One year of tea, three years of medicine, seven years of treasure? This is how tea lovers praise white tea. With its own value, old white tea has occupied a place in the tea circle and even the health care industry.
In white tea producing areas, every household has the habit of storing tea. New white tea is a slightly fermented tea. White teas such as Silver Needle and White Mudan that were picked earlier have a taste similar to green tea. But unlike green tea, white tea can be stored for a long time like Pu'er and undergoes transformation during later storage. The transformed old white tea is more mellow than the new white tea. As the leader in white tea, Silver Needle Baihao is very rare because only the buds are picked, and it is particularly precious because of its characteristic of being covered with hair. Among them, the Wilderness Silver Needle from the core production area seems to be the Hermès of the white tea world.
This tea is collected from Guanyang, one of the four core white tea production areas in Fuding region. Compared with the other three production areas, Guanyang production area is famous for its high altitude. It is said that "good tea comes from high mountains and clouds". The unique geographical environment of high altitude makes tea contain low polyphenols and high amino acid content, which can reduce the bitterness of tea soup and increase the freshness.
In the wilderness tea gardens in this production area, single buds are picked, withered and baked to make Silver Needle. Because raw materials are scarce and valuable, tea makers tend to put more effort into them. If there is a kind of tea that you must drink once, I think this tea should be among them.
The dry tea has straight hair, full buds, very energetic, green and grayish, and very well-proportioned, which are traces of time during natural aging. Make tea in a covered bowl. The tea soup will appear apricot yellow, with fragrant aroma and melodious floral fragrance. It is not as distinctive as new tea, but it shows its magnanimity and charm over time.
Because of the special value of old white tea, some unscrupulous merchants will forge the vintage. But this phenomenon is rare in Baihao Yinzhen. After all, no one wants to artificially make their own top-quality tea old or interfere with it artificially.
If there is a problem of counterfeiting of Baihao Yinzhen, it is mostly due to the fact that the production area is not the core production area. For example, they are not produced in major producing areas such as Fuding and Zhenghe, and some are not even produced in Fujian.
As the saying goes: Just be afraid of comparing goods. The taste of such Baihao Yinzhen is obviously different. Storing white tea is a test of patience. Only with enough care and patience can we wait for its highlight moment and live up to this beautiful gift of nature. Even if it is new tea, it is already worth a lot of money, let alone after four years of careful care by the owner. If kept for a few more years, it would not be an exaggeration to call it priceless.