This is a Yue Guang Bai (Moonlight White) tea harvested in Autumn in Yang Ta, Jinggu that has been pressed into 6-8g spheres (known as Dragon Balls or Long Zhu) and aged for a year. While myths might have you believe that the Moonlight white moniker means the leaves were only harvested under the full moon, or withered at night, in reality it just means they were withered in the shade, whether at night, or inside in the dark. This gives the tea a different flavour profile to other white teas.

If you’re familiar with the taste of sheng puerh tea you’ll find a lot of familiar flavours in this tea, as it’s made from the same plants, however rather than being processed as sheng, it’s processed as white tea giving it a thick soothing feeling. The fruity or floral aromas often associated with white teas aren’t really present in this one, it’s very difficult to describe the exact aroma, but it’s something like grape skins, or a spiced dried fruit relish with fermented notes. Finally, it produces a light yellow, to  strong amber coloured liquor, depending on how long you let it infuse.

White tea if left long enough, will become black/red tea, and as such shares a lot of tasting notes. However other white tea is often defined by a strong fruity or floral aroma, this tea lacking that feels a bit like drinking red/black tea, but with no bitterness, little astringency, and very little caffeine or body-warming feeling.

In summary, an interesting outlier white tea that’s very easy to drink, but doesn’t have heady aromas or a heavy effect on your body.

White tea is pretty easy to brew and being in a pressed form means no measuring is necessary, just put one ball in a mug or gaiwan add hot water and get drinking! They will take a few infusions to fully open up so make sure to make the most of them by infusing many times, if you leave it too long there will be some slight astringency, but not much bitterness.

The flavour of this tea will improve with age, if stored correctly.