Fo Xiang Bai Cha

Foxiang, "Buddha Fragrance," is a high-quality tea processed as Zhucha (pearl tea, known in the West as Gunpowder), made from a white-leaf tea plant. This new cultivar, Huang Jin Ya, is derived from a natural mutation of the white-leaf variety Bai Ye 1 Hao, which is used for Anji Baicha. A really beautiful example for the influence of the tea's form on its taste. Plucked by hand and produced by machine, however artisanally.

The producer, who is known in his town as a "tea freak", crazy for tea, owns vast tea gardens in the hills around Xinchang and produces a diversity of teas from diverse varietals in good quality.

The tea is called Bai Cha, "white tea", because the leaves are of a pale green, almost white, when they are plucked, as this tea plant has very little chlorophyll. However, it is produced in the manner of green tea. These tea plants with the whitish leaves had already been described during the Song-dynasty (960-1279), and were ever since thought to be a myth. At the end of the 20th century, however, a wild tea tree of this kind was (re-?)discovered. Teas from this tea varietal are very smooth and incredibly sweet in aroma. Because of the high degree of a certain amino acid in the tea plant these teas have a pronounced umami-taste.