Silver needle is one of the Chinese “Ten Famous Teas”. It has a reputation of “gold jade”. Junshan Silver Needle originated from Junshan in Dongting Lake, Hunan, China. Its tea leaves look thin just like a needle, which is where the name "silver needle" came from.
Junshan is also called DongTing Mountain. The soil there is fertile; the temperature is mellow majority of the time; average annual precipitation is 1340 mm; relative humidity is about 80% from March to September. In the spring and the summer, lake water's evaporation makes bamboo and wood cluster on the island and suitable for tea plants to grow.
The craft of silver needle is very consummate, including water removing, distribute heat, packed by kraft paper and baking and other four processes. After three or four days, premium silver needle is finished.
The picking time of silver needle is seven to ten days before and after Qingming. Picking standards are quite demanding: tight timeframe for the picking, non-rainy weather requirement to harvest, and the perfect shapes of the tea leaves being picked. Every 500 grams of the silver needle needs about 105,000 buds, which is also why the tea's quantity is rather limited. |
