How to brew white tea: Silver Needle and White Peony

White tea is picked, withered and dried, and that is very nearly all. No rolling, no firing, no deliberate oxidation. The leaf arrives looking much as it did on the bush — downy silver buds, or loose, crinkled leaves — and the cup is pale, sweet and gentle. It is also forgiving — slow to turn harsh if you lose track of the clock — which makes it an excellent late-evening cup.

The short version

Water: 75 to 85°C. Leaf: two teaspoons per cup — white tea is light and bulky, so a teaspoon weighs very little. Time: two to three minutes. Those are Whittard of Chelsea's figures, and Whittard is one of the few to say outright that white tea wants double the usual spoonful.

Silver Needle

Bai Hao Yinzhen: nothing but unopened buds, covered in fine white down, from Fujian in China. Delicate, honeyed and expensive. Teasenz, which sells it, brews it at 80°C either way: 4 grams to 500 ml for two minutes in a large pot or a mug, or 5 grams to 100 ml for thirty seconds in a gaiwan. Lovely brewed in a glass, where the buds stand on end.

White Peony

Bai Mudan: a bud with the first two leaves. Fuller, a little fruity, and much easier on the pocket. The Fragrant Leaf, an importer in Albuquerque, uses 3 grams to 175 ml at 85°C for two to three minutes.

Aged white tea

Pressed into cakes and kept, white tea darkens and sweetens over the years, towards dried fruit, hay and honey. An aged cake is usually brewed hotter than a young tea; go by what the seller prints on the wrapper, and, if you have the patience, brew it gongfu style in short steeps.

More than once

The Fragrant Leaf reckons on three or four infusions from a white tea. It will also forgive being forgotten in the pot rather more readily than a green.