Tasting profile
Primary tasting notes
- Citrus PeelFruity, cooling, somewhat medicinal in a very pleasant way.
- WoodyMore along the lines of Rosewood or fresh green saplings than something heavy like Oak.
- AniseSomething of a whole melange of different cooling spices, but Anise seems the most prominent.
Origin and farming
- Terroir
- Fuding, Fujian Province, China
- Farming method
- Organic
About Diancha
Diancha is not matcha (well, not as we normally think of it). That is, it is not made from shade-grown tea leaves. Rather, it is referred to as "White Matcha," as it is made from white tea leaves.
Diancha was the popular form of tea during the Song Dynasty, when the first Japanese monks visited China and tasted tea for the first time. It was made from a sort of dehydrated tea leaf pulp, as the major categories of tea did not yet exist. Given that white tea is the simplest tea to process, most agree that it is the closest we can get to the sort of base tea they would have been using in the 11th and 10th centuries.
Diancha fell out of fashion when loose leaf tea became popular, but now, a few people with mills are trying to bring it back, ourselves included!
What are we actually milling here?
We've been trying to find the perfect tea to use in our matcha mills to make diancha for years now. Finally, we figured it out! Previously, we had been using standard Shou Mei white tea, but this produced a tea that was too gritty, albeit tasty. It had the added negative of needing to be super careful kept apart from all matcha that went through the mill, or else the little bit of brown powder would mix into the next batch of matcha and make it look stale!
Tencha (for matcha) is perfect for milling because it is so flat and brittle, with very thin leaves as a result of shading. With this in mind, we started searching for white tea fannings - the little bits that break off during the processing of loose leaf tea. We found some tea fannigns from Bai Mu Dan that were relatively green. After extremely careful sifting to remove all the buds, they milled up into this beautiful powder that avoided all the pitfalls of our previous attempts!
Experiencing Diancha
Though this is milled similarly to matcha, it is a very different experience! For starters, the flavor is not that creamy, umami-laden taste you might expect from our other offerings. Rather it is brisk, bold, zingy, and a little bitter, all with a bouquet utterly unique to diancha. That is to say, if you are familiar with both matcha and loose leaf white tea, the taste will still surprise you!
This is largely due to the lack of L-Theanine that accumulates in matcha as it is shaded. White tea is grown under the sun, so the amino acids in the leaves turn into catechins. This results in a different sort of energy as well. It is still gentle in that it won't produce jitters, but it's a lot more energetic and mood-boosting in a way that's hard to describe. If Matcha is Zen, Diancha is Tantra; if Matcha is serene Buddha, Diancha is a Dakini...Oof, these references may be too obsure. It's worth experiencing!
Milled-To-Order: The perfect intersection of craft, terroir, and freshness.
Fresh milling is the final step in bringing our Diancha to life. By milling the leaves as close as possible to the time you enjoy them, we help preserve the delicate aromas and flavors that reflect both the tea’s origins and the grower's craft. For a tea that is so loaded with unusual, delicate aromatic molecules, this freshness is critical and allows the full complexity of our diancha to come through.
