I confess that when I started my tea business in April, I did not know much about tea, so this has been a wonderful journey. I learned alot through the information and training provided by my upline and Steeped's head office. But me being me, I've also done a lot of independent learning as well.
In my December newsletter, I introduced my readers to Oolong tea. You can read the archived newsletter by clicking on the link to the right. You can also subscribe to my newsletters and that option is also on this page. Up to that time, oolong got a tiny mention at tea parties, indicating that it was a tea that was semi-oxidized, somewhere between a green and a black tea. Our winter flyer, released at the start of this month, features an oolong tea, so I ordered some for myself and am trying to learn a little bit more about this type of tea. After my first cup of it, my first impression of it is that if you like the taste of a black tea, but wouldn't miss that slight astringency that you can get at the back of your mouth as you swallow a black tea, you might really enjoy oolong.
Now there can be a number of ways to drink oolong, from regular steeping in a mug or pot, to multiple steepings in a pot and serving it gongfu style. If you are a newbie to oolong, the traditional western way of drinking it, steeped in a regular pot or brewing mug is absolutely acceptable, and that's the way I drink it. Until today, I didn't know what gongfu meant, although I'd come across the word a few times. I've just come across a great article on oolong, featuring an oolong expert, an American who imports just oolong tea. You can read the whole article here if you like - it's an easy, informative read. Here are a few highlights (italicized):
Semi-oxidized: Teamakers in the Wuyi mountains of China's Fujian province created the first oolongs when they came up with a way to halt oxidation midway through the process, creating an almost limitless and magical range of flavors. The technique involves setting the teas in the sun, then rolling or twisting them to start oxidation. (In the north, the leaves are twisted; in the traditional southern style, the teamaker rolls the tea into tight balls.) The leaves are then "fired," or heated, to halt the process at just the right moment.
Gongfu style: Gong fu looks complicated but essentially involves brewing the tea in several rounds in a small clay pot. Hot water is poured over the leaves, which are allowed to steep for anywhere from 20 to 90 seconds. In Taiwan, the tea is then poured into a small ceramic cup to cool and then is poured into another small cup for drinking. Tea drinkers sniff the emptied cup to take in the intense aromas, then drink the tea. The process can be repeated up to 15 times.
Is this another tea ceremony? In Japan, a tea ceremony has strict rules based on history and culture. In China and Taiwan, "making and drinking tea is a social thing... It's what you do when you sit around and talk."
Flavours: Depending on the leaf used, the region grown, the time picked, oolong may have many flavour nuances (as does wine). Some of the flavours you might pick up on when sipping oolong are:
- Taiwanese Lanyun tea leaves, with aromas of ginger and orchid flowers
- A Wulong tea from the mountains of Taiwan, for example, will start out fragrant with a hint of honeysuckle, then develop peach, apricot, even earthy flavors
- A Tiguanyin, a classic style of oolong, smells like raisin with a hint of smoke, tastes like nectarine, then develops a mild, malty flavor
Is oolong expensive? Top-grade oolongs sell for as much as $200 a pound, another reason they can seem off-putting. Why pay that much for tea, especially if you don't even know how to drink it? But the cost of brewing loose-leaf oolongs, even the priciest ones, isn't as high as it appears. A pound of leaves makes at least 90 mugs of tea, more if you do multiple infusions. Even at $200 per pound, that comes out to $2.20 a cup, about the same as a medium-size cup of tea from Starbucks. At Teaism, entry-level oolongs sell for $44 per pound, less than 50 cents per cup. In fact, Wright recommends that new oolong drinkers stick with less-expensive tea. There's no need to splurge for tea that's meant to be served gong fu if the drinker is using a mug with a built-in strainer or a tea ball. Instead, he advises tea drinkers to get to know a tea, just as they would a wine. Once they can denote and appreciate subtleties, they can choose a higher grade or experiment with the gong-fu style.
Steeped's Iron Goddess Oolong is available in 2 sizes, 50g at $9.99 and 100g at $12.99. That means the price per cup is approximately 40 cents for the small bag and about 26 cents for theh large bag. Talk about an affordable luxury!
How do I brew an oolong at home if I don't have the paraphanelia for gongfu brewing? Remember that you don't need that stuff! Especially when you are first starting out. Use your Brew in the Mug or a tea infuser if you are brewing a pot that doesn't come with a steeping basket (all of ours do, by the way).
At Teaism, oolongs are steeped for about five minutes in a ceramic teapot or a cup. The Tea Cellar at the Park Hyatt takes a different approach. In the elegant lounge decorated with Asian tea paraphernalia and jars of loose-leaf tea, tea sommelier Bum Sik Shin brews oolongs in fat glass pots so guests can see the variety of colors and watch them change over time. They use water prepared at the right temperature for oolongs, between 205 and 212 degrees.
A glass teapot - don't have one yet? I can help you out with that!
Oolong tea - ready to try it? I can help you out with that too! And next time a sipping a cup of Steeped's oolong, I'm going to try to distinguish the subtle flavours in tea.
