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Organic Nepali White Tea Loose Leaf – Silver Tips, Almond & Citrus
Pure-bud Nepali white tea with sweet grass, almond, and a hint of citrus. Delicate, velvety, low to moderate caffeine.
Caffeine
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About This Tea
The Spring 2026 harvest reached our Saugus, MA warehouse in August and is what ships today, sealed straight from the lot. We list the harvest on every tea so you always know how old your leaf is.
Quick Facts
- Origin: Ilam, Nepal · 7,000 ft
- Harvest: Spring flush · Spring 2026
- Pluck: Unopened buds only, no leaf, no stem
- Process: Hand-plucked, withered, dried, hand-sorted
- Certification: USDA Organic
- Caffeine: Low to moderate, roughly 15 to 45 mg per 8 oz depending on leaf amount and steep time
- Brew: 180°F · 3 to 4 min · 2 tsp per 8 oz
- Re-steeps: 2 to 3 times
What you get
A 2.4 oz resealable bag, roughly 27 cups at 2 tsp per 8 oz, plus two to three re-steeps per portion. Buds are light and fluffy, so measure by volume rather than weight.
Want a bud-and-leaf white with more body? See Spring White Buds, or browse the Nepal white tea collection.
Silver Needle Tea, Grown at 7,000 ft in Nepal
Silver needle tea is white tea made from unopened buds only. Nepalese Silver Tips is our silver needle tea from Nepal, hand-plucked at 7,000 ft in Ilam.
Nepalese Silver Tips is made from nothing but tender silvery buds, hand-plucked at 7,000 ft in Ilam, several thousand of them to a bag. It follows the classic white tea method: withered and dried, with no rolling, no firing, and no oxidation step. The liquor is pale gold, delicate and velvety, with sweet grass, almond, and a hint of citrus, and it stays sweet rather than turning sharp as it cools. Shop our full Nepal White Tea collection
Pure-bud organic white tea from Ilam, Nepal
Nepalese Silver Tips is a needle-style Nepali white tea made from unopened buds alone, hand-plucked at 7,000 ft in the Ilam district. There is no leaf and no stem in the bag, and it takes several thousand individually picked buds to fill one. The hand labor at harvest, rather than anything in the factory, is what makes a pure-bud tea what it is.
Processing is the classic white tea method and nothing more: the buds are withered, then dried. No rolling, no firing, no oxidation step. The cup is pale gold and velvety, with sweet grass, almond, and a hint of citrus, and a gentle earthiness that comes from Nepal's high-altitude gardens.
What makes it different
In the bud and the cup
- Bud only: no leaf, no stem, in the bag.
- Withered and dried: no rolling, firing, or oxidation step.
- Low to moderate caffeine: roughly 15 to 45 mg per 8 oz, depending on how you brew.
- Very low astringency: a long steep stays sweet rather than turning bitter.
- USDA Certified Organic: no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.
Brewing guide
- Leaf: 2 tsp per 8 oz, since buds are light and fluffy
- Water: 180°F, so boil and let it cool about 2 minutes
- Time: 3 to 4 minutes
- Re-steep: 2 to 3 times, adding about a minute each round
- In a glass pot the buds stand upright before slowly sinking
Gongfu style, in a small vessel with short steeps, you can take the buds further. Full method: how to brew white tea.
Taste and pairing notes
In the cup
- Aroma: sweet grass, soft florals
- Flavor: sweet grass, almond, a hint of citrus
- Body: light, velvety texture
- Finish: clean and naturally sweet, with gentle earthiness
Food pairings
- Fresh fruit, melon, white peach
- Almond pastry, shortbread, lightly sweet cake
- Mild cheeses, cucumber sandwiches
Nepalese Silver Tips vs Chinese Silver Needle
Chinese Bai Hao Yin Zhen is the reference point for pure-bud white tea, and Silver Tips is made the same way. Where the two part company is terroir, not craft.
| Nepalese Silver Tips | Bai Hao Yin Zhen (Fujian) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pluck | Unopened buds only | Unopened buds only |
| Process | Withered and dried | Withered and dried |
| Profile | Sweet grass, almond, citrus, gentle earthiness | Floral and honeyed |
| Origin | Ilam, Nepal · 7,000 ft | Fujian, China |
| Brew | 180°F · 3 to 4 min · 2 tsp per 8 oz | 175 to 185°F · 3 to 5 min |
If you already drink Yin Zhen, this is a different expression of the same craft rather than an imitation of it. More background: what is silver tea.
Iced and cold brew
A pure-bud white cold-brews into something closer to a sweet infusion than a tea, since there is almost nothing astringent to extract.
- Ratio: 2 tsp per 12 oz cold water
- Time: 6 to 8 hours in the fridge
- Strain and serve plain, so the almond and citrus stay readable
Full method: cold brew Nepali loose leaf tea guide.
What is in the bud
White tea is the least handled of the tea types, so the bud arrives close to how it left the garden. Silver Tips naturally contains:
- Catechins, including EGCG: the most-studied polyphenols in tea.
- L-Theanine: an amino acid naturally present in tea leaf and bud.
- Caffeine: low to moderate, roughly 15 to 45 mg per 8 oz depending on leaf amount and steep time.
- Polyphenols: present in unrolled, unoxidized bud tea.
This describes what the bud contains. Caffeine in white tea is often assumed to be the lowest of any tea type, but published figures overlap green and black tea, and how you brew matters more than the type.
How it is made
Only unopened buds are taken, hand-plucked in the spring flush. They are withered and then dried, with no rolling, no firing, and no oxidation step, before being hand-sorted and packed. The silvery down on the outside of each bud is left intact, which is where the name comes from.
Related guides
USDA Organic. Grown and processed in Ilam, Nepal, and packed at our Saugus, MA warehouse. Direct trade with Ilam producers since 2012.
Why Our Customers Love Our Teas
FAQ about Organic Nepali White Tea Loose Leaf – Silver Tips, Almond & Citrus
Everything you need to know before your first cup.
