Thés & Traditions
French tea house since 2016
Today, more and more hot beverage consumers have turned to tea. Knowing how to prepare white tea is essential to best enjoy its flavors, without forgetting to respect the steeping time. Drinking tea, hot or iced, is always refreshing. Rich in antioxidants and active substances and low in caffeine, the medicinal properties of green tea or white tea, with delicate and varied flavors, offer many benefits for your health. For most of us, whether it's green tea, red tea, black tea, flavored tea, matcha, rooibos, darjeeling or even mint tea or herbal teas, the basis of tea preparation is always the same. To start, you place the tea in an infuser or tea ball. You then boil water, then cover the tea with simmering water and let it steep. But how to prepare a good tea? For tea lovers, white tea is the most prized. That's why this rare and expensive tea deserves its first place in tea history and in the art and manner of preparing tea. Low in theine, Chinese white tea can be prepared at any time of the day. For a moment of sharing and well-being, the ritual of tea preparation takes on its full meaning with family or friends.
Discover white tea
Organic white tea is considered the most delicate to prepare and savor. Hand-picked once a year in the Fujian region of China, the most tender buds and first leaves are extracted from the Camellia Sinensis and directly dried in the sun. No other processing is necessary. While the handling of white tea between harvest and packaging is relatively minimal, the preparation for tasting requires patience and expertise. White tea can be prepared in a glass, clay, or cast iron teapot, or in a Gaiwan (lidded bowl) commonly called Zhong. Both preparations are quite similar but deserve to be detailed.
Place a small amount of white tea leaves at the bottom (3g for 30 cl of water). Prefer low-mineralized water, spring water, or filtered water. Heat the water and pour it into the body of the Gaiwan. The water should not exceed 70°C. White tea being a very fragile tea, it could burn. Moreover, water that is too hot would denature the tea, making it bitter and astringent. Immediately after pouring the first water, put the lid on which will serve as a filter and empty the water into the bowl reserved for this purpose. This step serves to clean the tea and open the tea, which can then release its aromas and delicate fragrance. Pour hot water again into the body, taking care to slide the tea along the walls and into the lid, and cover again. The first infusion should be done between two and three minutes for a light tea, three to four minutes for a stronger tea. The drink is then ready to taste, by slightly sliding the lid of the Gaiwan so that you can filter it, and finally, savor it.
First, pour hot water into the empty teapot. With it, pour some of the water into the tea pot, the other on the cups. These three passes serve to rinse and warm the dishes. Discard the water from the cups into the tray. Put the tea dose in the teapot, cover the tea with hot water and discard the water again. We have thus cleaned the tea and prepared it to release its aromas. Fill the teapot again, put its lid on then pour a little simmering water on the outside of the teapot to maintain its heat. Let the white tea steep for at least 8 minutes. Serve the tea first in the tea pot. This allows the brew to homogenize. Finally, pour the tea into the tea cups. If Chinese white tea masters were to prepare white tea in this pure tradition, you would notice that the gestures are repeated 3 times. Again, this is about honoring the earth, the spirits (life) and the sky.
The steeping time for white tea is longer than most teas. Indeed, some teas like black tea develop bitterness if the steeping time is too long, whereas on the contrary, the longer white tea steeps, the more it will express its subtle and harmonious aromas. Chinese white tea silver needles from Fujian should steep for 8 to 12 minutes to release all its flavors. As for Yunnan white tea, 8 minutes are enough for the magnificent buds to release all their floral and fruity aromas. It's true that Westerners rarely reuse the same tea. However, steeping white tea multiple times reveals many advantages but especially offers an explosion of different flavors with each infusion. On the other hand, it's worth knowing that a more often steeped tea is lower in theine. Even if white tea contains very little, this allows you to enjoy a last cup before going to sleep. You will thus enjoy maximum relaxation.
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