This is a white “tea” from the Wuding county, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan, China. These are the Ya Bao (芽孢), terminal buds that would later become offshoot branches/leaf sprouts this tea is not actually made from a Camellia species at all and is made from the ya bao of the species Vaccinium dunalianum. Vaccinium is the same genus as cranberries and blueberries. The Yi people call this tea Quezui (Sparrow Beak) Cha The leaves are picked by local Yi people from wild forest trees and processed like white tea. I’ve been told that this particular batch was picked in a rainy period and so was dried manually which has imbued a smoky taste and aroma that gradually wears off after early infusions. This is a traditional tea for the Yi people for medicinal and recreational use. While there are various antioxidants present in the leaves there is no caffeine or other neruostimulant compounds present as far as I am aware.

You might be alarmed by the scales covering the tea leaves, these are completely normal for this plant, the farmers reckon they’re the result of the leaves being exposed to heat (I expect especially high heat in the case of this manually dried batch) causing nutrient deposits from within the leaf to burst out. If they bother you they will come off after a couple of brews so you can do a rinse or two, and they don’t appear to have any impact on flavour.

This tea is quite mild beneath the smoky exterior, it brews very very pale yellow almost clear especially in later infusions. It has a very mild smokey herbal, floral flavour, very little head feeling and a bit of stomach feeling. Again I do recommend giving this tea at least a quick rinse.