What is white tea?
Quick answer
White tea is the least-processed true tea: leaves are simply withered and dried, not rolled or pan-fired, so the flavour stays soft, sweet, and hay-like. It's low in caffeine and gentle. A good baseline is 4 g per 100 ml at about 80 °C (176 °F) for gongfu, or a couple of grams in a mug brewed cooler and a little longer.
What it tastes like
Expect subtlety, not punch: fresh hay, melon, honey, and a clean sweetness. Silver Needle (buds only) is the most delicate; Bai Mu Dan (buds and leaves) is rounder and more forgiving — a better first white tea for most people.
How to brew it
White tea is delicate but not fragile. Two things help: don't use furiously boiling water, and give it time. Around 80–85 °C keeps it sweet; if it ever tastes thin, add leaf or steep longer rather than hotter.
Common questions
Is white tea caffeine-free? No — it's low, not zero. Leaf amount and steep time still change the dose, so treat it as a gentler option rather than a non-caffeinated one.
Can you re-steep white tea? Yes, several times. Each infusion shifts a little; buds-only teas in particular reward patience across rounds.
Sort your water first — delicate teas show it most — then set your leaf with the grams calculator and check how much to use per cup.