You can enjoy white tea the whole year-round. But we at Dilmah think it's a typical Christmas tea. Christmas is the moment of traditions and where you can spend quality time with each other. We do this with special rituals and unique treats. White tea isn't an everyday kind of tea. It's the rarest tea you will find. It's made of the youngest buds of the tea plant with the most subtle, complex, and exquisite taste, created by nature.
what is white tea?
Dilmah offers the ‘Very Special Rare Teas’ collection in two varieties. White Litchee No.1 Hand Rolled Tea and the Ceylon Silver Tips White Tea. Both teas are hand-made from the original tea plant Camellia Sinensis and grown at our tea estate Craighead Estate. The fresh buds are harvested before sunset by hand. The tea pickers collect the tea into silk bags. The buds are being dried under filtered sunlight and selected one by one to check the quality by our tea masters who wear velvet gloves during this process.
How does white tea looks like and taste?
The typical silver needle tea buds have a velvet structure and a unique silvery shine. This creates a light delicate infusion. Preparing this tea asks for respect. When you steep this tea in the right way, you will taste hints of pear and honey surrounded with light herbal tones.
For the White Litchee, we create a big 'pearl' that unfolds itself in warm water till a beautiful flower. To create this 'pearl' we tie tea buds together that are 1 cm long. Natural lychee extract gives this white tea a fruity aroma and taste. Prepare this tea in a glass pot during your Christmas brunch and enjoy the transformation you see in the teapot.
How do you steep white tea?
Use fresh filtered water that has been boiled and cooled down to 80 degrees Celcius. Use 1 gram of tea per 100 ml. Steep the tea for 2 minutes and serve in a wine glass.
How to pair white tea?
Silver tips tea pairs perfect with salmon salade, caviar, and oysters. The White Lychee is delicious with roasted turkey, fruit salad, and merengue.
White tea cold brew
Just like green tea, black tea, and Oolong, you can make a delicious cold brew from white tea. You can make cold brew tea by adding 6 grams of tea to 400 ml mineral water. Our Double-wall t-Column is perfect to make this cold brew. Fill the infuser with the white tea, fill the bottle with filtered water, shake and put the bottle in the fridge overnight.
How to make a white tea aperitif?
The holidays ask for a sparking aperitif. Making an aperitif is easy. Fill a champagne glass with ⅓ of white tea cold brew. Add ⅔ sparkling water and your aperitif is ready to serve.