more prevalent in fooding. The government has been focusing so much attention on marketing fooding white tea, and so those sort of business pressures, and those businessmen and women are really, really inflating that fooding market. It is the case here in Zheng He as well. However, I find that the Zheng He producers are a little bit more tied to traditional techniques. They are at least sun-drying their tea. However, charcoal baking is just non-existent here. They say that they will do it to order, but you can see, when you're talking to them, that they don't have the passion, and probably don't have the expertise to do it properly, and so we would rather not take the risk with them charcoal baking tea. Don't get me wrong, there is some great quality tea here. However, it seems that the focus is on raising the overall quality, and then standardizing. It reminds me a little bit of what's happening in Japan with their green tea, where they have immaculate standardization, and immaculate quality. However, you're starting to lose that individualism, that character that comes from craftsmanship, that just has a little bit more flair and freedom. So what we have decided to do is to brave this rather miserable weather and head up the mountain towards Tai Mu, where we have heard of a couple of young producers who met at school and have an incredible passion for making white tea. They've apparently studied in Taiwan and Japan, so they've learned tea-making in other areas, and they are now dedicated to bringing traditional crafts back to white tea up in a more obscure area further up the mountain. I hope that this trip is going to be worth it. We're going to head up the mountain and see if we can find some spectacular white tea. We have moved further up the mountain, about 800 meters up, on a very misty, rainy, rainy day. There's so much atmosphere here. I'm drinking white tea. I'm here with a young producer with a lot of talent, Mr. Ling, and he has presented us, immediately, with this tea here, which is Xiao Cai, which is the small, veggie variety. The authentic, original, white tea variety. My first taste of this, believe it or not, and I am mesmerized. So much fragrance. So much sweetness. You've got like a green apple, orchid, a little bit of a veggie note in there, but very, very sweet, and goes for many, many infusions. Then we're going to compare that with the Da Bai. Much more nutty. Definitely a deeper note compared to the Xiao Cai, which just has a lightness and a freshness about it, and a more floral sweetness about it. It's going to be interesting to taste the difference. So we're going to taste the Da Bai now and see how that compares with the Xiao Cai. First taste of the Da Bai up here. Much more classic taste. More rounded, I would say. Delicious. Really round. You've got intense smoothness, a nice, thick liquor. You've got that little marzipan almond nuttiness. They're both delicious. I'm really, really happy we've made the drive up this mountain. It was a bit of a precarious ride, but we managed to get here to meet this tea producer, because I have high hopes. You coming under? Celine, off-screen. Coming under! So, leaves come in, and they're going to be sorted according to grade, and according to variety. So we're going to come in here. More leaves are arriving, so careful not to get run over. Let's go this way. Careful not to trip. This umbrella is ridiculous. I don't know how to take this down. Okay. Xie Xi Ni. All right. It's a bit loud in here. Hold on one sec. Let's see if we can turn the sound down. We are going to go through the processing for white tea at this facility, and I'm going to tell you, the smile on my face shows you it's very different over here. Right. First of all, leaves come in. They're coming in right now. They're coming in all the time. Look at these pickings here. Let me quickly show you a couple of baskets of leaves. This is Da Bai, and this one here is the Xiao Cai. So this is the smaller one, and this is the larger one. To the untrained eye that may look the same, but it is definitely more slender. So this is the small leaf variety. This is Da Bai. They sought them out, I have to say. The pickings look insanely good. Really, really lovely pickings. They're calling this a Mu Dan. Look at that thick bud with one leaf. Super high-grade picking Mu Dan. Amazing. So what happens next? Well, they say, if the weather is good then they will put it under the sun. Hallelujah! Because they believe that the sun changes the chemical components and improves flavor. Obviously, it's dependent on the weather, but they say if it is possible they will put it under the sun. Then what they'll do is they'll lay it out. Here you can see. They'll lay it out in about a sort of inch-and-a-half, two-inch-thick pile on these large troughs here. Careful. Leaves coming through. They will wither it for 60 hours, six zero hours, at body temperature 35 degrees, there or thereabouts. But they say that they control it, and they'll change it, and they'll look at it, and they'll keep observing to see what stage it needs to be hours. Come over here. This trough here has been withering for 18 hours. Can you get a shot of the leaves here? So this is 18 hour wither. This is 40 hour. You can see the color difference. Now this is the key here with white tea. You want the wither time to be exactly right, to get the right level of oxidation, the right level of flavor development in the leaves. Much, much greener, and much more wet to the touch. This one is nearly dry to the touch. They will wither for 60 hours until it's about 80 percent dry, 80 to 85 percent dry. If it is a Yin Zhen, or a super-high grade, then they will wither not piled, but in a single layer here. Single layer, very, very expensive, very, very high-grade. This is their Yin Zhen which they're withering, so they will make sure that they do it in a single layer. With their high-quality Mu Dan, they'll pile it about an inch-and-a-half to two inches thick. All right. Some people might say that that's now ready to dry. Not these people. They say that then it needs to go for storage. We're going to have a little walk through the rain here, see if you can follow me. Miserable weather here, but it's okay. Stunningly beautiful environment. Really, the mist coming in, and I have to say I'm so, so happy, because finding these producers where quality is paramount, where they will do anything and everything. Every little detail is about maximizing flavor, maximizing quality. So we're going to walk through here. Hopefully I can open it. The smell that hits you here is something else. The smell is like... We often talk about fresh-cut grass in tea tasting, or that lawnmower smell. It is so strong in here, and this is the point. The point is that they say that you must leave it for a week for that green aroma, that really sort of grassy green aroma which they don't want in their tea to dissipate. So if you come over here you'll see this beautiful pile. I mean, look at it. This beautiful pile of Mudan. Unbelievable, the pickings on this. I mean, really, check out those pickings. I mean, it is super high-grade. To call this a Mudan is almost insane. Incredible quality. Amazing how thick those buds are. Just mind-blowing. The prices must be out of this world. I'm waiting to find out the prices of this tea. The smell coming off here is interesting, because the room smells very green, very cut grass, but when you stick your nose in here it smells mellow and nuttier. So this is a flavor-maturing sort of stage that I have not seen before, and if I go right under here and turn it over and smell, the bottom is so much more green. So what they do is every day they will come and turn this pile. So one week in here, turned once a day. So seven times turned at that point, and only at that point they will then bring it to the oven. Three to four hours at 50 degrees. So again, keeping the temperature low. Here you can see some prime, oh, still warm Yin Zhen. Again, quality. Quality, quality pickings. Quality. Look at the sheen on this. Amazing-looking buds. This gives me so much enthusiasm. This gives me so much hope. It's really, really beautiful to see such level of detail. Now, at this point they will sell the tea. They're happy to sell the tea. However, they prefer it if you then charcoal-roast the tea to lock in the flavor, change the nature of the tea from cooling to warming, and just bring out more of the nuttiness, more of those mellow notes, make it more suitable for aging, and take the texture up a whole other level to that sticky, syrupy texture. Incredible facility. Amazing people. We've just been sitting for hours talking tea with them, and it's just incredible the passion and desire that they have for producing the highest quality white tea possible. We're going to have to talk price, obviously. Audience members say, Wow! That's a lot! Wow! That's a lot of tea. Next up, in our super-luxury white tea tasting, Mr. Ling has brought out some charcoal-roasted Da Hao variety, Yin Zhen, that is from last year. So, interestingly, what Mr. Ling says is if he's going to charcoal-roast he won't charcoal-roast until June or July. So he'll process the tea, make sure it's very dry, seal it in double sealings so that it doesn't lose any of its fragrance, keep it super, super dry, and then June-July time that's when the charcoal roast will happen. He'll put a layer of ash, he'll put a layer of coals, another layer of ash, and then a little thin cloth, and then the tea on top, and he will charcoal-roast at very low temperature, 35 to 40 degrees, for about 6 to 7 hours. So it's not about bringing out color, or a dark roast. If you look at the tea actually it looks very similar to unroasted tea, but it's all about locking in that fragrance, locking in that flavor, and he says it makes the tea much more suited for aging, which I know is something that a lot of you people out there are very interested in. Oh, you can smell the big difference. Yeah, big difference. Can you smell the charcoal roast? You can't smell the charcoal. It just feels warmer. The smell is much warmer. It's more almost like a little bit like roasted hazelnut nougat. You know nougat? Nougat. What is it? Nougat is like a sweet candy, and hazelnuts. Hazelnut. I know. Yes. Smell that. Oh, that sounds exciting. Right. It's that kind of smell. I can tell. Yeah. It's warmer, and rounder, and more comforting. Oh, wow! It smells so good. It smells so nutty. I think that is what you're looking for. So nougat. Nougat, isn't it? I don't know if you have it in China, nougat. Wow! It's so, so amazing. Oh, I like that one. Let's just show the camera the... It's usually out of stock. Yeah, it's out of stock. Oh, my God! It smells so good. The color is a little bit darker. Oh, where's my cup? It's like darker? So I've got a mouthful of the Da Bai, fresh, a little bit nutty. Now we're having the Da Hao charcoal-roasted. Maybe it should be thicker. Sweeter, thicker. Much thicker, much sweeter. Yeah, it is thicker. The flavor is just... it seems to be more concentrated, the flavor. The flavor feels more concentrated, just thicker, more syrupy, more locked in, less ethereal, less sort of escaping the aroma. It feels fixed. Yeah, thicker and stickier, yeah. The texture is super syrupy. Oh, it is amazing. That is a really, really lovely, lovely tea. Have you tried this? You need to try this. Leave it on. You can sit next to me. Have the thickness. It's nuts, isn't it? It tastes of nuts, and it is nuts. Yeah. Yeah, very good. Yeah, it's hazelnut and nougat put together. But the texture is... Very thick. It's very thick and syrupy. Yeah, I feel like I'm having like a white tea syrup. Yeah, it feels like they've added sugar into it. And it is sweet, but just that texture. It feels sticky and sugary. I really like this. Wow! It's so comfortable. Yeah, it feels so comfortable. Mr. Ling was saying that when you charcoal-roast it then you change the nature of white tea. So white tea in itself is quite cooling, and sometimes if you drink a lot of white tea you can feel it's a little bit... you get a bit shivery. It's a bit too cooling. Whereas Mr. Ling was saying when you charcoal-roast it it switches up the nature, and makes it something that is much more warming, and therefore something you can consume a little bit more readily without worrying too much about getting those shivers. So it's going to have that warming note, apparently good for women who are Yin in nature, and therefore add that fire, add that Yang energy to the tea. He says it's like that when you cook, when you prepare soup, and you prepare it with like the rice milk. Is that some word? Like the rice milk. It's quite smoother. Yeah. No, it's so smooth. It feels so good when you swallow. Yeah. And so the flavor, compared to Dan Cong's and stuff, is still subtle, but the... But I now can feel the difference. Now I feel like I'm having white tea. Yeah. You understand that the subtlety is what makes it beautiful. It's subtle. Yeah. But it makes it beautiful when you find the perfect balance where you get thick. It's more like a strong one, so it's like energetic. You feel that kind of power, but here in white tea. Now I feel the beauty of white tea. Oh, that is such a lovely tea. That is delicious. And that is just one year, from last year. I know. Imagine a charcoal-roasted Yin Zhen. Aged. Five years. Oh my gosh! I sense a collection starting. I sense a very expensive collection starting. A very expensive collection. It's nice to have that. It's delicious. That one. Yeah. I'd love to have one too. So move away from Fu Ding, from that very, very concentrated area of hype and marketing. Move up the mountain, and you start to find the artistry a little bit more intact. After the past few days tasting good teas, great teas, but nothing that really blew our minds in Fu Ding and Jiang He, I was fearing that we were going to leave this area of Fu Jian without finding any new producers, and without coming back with any unbelievable teas. Thankfully, we made the decision to brave this pretty nasty weather, drive up this mountain to find these two producers. We came to this area looking for craft and dedication, and we found even more up here. We found artistry. We found two people that are so passionate, that are infatuated with getting the absolute best out of these leaves, and using all of the knowledge that they've gained here, and on their travels they are crafting some unbelievable teas. We had to purchase some, even though they are more expensive than the teas that we tasted, even in Fu Ding and in Jiang He. But I don't mind paying that price when I see this level of dedication, and we can taste it in the cup. Most of their teas are sold on pre-order. They have a small amount of their Silver Needle of this year still available. We've purchased it, and they're going to be charcoal-roasting it for us in June or July, and then it will be hitting the Mei Leaf collection. I'm so, so happy to have found these people. I hope that this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship with these two young producers. I can breathe a sigh of relief, and we can head back down to the mountain, and I can sleep a bit easier tonight. We're on our last day here in Jiang He on white tea sourcing. It's a bit of a drizzly day, but everyone is out in celebration. It's the opening picking ceremony this year. Beautiful scenes, colorful scenes, everyone is happy. The tea is flushing beautifully here, and business is thriving. As a tea lover, and a tea seller, I am always super happy when I can see that the tea business is growing, and everyone is making a good living from tea. However, there are a couple of caveats. My first concern here is the price has exploded for white tea in recent years. That may mean that a bubble starts to develop. As more and more people get into this tea, spend more and more money, I fear that the price of the tea is not going to match the experience in the cup for some of these teas from this area. The other issue is, as demand increases, there is more pressure on the producers to increase yield, increase speed, increase consistency, which is a good thing, but focus mainly on the looks of the tea, and the branding of the tea, rather than focusing on the quality. As we have seen, by visiting this area, plus the tasting of samples in recent years, I have found that teas from this area of Zheng He and Fu Ding look incredible, have amazing consistency, but some of the traditional techniques are being lost, and we're noticing that in the flavor. I have to say that it comes down to demand. You teaheads out there need to put a little bit of pressure to make sure that these old, traditional techniques don't get lost. The great thing about the growing white tea market is now white tea is being produced in many provinces in China, and all around the world, and I'm always excited to see how these regional differences affect the flavor of the tea. However, we will always continue to return to the historical source of white tea here in Zheng He and Fu Ding area, because when they get it right this little corner of the world will produce the finest white teas on earth. That's it teaheads. Check out our other videos. Fire over any questions, comments, or video ideas. Taste our teas wherever you are in the world by browsing our website, or visiting our teahouse in London. Other than that, I'm Don from Mei Leaf. Thank you for being a part of the revelation of true tea. Stay away from those tea bags. Keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the word, because nobody deserves bad tea. Bye.