Steep white tea for 4 minutes at 75°C (167°F).
White tea is the least handled tea there is: leaves and unopened buds picked, withered in moving air, and dried. No rolling, no pan-firing, no deliberate oxidation. Silver Needle is buds alone and tastes of hay and melon; White Peony includes the first leaves below the bud and is fuller, closer to a light green tea. Because so little is done to it, the quality of the raw leaf has nowhere to hide — there is no roast and no oxidation to cover a dull harvest. Most white tea comes from Fujian in China, though Darjeeling and Sri Lanka now produce their own.
Use 75°C (167°F), the coolest water on the whole chart, and be generous with the leaf. White tea is mostly air by volume, so a teaspoon of it weighs far less than a teaspoon of black, and two or three is not too much for a 250ml cup. Steep 4 minutes at medium: the long time and the low heat work together, drawing sweetness out slowly rather than forcing it. 3 minutes gives a lighter cup and 5 minutes 10 seconds a fuller one. A glass pot is worth using here, because watching the buds rise and sink is half the pleasure of it.
Under-dosing. People measure white tea like green tea, use the same small pinch, get hot water with a faint suggestion of something in it, and conclude they do not like white tea. The leaf is bulky and light — measure by eye until the vessel looks half full of dry leaf. The other mistake is impatience. 4 minutes feels long when you are used to a three-minute cup, and cutting it short is exactly what makes white tea taste like nothing at all. The low heat is forgiving, so an extra minute here does far less harm than it would to green tea.
White tea re-steeps beautifully, and the second cup is often the better one — the first can be shy while the buds are still opening. Three infusions from good Silver Needle is normal and four is not unusual. Add thirty seconds to a minute each time. Because the water is cool and the leaf barely processed, there is little tannin waiting to turn harsh, so a long later steep punishes you far less than it would with black tea. Keep the spent leaf warm and damp between cups rather than letting it dry out and go flat in the pot.
Steep white tea for 4 minutes in water at 75°C (167°F) — 3 minutes at the light end, 5 minutes 10 seconds at the full end. White tea is forgiving about time and unforgiving about quantity: if it still tastes of almost nothing after 4 minutes, add more leaf rather than more minutes.
Yes, roughly 15 to 40mg per 250ml cup, usually less than green or black tea. The common claim that white tea is caffeine-free is simply wrong — it comes from the same Camellia sinensis plant as every other true tea.
Almost always too little leaf. White tea is light and bulky, so the same teaspoon that suits black tea is a fraction of the weight — use two or three, and fill the vessel until it looks half full of dry leaf.
Silver Needle is unopened buds only, delicate and expensive, tasting of hay and melon. White Peony adds the first leaves below the bud, which makes it fuller, greener and considerably cheaper for everyday drinking.