A Brief Intro to Little Veggie White tea

In retrospect, Mao Feng was easy.

Huang Shan Mao Feng really only has one cultivar. Mao Feng’s local cultivar is reliable enough that it is used across the region, with very little need for new cultivars. White tea has proven a little more difficult. This article will quickly go over the main varieties of white tea.

It all started with Xiao Cai Cha, or little veggie tea. Little veggie is not a single variety but in fact a name for vocal varieties and emcompasses a number of varieties. Wuyi Shan also has a similar thing in Qi zhong. So long ago it Fu Ding was full of different varieties. Among these varieties one particular variety became popular and was planted more and more. This variety was Hua Cha Yi also known as Fu Ding Da Bai. In the 80s this cultivar was tweaked and became Hua Cha Er, also known as Fu Ding Da Hao. Da Bai and Da Hao are now the varieties mostly commonly used across Fu Ding. If you are drinking a Fu Ding white tea its probably Da Hao and possibly Da Bai. One River Tea has more in depth articles on this that I high recommend reading. So What happened to the other Varieties?

For along time white tea was broken down specifically on pick grade. Silver Needle being all buds, Bai Mu Dan and Gong Mei being buds and leaves, and Shou Mei being all leaf. The problem was the separation between Gong Mei and Bai Mu Dan was vague and a little unclear. In the past few years the Fu Ding government regulated the industry a bit and removed gong mei from this sort of classification. When breaking down white tea by picking, bud and leaf, it is referred to as only Bai Mu Dan. So what is Gong Mei now? Gong Mei is now white tea made using Xiao Cai Cha and this has a few interesting points.

The first interesting point is that little veggie tea is not a single variety. As I mentioned before it’s a category. This means that two shops both selling little veggie tea, aka gong mei, actually may not be selling the same cultivar. That being said, the second interesting point, little veggie teas tend to have small buds, hence the name, and are generally more leaf heavy white teas. There can be a silver needle veggie tea known as gong mei zhen but it is rare.

This is everything as I know it so far.
I feel as though I am just stretching the surface and I may have misunderstood some things.

As I learn things I will continue to post them and keep you up to date with all the knowledge.
Till Then I found a beautifully clean and flavorful Little Veggie Tea, aka Gong Mei, available now.

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