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Silver Needle
Also called "Yinzen", Silver Needle is the finest representative of white tea from China. The tender tips, covered in silver-white downy hairs are plucked in 48 hours or less after sprouting. Produces a fragrant, sweet, light-yellow tea with a subtle mushroom-like flavor. Low in caffeine.

White Tea

White tea is rare and produced on a very limited scale. Buds are picked before they open, allowed to wither slightly, and then dried with hot air to prevent any oxidation. They are very delicate, with a pale liquor.

The Tea Plant

After water, tea is the most popular beverage in the world today.

As its Latin name suggests - Camellia Sinensis - the tea plant is an illustrious member of the camellia family.

The tea plant thrives best in a wet climate with a temperature ranging from 50 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

In the wild, the tea plant reach 30 to 100 feet in height. However, on plantations the plants are pruned to between 3 and 5 feet to facilitate plucking.

It takes 5 or 6 years for a tea plant to reach maturity, but the life of a cultivated tea plant ranges from 30 to 50 years.

All varieties of tea - white, green, oolong, black, roasted or smoked - come from the same plants. The differences in the results have to do with the method of processing the leaves after they are plucked.