A large bamboo tray is covered with downy white buds, a small heap of buds and a pressed cake of white tea lie on the table, a blue-and-white cup holds pale yellow tea, and drying racks stand faintly behind.
Withered and dried
Introduction
Tea made by withering and drying only, with no pan-frying or rolling.
White tea is tea made from fresh leaf that is withered and dried, a simple process with no pan-frying and no rolling. It is divided into kinds such as silver needle, white peony, gongmei and shoumei, and it can also be pressed into white tea cakes. White tea pressed into cakes is placed with compressed tea under Reprocessed Tea, and white tea serves only as a secondary class. The Song book Da Guan Cha Lun by Emperor Huizong has a section on white tea, but that means a Song tea variety and not the process of today's white tea.