White tea

What is today known as white tea may have come into creation in the last two centuries; scholars and tea merchants generally disagree as to when the first production of white tea (as it is understood in China today) began. White tea may have first appeared in English publication in 1876, where it was categorized as a black tea, because the leaves are not steamed first as in the making of green tea in order to denature intrinsic oxidative enzymes. White tea is often sold as Silvery Tip Pekoe in the style of the tea leaf grading system, as well as under the simple designations China White and Fujian White. Some tea from the related wild Camellia taliensis in Yunnan is made using white tea processing techniques. == Composition ==

White tea, like black and green tea, is made from the Camellia sinensis plant and contains polyphenols, a set of phytonutrients that are thought to be responsible for the health effects of tea. Different white teas have different amounts of catechins, a category of polyphenols, and the overall range of concentrations overlaps with that of green tea, meaning that some white teas have the same concentration of polyphenols as some green teas. This may be due to the variety of the tea plant from which the tea was picked, the cultivation technique, and the way in which the tea was processed. Caffeine content The caffeine content of tea depends on many factors, including the type of tea and the brewing method. Estimates for the caffeine content of a cup of brewed white tea range widely, from less than 10 mg to over 50 mg, with some studies concluding that white tea tends to have less caffeine than green tea. For comparison, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an cup of brewed black tea contains 47 mg caffeine, green tea contains about 29 mg caffeine, and oolong tea contains about 38 mg caffeine. Due to the wide variability of the caffeine content in brewed tea, some studies have failed to prove a relationship between the variety of tea and the caffeine content. == Manufacturing ==

The base process for manufacturing white tea is as follows: :Fresh tea leaf → withering → drying (air drying, solar drying or mechanical drying) → white tea == Popular types of white tea ==

The three main classes of Chinese white tea are: • Longevity Eyebrow (shòu méi) - typically these whites have no buds • White peony (bái mǔdān): white teas that include some buds mixed in with the leaves • Silver Needle (báiháo yínzhēn) - only buds are included in these teas There are also other whites such as: • Ya Bao, a white tea made entirely of buds, from Yunnan • Yue guan bai ("moonlight white"), these teas are supposedly dried under the moonlight rather than the sun There are also other white teas grown in other regions, such as in the Himalayan region. White Darjeeling teas are one such type of Himalayan white. == References ==