What is Tea drying?

The Chinese Tea Industry Encyclopedia defines it as follows: “It is the process of vaporizing excess water, destroying enzyme activity, inhibiting enzymatic oxidation, promoting thermal chemical reactions in the tea's contents, enhancing its aroma and taste, and shaping its form. It is the final step in the initial processing of tea, and also performed after refinement. The temperature, quantity of leaves processed, duration, and method of operation during drying are technical indicators that ensure product quality.”

White Tea drying techniques can be divided into traditional and modern methods. Traditionally, this involved complete sun-drying or charcoal baking in a basket oven. Modern methods mostly employ dryers for the process. Fuding white tea original source WeChat: chaget

1. Sun-drying

The oldest white tea drying technique is similar to how Chinese herbal medicine is prepared, using direct sunlight for drying. After withering, the white tea leaves are exposed to specific sunlight conditions for a certain period, allowing the excess moisture to evaporate. Some mountain dwellers in white tea-producing areas still use this primitive method today. If not properly controlled, this method can result in white tea with too high a moisture content, leading to moldy flavors during storage. Some villagers will even re-sun-dry their white tea on the sixth day of the sixth month in the lunar calendar. This method aligns with Tian Yiheng's description in Cooking Spring Water Essays: “Tea processed by fire is inferior; sun-dried tea is superior, being closer to nature and free from smoky flavors.”

The topic of “pure sun-dried” white tea has been controversial and often used as a marketing gimmick or an excuse for lower-quality products.

If you have some knowledge about white tea, you'll know that the processes of withering and drying were once heavily dependent on the weather. So, does “pure sun-dried” really exist? What level of sun-drying qualifies as pure sun-drying?

Firstly, sun-dried tea doesn't mean the leaves are constantly exposed to intense sunlight. If that were the case, the leaves would turn red, which is not what tea makers want, as it goes against the principles of withering and drying white tea.

Therefore, the key to sun-dried tea is to control the exposure time appropriately without compromising the quality of the leaves based on the weather.

Sun-dried white tea specifically refers to the process where sun-withering and sun-drying are used throughout, without the use of electrical equipment to simulate weather conditions. Truly such tea made in this way would be “pure sun-dried white tea.” But is it possible?

The weather determines everything. In the early days, traditional white tea production was closely linked to the weather, and farmers were at its mercy.

Tea farmers and tea makers would typically start early in the morning, before dawn, to quickly pick fresh white tea leaves. Upon returning, they would immediately begin spreading them out to dry. To them, “it's a race against time to make white tea.”

Based on the degree of withering under sunlight, the tea maker would move the trays of withered leaves to a shaded area and then back to the sun, repeating this process. The tea is thinly spread on bamboo trays and exposed to natural sunlight for a cumulative period of 50-60 hours. For sun-withering to occur, there must be continuous clear or partly cloudy weather for around 6-10 days. During this time, the tea makers must vigilantly tend to the tea, which requires significant time and labor costs.

In Fuding, Fujian, having a week of good weather is uncommon, especially during the April-May period when the first flush of white tea is picked. Encountering three to four consecutive days of clear weather is already considered very fortunate.

However, it's not impossible to have such favorable weather, and skilled tea makers can still produce sun-dried white tea when conditions permit. Therefore, the authenticity of many “pure sun-dried” labels in the market should be examined carefully.

2. Charcoal-baking

Another traditional drying method is charcoal-baking in a basket oven. Charcoal is placed in a hot pot (ensuring no smoke is produced, as it could affect the quality of the white tea) and covered with ash to maintain a temperature of 30-40°C above the pot. About 0.5 kilograms of Baihao Yinzhen are thinly spread on the oven cover and baked for 3-5 hours. The process emphasizes slow baking at low temperatures, which is labor-intensive. During baking, the tea must be stirred. A soft broom is used for stirring, and the tea master adjusts based on changes in color and aroma. The tea in the basket oven is poured onto the soft broom and then back into the oven, ensuring that the top layer moves to the bottom. White tea processed through charcoal baking exhibits distinct charcoal and downy aromas, which are popular among consumers. Additionally, white tea dried in this manner is more resistant to storage.

3. Electric-baking

Modern white tea production predominantly uses dryers for drying. When the withered leaves are 90% dry, machine baking is employed, with a thickness of about 4 centimeters, until fully dried. Leaves that are 70-80% dry are baked twice. The initial baking is done quickly, with a thickness of about 4 centimeters. After the initial baking, the leaves are left to rest to ensure even distribution of moisture. The second baking is done slowly, until fully dried.

According to the Chinese Tea Industry Encyclopedia, drying destroys enzyme activity. However, traditionally dried white tea or those electrically baked at low temperatures retain enzyme activity. As for which type of white tea consumers prefer, that is subjective and varies from person to person.

If there is any infringement, please contact us for removal.