More and more, people all over the world are falling in love with flavored white tea. While this is still relatively new in the westernized world, it is growing in popularity. Of all tea, white tea is the mildest so when flavored, it makes an excellent choice.
Popular Flavored White Tea
Although you would love many of the flavored white tea options now being made, one that has made a huge impression on people all over the world is white licorice tea.
Just as we know that healthy tea is great for the body, keep in mind that licorice is also healthy. Keep in mind that Chinese white tea is processed different from other types of tea so the level of antioxidants left is higher than in loose black tea or loose green tea. With this, white tea helps prevent and even fight serious diseases such as heart disease and even cancer. Therefore, whether loose white tea is consumed with or without flavoring, it offers medicinal properties.
If you are just now learning about tea, it can be confusing as to the way quality differs among the various types of tea. The key is the tea garden in which the tea is grown. When tea is grown and harvested by a skilled worker, the quality would be higher.
Importance of the Tea Garden
The tea garden where any tea, especially white tea is grown is critical to overall quality. The leaves and buds used to make white tea must be carefully plucked by hand and then properly harvested. Then for white licorice tea, only the finest star anise should be used. Even the blending or infusing of the two must be done correctly.
White tea, black tea, green tea, and oolong tea all come from the Camellia sinensis plant. The difference is the way the tea is harvested and processed. White tea takes more time and it is harvested much earlier in the year, a time when the leaves have not opened fully and the buds are still covered with white hair, thus the name.
Unlike Chinese black, green, or oolong tea, white tea is not fermented. Because of this, the flavor is delicate and slightly sweet, as well as higher in antioxidants.
Tea Garden Facts
For quality white tea, the leaves and buds must all be plucked by hand and even then, only unopened leaves and undamaged buds are used. Typically, this involves using only the top two leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. In addition, the worker harvests leaves and buds in March and April, a time when the climate is perfect.
Additionally, the time when white tea is harvested, it cannot be raining and the night before there should be no frost. Even on the morning when harvested, the dew should be dry. These environmental factors are crucial to harvesting white tea.
Once hand plucked, the leaves would be dried and steamed and the time steamed would be something that only a highly skilled artisan would know.
Infusing of Star Anise
To create white licorice tea, high quality white tea would be blended with star anise. The best tea gardens in the world use whole pieces of star anise, as well as the appropriate combination of leaves, buds, and anise to produce an amazing flavor.
After processing, white tea is carefully stored and then packed for export. This type of tea is grown only once a year but keep in mind that other types of tea are also processed, keeping tea garden workers busy.
Importance of the Gardeners
The goal of gardeners of the best tea gardens is to work throughout the year to maintain the garden so the finest tea is grown, harvested, and processed each year.
In the summer, weeds must be eliminated from the tea garden. This time of year is when black tea and green tea are harvested and processed. Unlike white tea that is grown just once a year, black, oolong, and Chinese green tea is grown three to four times each year.
The fall is when the Camellia sinensis plant grows the most so this is the type when gardeners will fertilize and new plants go into the ground. Then by the month of October, pruning is required so the plants are ready for the upcoming winter.
Throughout the winter, gardeners provide a lot of attention to the Camellia sinensis plants four years old and less. If the winter were harsh, then extra protection would be provided to help the plants get through the cold months.
By the latter part of February and the early part of March, pruning is needed to help the plants get ready for springtime. Once harvested, the entire process would start over.
Without doubt, gardeners of tea gardens have a lot of work to be done all year long. They must work hard to harvest and process each type of tea accordingly. Obviously, tea gardens that are tended to best will produce the best, oolong, white, black, and the best green tea possible.
It requires a lot of time, patience, and skill to garden a tea garden. Typically, gardeners come from generations of gardeners, learning from the parents whose family has been associated with tea gardens for years.
As you can see, the single cup of tea you enjoy such as white licorice tea takes a tremendous amount of work to achieve the great flavor and aroma. Therefore, the next time you enjoy the distinct flavor of white tea or white licorice tea, think about the hard work that was dedicated to give you an amazing cup of tea.
