White tea · Yunnan
Yueguang Bai
yuèguāng bái · 月光白
“Moonlight white” — a Yunnan white made from the broad-leaf trees of pu-erh country, withered in shade. Striking two-tone leaves, dark above and silver below, brewing sweet, fruity and softly honeyed.
- Region
- Yunnan — Pu'er and Lincang
- Harvest
- Spring; withered out of direct sun
- Oxidation
- Barely oxidised (5–10%)
- Cultivar
- Yunnan broad-leaf (assamica)
In the cup
Honey, ripe stone fruit and a soft floral sweetness over a fuller body — rich for a white, with a long, mellow finish.
What it gives
A gentle white with the depth of broad-leaf Yunnan tea — minimally processed, low in edge, soothing and easy to drink through an afternoon.
Yueguang Bai — moonlight white — is white tea made the Yunnan way, from the same broad-leaf assamica trees that give the province its pu-erh. That parentage makes it richer and fuller than the classic Fujian whites, and gives it a fruity depth all its own. The poetic name is said to come both from the silvery sheen of the leaf and from the tradition of withering it out of the sun, “by moonlight”.
Its look is unmistakable: each leaf is two-toned, dark on the upper face and downy-silver beneath, so a handful seems to alternate night and moon. It is processed like any white — withered and dried, with no fixing or rolling — but the assamica leaf carries more sugar and more body into the cup.
In the cup
Brew it from 85 °C up toward 95 °C — the broad leaf takes more heat than a Fujian white — in glass or a gaiwan. The liquor is gold, the flavour honey and ripe stone fruit with a soft floral sweetness, the body fuller and longer than you expect from a white. It ages well, too, deepening toward dried fruit over the years.
How to brew
Yueguang Bai
Water
85–95 °C
Leaf
5 g per 100 ml
Steep
2–4 min, or short gongfu
Vessel
Glass or gaiwan
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