Bai Mudan (White Peony)

Organic White Tea 2024

Cupped infusion of Bai Mudan (White Peony) white tea and strained leaves.

Our Bai Mudan (White Peony) is the earliest harvest of this grade of white tea and possesses a smooth and fruity flavor with a rich floral aroma. A staple everyday white tea made with both buds and leaves, both popular and affordable.

Tea Origin: Fuding City, Fujian Province, China
Tea Bush: Dabai (Big White), Dahao (Big Hair), Quntizhong (Heirloom Tea Bush)
Tea Maker: Chen Qingwen
Harvest Time: Early April
Plucking Standard: One bud, one leaf

A basket of freshly handpicked tea leaves to make Bai Mudan white tea. The best tea pickers will carefully place their leaves in the basket to avoid damage.

Good Bai Mudan yields many apricot colored infusions with a rich flavor that is noticeably fruitier and more robust than Silver Needle, if not as delicate. As with all true white teas, Bai Mudan is made with the leaves from the Dabai (Big White) and Dahao (Big Hair) cultivars of tea bush.

A leafier grade of organic white tea, Bai Mudan is made with slightly more mature buds and tea leaves than Baihao Yinzhen (Silver Needle). This tea was first made in 1922 in Jian Yang of northern Fujian. This area is at a higher altitude than the neighboring Fuding, and the buds are thinner and more dense than Fuding’s Baihao Yinzhen. The ideal picking configuration aims at the leaf only being as long as the bud. This provides for a very robust and sweet Bai Mudan.

Tea Production

Plucked Leaf — Showing a sprig plucked as one bud and two leaves.

Bai Mudan (White Peony) is named for the shape of its leaves. Its one bud and one leaf pluckings are left in their natural shape without the kneading and shaping usually involved in making a green tea. As with other white teas, Bai Mudan undergoes a slow drying process which can take as long as forty hours to complete. Unlike Silver Needle, the raw leaves of Bai Mudan are heaped into a short pile for this drying process. The withered leaves are roasted dry at a low temperature, sometimes with charcoal—although more often with electrical heating elements.

Once Bai Mudan is made, it is divided into six grades of quality. Our Bai Mudan is 1st grade, where great care has been taken to maintain the one bud and one leaf standard. Lesser grades are made of more mature leaves and fewer buds.

White Tea

Unlike green tea, white tea is never fired or steamed to kill the enzymatic action that causes oxidation. Instead, oxidation of the leaves is prevented by their lack of moisture. The withering process is very long and gradual, thus slight oxidation of the leaves (or buds) will naturally occur. With this slight amount of oxidation, white tea’s color is typically not as bright or green as you would expect from a green tea.

No chemical fertilizer, pesticide, or herbicide was used in the production of this tea. Click here to read more about our promise to fair trade and the environment.