Anji Bai Cha

ānjí báichá

安吉白茶

A green tea with a misleading name. "White tea" here is not the class but the cultivar — a rare albino bush whose spring leaves run pale jade-yellow and unusually sweet, packed with amino acids.

Region: Anji county, Zhejiang
Harvest: A short spring window, when the leaf is palest
Oxidation: Unoxidised
Cultivar: Baiye

In the cup

Remarkably sweet and umami, with fresh bamboo, sweet corn and almost no bitterness.

What it gives

One of the highest amino-acid greens — the source of its sweetness and a soft, clear-headed calm.

Anji Bai Cha is a lesson in why Chinese tea names reward a second look. Báichá means “white tea”, but this is firmly a green tea — fixed and dried like any green. The “white” describes the bush: a natural albino-like cultivar, Baiye #1, whose new spring leaves emerge so pale they look bleached, jade-yellow rather than green.

That pallor comes with chemistry. The pale leaf is unusually low in chlorophyll and unusually high in amino acids, theanine above all — which is exactly what makes the cup so sweet and so low in bitterness. As the season warms and the leaf greens up, the magic fades, so the harvest window is short and the early pluck is prized.

In the cup

Brew it gently, around 80–85 °C, in glass so you can see the slender, pale leaves unfurl. The flavour is closer to sweet corn and fresh bamboo than to a classic grassy green — clean, soft and almost broth-like in its umami.

How to brew