The tea garden for this White Peony white tea is located right next to Feitsui Reservoir in Taipei. Harvested in late March, it strictly adheres to the traditional “White Peony” picking standard, selecting only the tender one-bud with one or two leaves.
This picking method is exceptionally labor-intensive, with a single picker harvesting less than 1.8 kg a day. Right from the harvest, this white tea is destined to be anything but mass-produced.
What makes this White Peony so special?
The first highlight is its remarkably rare raw material.
Taiwanese white tea yields are inherently small, and most white teas on the market are made from more mature leaves. Very few growers are willing to harvest according to the strict “one-bud with one or two leaves” standard.
What makes it even more unique is that even when tender shoots are picked for White Peony, many choose summer or autumn harvests. A White Peony like this, made from pure spring tender shoots picked before the Qingming Festival in March, is truly a rare find in the Taiwanese tea market.
The second key is its withered processing, which lasts a full 72 hours.
This prolonged, thorough static withering allows the naturally delicate and elegant orchid aroma of the Qingxin Oolong cultivar to fully unleash, while imparting a remarkably captivating ripe-fruit note into the brewed liquor.
The combination of these two aromatic profiles gives it a nuance far beyond conventional white teas, offering a refined, soft, and beautifully layered character.
A blind tasting result that convinced us instantly
During our initial blind tasting, this tea scored extraordinarily high and caught us completely by surprise. Although the tea garden isn’t located at high altitude, after actually tasting it, I found its liquor quality, finesse, and aromatic expression completely rival past high-mountain white teas.
Thanks to the pre-Qingming March tender shoots, the elegance and refined texture of its orchid aroma even surpass certain high-altitude white teas. Once the blind test wrapped up, we bought this batch without a second thought.
Exceptionally tender tea shoots
We’ve attached photos of the finished tea with a 10 NTD coin placed alongside as a scale indicator, so you can see the actual leaf size for yourself. Looking closely at the tea shoots, you can instantly tell how young and tender this harvest is.
Since white tea processed into strip shapes is fragile, we’ve used a semi-vacuum packaging method. This prevents breakage during transport while providing optimal conditions for future transformation and aging. For your convenience, we’ve packed it in 37.5g small pouches.
A recommendation: Save a pouch for next year
Like most white teas, when newly made, its flavor profile is still gradually evolving. It tastes fantastic right now, but it hasn’t reached its absolute peak yet.
We expect that after about a year of natural aging, the tea liquor will become even smoother, with the aromas and overall layers integrating into complete harmony.
If you purchase two or more pouches, I highly recommend saving one pouch to age until next year. Opening it then and comparing the subtle shifts over twelve months will be a fascinating experience.
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