2024 Gold Brick — Silver Needle White Tea · 100g Pressed Brick

Silver Needle is the top grade of Fujian white tea: single unopened buds, nothing else, picked over a few short weeks in early spring. Pressing it into a brick is the uncommon part, most makers won't risk the buds. Done well, it gives you a tea that stores tight, travels safely, and ages slowly toward honey.

Origin:

Fuding, Fujian. Fuding Da Bai / Da Hao cultivar, early-spring 2024 harvest, plucked as a single plump bud before the leaf opens. Thousands of buds go into every 100g.

What makes it different:

Sun-and-shade withered, gently dried, then lightly stone-pressed, enough to hold shape without crushing the down. The pressing slows oxygen exposure, so the brick ages more evenly and more slowly than loose needles, and concentrates the sweetness rather than letting it thin out. The 100g size is a practical one: small enough to open and drink through, dense enough to keep for years.

Taste:

Pale gold, almost silver in the cup. Fresh melon and cucumber skin, honeysuckle, dry hay, and the soft downy sweetness (毫香) that only comes from real bud-only picking. Clean and cooling, no bitterness, with a quiet returning sweetness. Very young still, it will turn toward honey and dried apricot over the next few years.

Brewing:

Prying — slide a tea knife in along the edge of the brick, not the face, and lift flakes off in layers. Rest the flakes 10 minutes before brewing.

Gongfu — 5g per 110ml gaiwan, 90–95°C. Steep 15s / 5s / 10s, extending. 8–10 infusions.

Grandpa — 2g per 250ml, 90°C, 2–3 minutes.

Cold brew — 5g per litre, refrigerate overnight. Silver Needle is one of the few teas that's arguably better this way in summer.

Specs: 100g pressed brick · Spring 2024 · Fuding, Fujian · Store sealed, dark, dry, away from strong odours. Improves with age.