White Tea

White tea is processed by rapid low temperature drying. It is very lightly fermented, hence retaining more of their natural properties. There is a noticable difference in taste as most green teas have a distinctive 'grassy' taste to them, but white tea does not. White tea brews to a pale yellow/light red color, and has a slightly sweet flavor with no "grassy" undertones sometimes associated with green tea.

Recent research indicates white tea has the strongest potential of all teas for fighting cancer, especially colon cancer. Researchers speculate that the processing of tea determines its cancer fighting potential. Because white tea goes through the least amount of processing, it theoretically has the most polyphenols which have been linked to cancer prevention. There is also considerably less caffeine in white tea than the other varieties (15mg per serving, compared to 40mg for black tea, and 20mg for green).

As with all teas, there are many varieties of white tea, such as: white peony, flowery pekoe and sau mei. White tea is produced mostly in China, the best white tea contains a higher proportion of buds, which are covered with fine 'silvery' hairs.