Anji White Tea is produced in Anji County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Anji boasts superior ecological conditions and a distinct vertical climate with day-night temperature differences reaching over 10°C, and up to 20°C during early spring and late autumn. This unique environment leads to Anji White Tea having a high amino acid content (5-10%) and low polyphenol accumulation, which fully expresses its fresh and sweet flavor.
About nine hundred years ago, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty wrote in his “Comprehensive Treatise on Tea” that “White tea stands alone as a variety, different from ordinary teas. Its leaves are thinly veined and translucent, occasionally sprouting among cliffs and forests… The shoots are few, and it is particularly difficult to steam and dry. One misstep in the process of steaming and drying, and it becomes an ordinary product.” From this, we can understand that ancient people had already discovered the excellent quality of these white tender buds and thin leaves, and that the production technique was crucial. However, due to technological limitations at the time, finished white tea was extremely rare.
The secret of Anji White Tea was lost for many years until a thousand-year-old mother tree of Anji White Tea, with pure white young leaves and slightly green main veins, was discovered by scientific personnel in the 1980s. It grows in a bamboo forest at an altitude of over 800 meters in Tianhuangping Town. This tea tree has since been propagated into today's “White Leaf No. 1,” the variety of Anji White Tea we know today.
Due to its unique characteristics,
the production of Anji White Tea is extremely challenging.
The final step
is to remove impurities
by placing the tea in a cloth bag within a lime jar
with a ratio of three taels of lime per catty of tea
and storing it using lime for preservation.
Quality Characteristics
Anji White Tea stands out with its white leaves, green veins, fragrant aroma, and mellow taste. The leaves are jade-white with green stems, exuding a clear and high fragrance, and offering a fresh and refreshing taste with a sweet aftertaste. Anji White Tea should have the characteristic features of tightly twisted, feather-like shape, color like frosted jade, glossy and lustrous appearance, fresh and fragrant aroma with hints of licorice, fresh and mellow taste, yellowish-green and clear broth, and white leaves with green veins. It is rich in 18 amino acids, with a content three to four times higher than that of ordinary green teas.
When brewing, a glass Cup is generally used, with 3-5 grams of tea leaves and hot water around 85°C poured into the cup to maintain the fresh and pure taste of Anji White Tea.
Inheritance Methods
In Anji County, representative inheritors who master the traditional handcrafted skills of making Anji White Tea include Chen Dayou and Yan Ronghuo.
Chen Dayou began learning the traditional production techniques of Anji White Tea from his father Chen Shoubin in 1990. He integrated his own unique insights into the tradition and applied his experience to farmers' production and technical training, further promoting the development of the Anji tea industry.
Yan Ronghuo started learning tea-making from his parents in 1972. Through diligent study, he has been dedicated to inheriting, developing, and innovating the production techniques of Anji White Tea. Combining traditional and modern tea-making techniques, he proposed the “freely flowing water method.”
Anji White Tea is typically produced as loose, linear tea. The production techniques hold significant skill and craft value. During the roasting process, various parameters of Anji White Tea change dynamically, especially the temperatures of the leaves and stems, which are difficult to synchronize. Therefore, the processors need to fully engage their senses and constantly monitor the changes in the tea. In this process, the skill level of the processors improves rapidly, which in turn promotes the development of linear Tea processing techniques.
Illustration: Zhang Xinyu