Yue Guang Bai White Moonlight Cake

Yue Guang Bai White Moonlight Cake is a delicate white tea, compressed into 100g in 2020 made from leaves of old trees found at high altitude in Jinggu, Yunnan. It undergoes a long withering process, resulting in a clean and smooth liquor with sweet and floral notes of acacia honey.

The images are representative of the 100g cakes from 2019. The current cakes are from the new 2020 harvest from the same trees but the wrapping is a little different.

The standard cakes are approximately 100g in weight and come in our usual handy zip pouches for easy storage. The 100g cakes have generic white wrappers.

We also offer samples that are 1/10th of the 100g cake and are around 10g in weight. While we do our best to keep the samples intact, these may contain loose leaves that separated from the main cake during breakage.

NEW. We have also introduced a larger version of this cake. At 357g, it is made from similar material as our 100g. The leaves for the larger cakes were harvested on 28 April 2016 and these come in branded wrappers (as seen in the last two product photos).

Brewing guide: 2.5g in 250ml water at 90°C for 3-4 minutes

£2.00£60.00

(10-100-357g)

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Origin:Jinggu, Pu'er, Yunnan Province
Elevation:2,000-2,200m
Cultivar:Camellia sinensis var. assamica
Harvest time:March 2020 (100g) / 28 April 2016 (357g)
Sourcing:Specialist Chinese Wholesaler

Description

Yue Guang Bai White Moonlight Cake (月光白饼) is a white tea from Ginggu in Yunnan Province that comes compressed in 100g cakes. Made from leaves of old trees grown at high altitude, it has a light, wonderfully captivating, honey profile. The prolonged withering process results in slightly higher oxidation of the leaves and a richer, darker liquor. Currently we are offering 100g cakes from March 2020.

We also have a couple of 357g cakes left from 28 April 2016 harvest. These have a typical White Moonlight profile that has nicely developed with age. They were stored in Yunnan for 7 years and shipped to London in late-2023.

This Yue Guang Bai White Moonlight Cake is made from leaves of old arbor trees growing around Jinggu Dai and Yi Autonomous County at an altitude of approximately 2,000-2,200 metres. The trees used for this tea are between 100 and 300 years old. The plucking is carried out by hand, picking the bud and the one or two youngest leaves in spring. After picking, the tea is withered for a prolonged period of time under the sun. The name for this tea comes from the saying that to carry out a longer withering process, Moonlight White tea is withered under moonlight. The longer withering results in slightly higher oxidation, something that is evident from the much darker larger leaves in this tea. After withering the tea is dried and pressed into small cakes. This tea can be drunk straight away but can also be aged to further develop the flavours.

These Yue Guang Bai White Moonlight cakes have plenty of silver tips and darker leaves, resulting in a visually appealing white tea cake. There is plenty of silver fluff on the buds, while the larger darker leaves show much higher degree of oxidation. The liquor produced has a wonderful champagne-like colour and a light aroma. The dominant flavour is that of light acacia honey with associated light floral, sweet and fruity notes. There is a light woodiness present that is expected of this type of tea. The liquor is mellow and clean, with a full mouthfeel and a thick mouth-coating quality. The aftertaste is clean, with light notes of light dry wood and hay. This is a fantastic tea that can be enjoyed straight away or put aside for ageing to further develop the complexity of the honey profile.

We suggest brewing at 90°C for around 3-4 minutes according to your taste. Prise off a required amount of leaves with a sharp knife or pu-erh knife and brew multiple times. For best results, we recommend gong fu style of brewing: approximately 3g per 100ml at 90-95°C in a gaiwan with initial infusion of 20 seconds, increasing the time with each subsequent steep.

Yue Guang Bai White Moonlight Cake whtie tea was first featured in our July 2020 Curious Tea Subscription Boxes.