BEHIND THE CRAFT
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Tea Craft: Growing the Tea Bush

Tea cultivation is a modern science - new bushes are propagated from the best tea bushes, creating ‘clonals’ - cultivated variants or cultivars for short. The parent bushes may have been chosen for natural drought or pest resistance, helping farmers economically.

The new plants go to nursery for up to 2 years, and are then planted into a small segregated area of the tea garden, where they be left unpicked for a further 2 years until they reach roughly the height of a picker.

From then, regularly pruned down to a metre in height, the bushes will start to grow sideways and become the familiar sea of bright green leaves.

In 3 to 5 years of pruning, the tea plants are ready for their journey to the cup.

Find out more about when tea is picked.

FGTE13291

Jasmine Silver Tips White Tea Pouch 50g

Net Weight: 50g

A blissful combination of fine Chinese white tea buds with the scent of fragrant Jasmine. A light, calming tea to be enjoyed during the evening, drink without milk - an ideal blend with which to relax and unwind.

The East India Company - Lifestyle

Tea

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£56.00
Jasmine scented tea has become one of the most tea flavours in the west in the last few years, but actually it's 1000 years or more old, first popular in China during the Song Dynasty. Then, the best jasmine teas were reserved for the Emperor. Now, the very best jasmine tea still comes from China.

Jasmine is usually used to scent green tea, but here jasmine partners with some beautiful white tea tips. As usual, although the Jasmine plant, a member of the olive family, produces a lovely fragrant white flower, it is not generally used as in ingredient, but instead only its scent. The scenting process is centuries old and it is the craftsmanship that is the critical ingredient, the difference between good and bad.
With the jasmine fields in bloom and the weather warm, the afternoon labour-intensive task is to collect only those buds that the picker judges will bloom that evening. The collected buds are layered with the dried white tea buds. The flowers reveal themselves, a heady scent fills the air and infuses into the white tea bud

The process is repeated several times over consecutive nights to achieve the desired Jasmine scenting. A long process, but worth every moment.
A clear and very pale liquor in the cup.

A heady aroma of jasmine rushes from the cup as soon the hot water hits the tea.

Clean on the palette with irresistible sweet floral notes. One the pot is empty, pour fresh hot water onto the wet fresh and allow to infuse again, for a second brew with subtle flavour differences to the first.

The unopened buds of the tea plant and quality jasmine flowers are the critical ingredients, chosen by our Tea Master Lalith Lenadora.
A cup of Jasmine Pearls tea is a lovely finish to a meal - light and cleansing to the pallet and healthy too, as it contains high levels of antioxidants like all green teas.

Pairs well with citrus fruits and berries, for a light lunch.
Quantity

1 GRAM PER CUP

Temperature

200ML OF WATER AT 85ºC

Brewing Time

8 MINS FIRST BREW, 10 MINS SECOND BREW

Ingredients

Ceylon White Tea

Storage

Store in a cool, dry place avoiding direct sunlight and strong odours.

Stories

White Whiskers, White Tea

It doesn’t get much more simple that processing white tea.

White tea is named after the tiny white or silver hairs that cover the new bud on a tea plant - it is the bud which will soon unfurl to become the next young leaf.

On our White Tea product pages, if you zoom in on the tea picture, you will easily see these little whiskers. When looked at collectively, it creates a silver white sheen to the bud, hence the name.

So it is just the unopened buds or occasionally the bud and one or two of the very youngest leaves too that are picked and brought back to tea factory.
Very carefully handled to retain the integrity of the bud, they are simple dried in the sun or a drying room.

White teas are not fired like other teas, so they tend to retain a higher moisture content [therefore have a shorter shelf life]. There doesn’t seem to be a hard and fast rule about antioxidant or caffeine levels v green or black teas – whilst the white bud itself often carries a little more of both, the resulting brew tends to use cooler water for a shorter time than black, so the cup can often contain less.

Our spirit delivers no ordinary products

  • FAQ

    Does white tea include caffeine and is there more or less than green or black tea and coffee?
    Yes it does, and it varies. All tea leaves, just like coffee, contain caffeine. Tea usually has a lower level of caffeine than coffee, which averages around 95mg for a normal cup of coffee. But it is impossible to give a precise answer, because there are so many variables at play - the length of brew time, the amount of tea used, the age of the leaf, the provenance of the leaf. Even the temperature of the water. Our best advice is to treat all tea and coffee similarly if you need to manage your caffeine intake.

    I’ve heard that tea contains theanine. What is it and what does it do?
    Tea does indeed contain theanine, which is an amino acid [the building blocks of proteins]. Tea is one of only a few sources of theanine. It represents about 1% of dry weight and is at its highest concentrate in shade-grown teas like matcha and gyokuro. Whilst not yet proven in scientific studies that would permit specific health claims to be made, it is believed by many to be able to reduce mental and physical stress, promote relaxation and a sense of well-being. But not only that, it is more recently being thought to aid cognitive function. It’s one explanation for tea’s famous ability to create calm in a crisis [the Great British solution to all problems – ‘putting the kettle on’] and to stimulate when a little boost is required.

  • Delivery & Returns

    UK Standard Delivery: £3.95
    UK Next Day Delivery (mainland UK only): £9.95 (Order before 12pm)
    International Delivery is available, please see our delivery page for details. For more information and Terms & Conditions, please see our Delivery page.

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