The Stories of Oolong Tea. Where the Black Dragon taking over your teacups.

"Oolong" tea is one of the most famous tea type in the world. It contains two chinese characters: "Oo" is for "烏", which means "Black", and "long" is for "龍", which means "Dragon". Therefore, some people also call oolong tea as black dragon tea.

There are a lot of different stories of how it got this name of "oolong". Some claim that it was named after a hunter lived in Fujian Province, Su long, whose nickname is oolong because of his dark skin. One day, Su Long went to the mountain to pick up some tea leaves. During his way to the mountain, he discovered a roe deer and decide to hunt it for feast. He chased after it and put up a huge effort to catch it. He took the deer home for a feast with his family and totally forgot the tea leaves he picked. On the next day when they try to process the tea leaves, they found out that those leaves had turned red and distribute a differently mild scent. Therefore, they named this new tea "Oolong".

Another story is about the shape and presentation of the oolong tea itself. After all the complicated processing of oolong tea, it becomes a dark and long narrow strip, shaping like a fish. In ancient Chinese legend, a fish (especially a carp) who has the strength and courage to swim up the waterfalls (dragon gate) will turn into a dragon. And when the tea leaves soak in the boiled water it strengthen up and curved like a black dragon. Therefore, this kind of tea is called "Oolong" tea. This story is also connected to the tribute tea (貢茶, which means tea that is cultivated and processed for the sole consumption of the emperor's family) system in ancient China. In 975A.D, the Northern Song Dynasty conquered the South Tang Dynasty and recovered the famous tea making location Beiyuan (北苑) in Fujian Province. In order to to distinguish the royal drink with general public, the emperor ordered Beiyuan to start making a special kind of tea cake named Dragon-Phenix Tea Cake (龍鳳團茶). This famous tea cake had been highly praised because of its delicate technique and difficulty to acquire. Many generals and government officials always claimed that it is more difficult to acquire a Dragon-Phenix Tea Cake than gold. This special tea cake has been the center of the tribute tea in Song Dynasty but gradually lost popularity by the war chaos in the end of the Song Dynasty and the following Yuan dynasty. Until 1391A.D, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty ordered to abolish the manufacturing of tea cake and embrace the loose leaf. It is believed that the Beiyuan Dragon-Phenix Tea Cake is the ancestor of oolong tea in the following Qing Dynasty.

The making of the oolong tea is a combination of green tea and black tea and it contains the advantages of both green tea and black tea. It has the bold and thick flavor of black tea, and at the same time owns the fragrant and freshness of green tea, therefore is very popular among tea lovers.

Read more...

Learn More About Your Everyday Drink--Tea.

Tea is the second most widely consumed beverage in the world, just after water. A cup of finely brewed tea can sooth your mind, and provide you a reason to stop and think. Although slightly bitter and astringent, tea is still very popular among every generation and countries. Some tea (especially green tea) is also beneficial to human’s health and longevity since it provides significant antioxidant, flavanols, flavonoids, and polyphenols content.

From green tea to Oolong, from black tea to Pu-Erh, there are a lot of different kinds of tea in the world. During the processing of tea, one key factor to determine and classify the types of tea is using the degree of fermentation that tea leaves are allowed to sustain. Fermentation is an enzyme oxidation process that allowing the fresh-picked tea leaves to dry. This process can be stop by either pan-frying or steaming the leaves before they are completely dried out.

There are four classifications of tea according to the degree of fermentation, rolling, baking, and tealeaf maturity:

a)     Non-Fermented Tea: In this classification, tealeaf retains part of their original taste. The most well-known and popular green tea is part of this classification. Manufacturer use either pan-frying or steaming process to stop the fermentation. There are:

1.     a.Pan-Fried: Dragon Well (龍井), Xingyang Maojian (信陽毛尖), Biluochun (碧蘿春)

1.     b.Steamed:  Japanese Green Tea (Sencha)

b)     Semi-Fermented Tea: According to the oxidation degree of polyphenolic substances, tea which undergo 8%~60% fermentation falls into this class, including:

1.     a.Pouchong Tea (包種茶)
2.     b.Oolong (烏龍茶)
3.     c.Tung-Ting Oolong (凍頂烏龍茶)
4.     d.Ti-Kuan Yin (鐵觀音)
5.     e.Oriental Beauty Tea (東方美人茶)
6.     f .Herbal Tea
7.  

c)      Fully-Fermented Tea: All kinds of black tea are fully fermented, including Keemun Black Tea (祁門紅茶), Yunnan Black Tea (滇紅). 

d)     Post-Fermented: The famous Pu-Erh (普洱茶)is part of the post-fermented tea. It is fermented, stopped the ferment process, and then later fermented again.

Read more...