Big Leaf Purple White (大葉紫芽白茶, Dà Yè Zǐ Yá Bái Chá, "Big Lead Purple Bud White Tea" ) - is a sun-dried, Moonlight White-style tea made from Huang Pian, which is the later part of the spring harvest. Traditionally farmers would sell the early part of the harvest, which and is the most valuable part of the harvest. The large Huang Pian leaves have less polyphenols and are therefore less bitter, and in the past few decades it has become popular among tea connoiseurs.
This beautiful tea is striking not only for the size of its leaves but also for its beautiful purple color, the result of naturally-occuring anthocyanin in the leaves. The source material for this tea is known as Zǐ Yá Chá 紫芽茶, meaning "purple bud tea", and refers to seed-propagated purple tea plants. These are genetically distinct individuals that were not selected or bred for purple color, and they comprise a tiny percent of all seed propagated tea plants, most of which are green.
Purpleness is just a phenotype, not a processing style, and as such purple tea leaves can be made into any kind of tea. This one has been simply sun-dried in the style of Moonlight White, and has a delicate, slightly smoky flavor with a sweet aftertaste and a clear, smooth, somewhat viscous soup. The mellowness of this tea make it suitable for steeping gong fu style at high temperature or in a large format pot or mug.