The domain of Fuding stretches from the sea shore across a coastal plane and up into mountains reaching 2000 meters in altitude. Spanning marshes and tangled forests, the defining characteristic of Fuding's terroir are the streaks of vibrant orange clay produced by lichens consuming the underlying igneous stone.
This year's wet weather allows us take a break from picking tea buds to explore the range of Fuding's environs. Usually higher altitudes produce better teas, but Fuding's coastal white teas can be excellent as well, especially when aged. Here, by a cove where seaweed is farmed, we find sixty year old bushes on the steep hillside opposite a temple. While this year's tea was dried too slow, the briny wind leaves an exciting component to its flavor. We look forward to returning next year when we can purchase green leaves ourselves and dry them gently in our hotel room.
A few hours drive inland Fuding's white mountain tea has also been plagued by sporadic storms. The weather this spring has been unusually cold, with snow over the new year and frosting until two weeks ago. This means the tea buds are smaller, which itself is not so worrisome. A dearth of sunny days, however, has been a deal breaker for early white tea: all is either oven dried or reddened due to prolonged drying.
While we remain in the mountains it mists and rains five of the week's seven days.
With a day's picking farmers gathers at nearby crossroads to sell on into the supply chains of factories large and small who have the ovens required to dry the tea. While oven temperatures are kept below 50 degrees centigrade, this still flattens the brightness that we look for in the best fresh bai hao yin zhen (white hair silver needle). Locals say on years like this there is only hong hao yin zhen (red hair silver needle).
Shade dried too slow or heated in walk-in and specialty coal-fired ovens, none of the teas have the almost citrus splash of vibrance that makes Fuding's white tea China's best.
Both make infusions which exhibit flaws. Shade dried tea steeps (L) darker and harder tasting - erring into the red tea spectrum. Oven dried tea steeps (R) greener and buttery tasting - erring into the green tea spectrum.
A proper white tea, dried in the shade, consistently, over four days, will be lighter in color still, white even, and its taste is almost no taste at all, but something that just falls away, effervescent, light behind the eyes, flirting, with an after-breath of sea and pine.
