Yan Ming Shan White Tea

Yan Ming Shan white tea 岩鳴山古樹白茶 is our custom-made white tea this year. We were involved in selecting the material and designing the process. The fresh tea was collected from a small village in Lincang near the Myanmar border. The altitude of the tea garden is around 2300m and the tea trees are relatively old, mostly more than 100 years old. The main characteristic of this tea is an outstandingly deep and long-lasting aftertaste, with a very distinctive floral flavor that reminds us of high mountain Darjeeling tea. The body of this tea is not too strong. As a result, it gives a clear and transparent taste sensation.

Longer withering contributes to floral flavor like Darjeeling tea.

The uniqueness of this Yan Ming Shan white tea in processing is the extremely long withering process. It was withered for 3 days before the final drying process. The current trend of making white tea, especially nowadays in Fujian province, is that manufacturers tend to keep withering rather short in order to emphasize the greener appearance of tea leaves. However, shorter withering tends to make tea a little too greenish or grassy in flavor, or sometimes develops astringency on the palate. Since this was our custom-made tea, we discussed with the manufacturer and decided to try the long withering process. In fact, long-withering white tea is one of the traditional styles in Fujian. Nowadays, it is rare since many customers do not like the darker beige appearance and manufacturers also do not want to spend too much time on withering. Shorter withering time means the white tea can be ready in less than 2 days and mass production can be well controlled. The withering process means leaving the tea leaves in a well-ventilated place. Tea leaves are slowly losing moisture. Dehydration stress triggers enzymatic fermentation. Due to this process, various kinds of conjugated polyphenols are formed, and at the same time terpenes that contribute to fruity or floral flavor are also produced. Thanks to the longer withering, Yan Ming Shan White Tea gives sweetness and a more mellow drinking experience. That is also the reason why some customers feel that the flavor of this tea is similar to Darjeeling tea. Mao-cha of Yan Ming Shan white tea Brewed tea leaf of Mao Cha

Complete natural farming tea

Yan Ming Shan white tea is made from tea leaves grown in a natural farming style. The tea garden is owned by minority groups and the tea trees grow independently. The garden is left with weeds. The farmer applies no fertilizer or pesticide, and no pruning is carried out. Honestly, I do not know if I should call this agriculture or part of nature in the mountains. Due to no pruning or fertilizer, the number of tea leaves on each tree is less than 1/4 of a normal tea garden. The minerals are highly concentrated, which is reflected in its strong and long-lasting aftertaste. The tea leaves made in natural farming are very small and yellowish because of extremely slow growing speed. Tea produces less chlorophyll since it does not have to conduct efficient photosynthesis.

Enjoying aging process

We decided to compress Yan Ming Shan white tea into a 200g cake since we wish to enjoy the changes in taste and flavor during the aging process. Generally, white tea matures quite well and its changes are faster than those of pu-erh tea. I have many collections of aged white tea. Relatively, white tea produces a honey-like sweetness and muscatel flavor once it is well aged. We recommend Yan Ming Shan white tea not only for drinking now, but also for aging for a few more years to enjoy the changes.

For more on how white tea is made, its types, and how to brew and age it, see What Is White Tea?.