From Fuding’s misty hills to your cup
Every spring, Chen Hui Yi travels from Guangdong to the low mountains of Fuding in Fujian, where the white tea tradition stretches back centuries. She works with the same family of growers who have tended these bushes for three generations. The 2025 harvest began in early March, when overnight temperatures still dipped low enough to slow bud development, concentrating the plant’s sugars and amino acids. Pickers moved through the rows at dawn, snapping only the fattest, most down-covered buds — the bái háo — with a practiced two-finger twist.
Back at the workshop, the buds were spread thinly on bamboo trays and left to wither under a mix of soft spring sun and shaded airflow. This balance is crucial: too much direct sun and the buds parch; too little and they grey. Chen watches the withering like a hawk, testing the stems for pliability and the down for resilience. After 48–72 hours, when the buds reached the precise moisture level, they were slow-dried at a low temperature to lock in the delicate honey character without any leaf crushing or rolling.
What sets this batch apart is the exceptional uniformity of the buds — all of equal size, equally silver, and equally intact. Chen selected only the top 5% of the harvest for this lot, rejecting any bud with even a hint of oxidation or uneven down. The result is a white tea that sets the standard: soft, sweet, and incredibly clean, with a quiet confidence that only proper withering can achieve.