The "About Tea" section says all tea comes from the same plant. In the white tea section, it discusses how parts of the plant are dried at lower temps, and this is a requirement to make white tea.
Then it says that tea from as far as India is being dried this same way, but it's not really white tea.
So, if the plant is the same, and the drying process is the same, why isn't this white tea as well?
thanks Doug
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White Tea
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Posted 1 year ago #
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To a "tea lawyer" the distinction would be that the Indian tea comes from a different bush, and (obviously) from a different area, even though the processing might be similar or identical.
A purist (i.e., a "tea lawyer") will insist that only tea produced from that bush variety, in that area, according to that procedure can rightly be called "white tea." Everything else could only be "whitish tea."
In France, calling a wine a Burgundy delivers a guarantee of the source of origin, and the type of grape used in its production. The government controls the naming of wine, very strictly, to maintain standards.
A domestic burgundy from California, or one from Australia will simply not be the same wine -- it will be similar, or "burgandy-ish." But it comes from a different area, possibly even a different (blend) of grape.
It's up to you to decide how finely you want to interpret the distinctions. Try them both and decide which you prefer.
Even taxonomists fall generally into two categories: lumpers and splitters. Lumpers tend to class very similar organisms together, while splitters create new categories for minute differences between organisms.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The international tea industry has recognized the popularity of Chinese white tea, that originates in Fujian province in China, and defined white tea to be tea that is processed the same way as white tea in Fujian so that they can cash in on the demand for white tea. I was pointing out that it is incorrect to define white tea by processing alone. Da Bai Hao is a varietal of Camellia sinensis that is characterized by a very large hairy tea bud. The Chinese define white as as tea coming from this varietal, processed a certain way. It really depends on who is writing the definition. My bias is towards the Chinese definition.
AustinPosted 1 year ago # -
It seems like it would be nice if both kinds of distinctions could be made simultaneously. The distinction between a tea made from a varietal other than Da Bai Hao that is processed like genuine Chinese white tea, compared to tea made from the same varietal that is processed in a typical green tea fashion seems like a meaningful one that might warrant a term. At the same time, the distinction between two teas that are steamed, etc., where one is made from Da Bai Hao and one is not is an important one as well. It would be nice if there could be two different terms that picked out each of these categories. Maybe "white tea", using English, could refer to processing, in line with the definition used by the international industry, while a Chinese term (would the translation be something like "bai cha"? I may be mixing Chinese and Japanese there) could specifically refer to teas that are "white" by the Chinese definition.
Not like me suggesting a new taxonomic scheme in this forum is going to get anyone else to start using it, but... it would be nice to be able to capture more natural categories without ambiguity in terminology, methinks.
Posted 1 year ago #
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