Tree Spirit White

Phye Thwe, an accountant in London, wanted to help her home village in a financially sustainable and environmentally friendly way and so she set up the Five Trees Tea Estate in 2019. The estate now provides work and a future for 12 villagers and their families. The inspiration for the name comes from the 5 banyan trees the estate is named after under which are tiny temples dedicated to the tree spirits. White tea is not traditionally made in Myanmar and although making white tea requires the least number of processes it requires the greatest amount  of skill to make well. Tree Spirit can only be made when the conditions are perfect and once the rains come in June production has to stop, greatly limiting the amount produced. The tea can be steeped many times. Please have a look at the wet leaf to understand how skillfully the leaf has been plucked and handled.  One of our favourites! 

Tree Spirit is an organically grown white tea which can only be produced during a very small 3-4 weeks window of time in the year.  The temperature has to be correct and the weather dry. In spring, at the end of April to the third week of May, the tea is very delicately hand plucked ensuring a bud and I or 2 open leaves are gathered.  The tea is firstly laid out in gentle sunshine to be dried for a few hours. This stage is very important as if the tea dries too fast it will not develop the essential flavours but if it dries too slowly the tea will oxidise. The tea is then brought indoors to dry further and at this stage the leaf oxidises a little allowing the tea to lose the grassy flavours and develop the sunshine, earthy notes so sought in excellent white teas. The tea is finally dried using very gentle heat and then sorted. Superb!