Roasted but green oolongs?

Perhaps...

Green flavor = related to oxidation level Roasted = to bring out the fruitty sweetness in the tea, there are broadly 3 levels of roasting: light, medium, heavy It depends on what the tea maker wanted to produce, really. One can have a green oolong with a light roast to bring out the floral and leafy notes, or a green oolong with a medium roast to bring out a level of sweetness in the aftertaste, etc etc.

Danny

I have visited a few factorys in china and there is a huge variation in qulaity of different oolongs. Depending on what oxidation levels the factory want to achieve will definately widen the variety available and the taste . the Factory I saw had a wooden fire and a round tumbler where the leaves are tumbled many times over a certain heat. They are then taken out and put back in again for more tumbling , after that they are rolled or twisted and then tumbled again sometimes without heat and this can be done7 to 15 times. The second issue is quality. There are many levels of qulaity and I have found that there has been batches of tea that are mixed with different batches, blended. Do you see different colors of very light leaf and very dark leaf. The dark leaf is more oxidized the light greener leaf is less and this will definately account for grassy taste if there is green looking leaf there. Maurice

SN

It really depends on the variety of oolong you are talking about.

It will help if you mention the type oolong you are drinking.

Generally speaking, in ascending order of oxidation levels:

wenshan baozhong (taiwan) tie guan yin (south fujian) feng huang dang cong (guangdong) / wu yi rock tea (north fujian) bai hao wu long (or oriental beauty, champagne oolong etc) (taiwan)

As a rough guide, it ranges from 10% to 70% oxidation level.

Some vendor sells 99% oxidised oolong tea - I am not sure exactly what that means.

Rolling has an effect on favor too (long versus semi-ball versus ball), although it is more difficult to comment on if a lightly rolled tea (says wuyi) is more green than a heavily rolled tea (say tie guan yin).

I am still exploring this subject, so I am open to corrections from far more knowledgeable drinkers than myself.

:)

Julian

Maurice,

That is not roasting, but using heat to soften the leaves, and then when the leaves are rolled into desired shapes, to dry them to about a

Danny

Some of us have wanted for years to find a manufacturer that would help us with the following experiment:

- Start with one well-mixed lot of high-quality leaf

- Run through usual wither-roll-ferment process to make oolong

- Allow fermentation to proceed to three different levels, from almost-green to dark brown, and half-way.

- Roast all three enough to stop enzymic activity.

Then either the manufacturer or we could roast part of each lot to low, medium and high-roast. At least for that one kind of leaf, we would then be able better to understand the roles of fermentation and roasting.

Personally, my favorite oolongs tend to be medium-ferment and medium-roast, for maximum fragrance and complexity with minimal astringency. But it would be nice better to understand the variables.

Anyone know a boutique manufacturer who would help out?

-DM

Just add to Danny bit, it looks like Maurice is talking about the roasting/rolling stage.

As Danny pointed out, the main purpose of this stage is shaping, squeezing the juice out and let the tea absorbs it back again, some drying, with the accompanying chemical reactions.

The main oxidation process actually takes place before this in the withering/brusing stage (which is then followed by shaqing where high heat is applied for short amount of time to kill the leaf enzymes and greatly slow down the oxidation process.

Julian

To add to this excellent assessment, it used to be that the best wulongs were saved for heavy roasting when that type of tea was the market trend. Mostly people in Taiwan preferred the smokey, heavy flavor of the 'nong xiang' wulongs. The target market has switched away from the rich folks in Taiwan to the mainland, a huge percentage of the tea being sold in Guangdong, where the people like easier to enjoy teas. Most lightly roasted or green wulong is much sweeter and has a more simple flavor that even non-tea drinkers can enjoy whilst the higher grades of heavy roasted tea can be quite complex.

But tea is no different from any market. It's supply and demand...and the demand is from the slightly more uneducated Cantonese.

It is pretty harsh to call the Cantonese uneducated :)

After all they have produced the superb Phoenix Dangcong tea for so hundred or more years.

It is an interesting point made there. I actually observe something different.

It really depends on what you mean by roasting.

Does it refer to the final ovening stage where low heat for an extended period of time to further stimulate the favors?

It seems that the better leaves (higher grade) tend to be less roasted than the lower grades.

Probably because they tend to more tender.

This applies to green tea processing, in general, the higher the grade, the lower the heat and handpressure in the making process.

It is something I still need to clarify with my tea garden about.

:)

Julian

Not to pick nits or anything, but:

Not all people from Guangdong are considered "Cantonese". Canton was the old name for Guangzhou so it mainly refers to people that are from the Pearl River Delta Area; the stricter, older folks say it's only people from Guangzhou that are the true Cantonese.

The area that Danchong is produced around ChaoShan; Chaozhou, Shantou, JieYang and the like. Their first language isn't even Cantonese, and they were born and raised speaking the Chaoshan dialect.

Most local Dongguan (city I'm in) people are dumber than mud and just about as uncouth and there will be little anyone on the entire face of the planet to change this in my mind. I am a teacher here. I have seen it all. But, they are rich so they can afford rubbish tea and wine that they think is good AND afford the mark-up from the shops that want to cheat them. Why they are stupid is because they don't even care.

Yes, this reflects the market trend. More people can appreciate the simple flavors of the less roasted teas especially around this area. Before the market was all about Tie Guan Yin and now its switched to mainly Pu'er. There is SOME demand for what the locals consider as "clean tea" and most consider Taiwan as being more clean than mainland tea...which is true. Look at the trend of stuff from the mainland these days that has been considered filthy. Toys..food...just about everything.

Before ALL the better grade stuff out of Taiwan was heavy roasted.

Green tea is another ball game and there are a million of different roasting styles and variants to consider before even getting into a conversation about it.

Agree. I was aware I was making a simplication there.

I am not too familiar with the other Chinese provinces, but for Guangdong and Fujian the diversity is truly staggering. I grow up in a village in Malaysia. We are originally from Fuzhou. But then there were the Chaozhou, Kejia and Yongchun. And when I look at the map, it is truly amazing how each region speaks a different language.

Interestingly enough when I visit northern China in Dalian or Sichuan Chengdu, I can understand their local directs - they sound remarkedly similar to standard Mandarin.

What are you teaching over there and how is dongguan like?

Julian

Enough said about Dongguan. Read above. A trash hole not worth even thinking about.

Sichuan has dozens of different dialects as well as it's "standard" that is mostly spoken around its capital Chengdu and Chongqing. Those languages have been strongly affected by Mandarin because of many reasons like the Cultural Revolution, etc. It's the smaller towns where you will find the real indigenous Sichuan dialects; more than likely the truer versions of the language. Those dialects have their own vocabulary and even words that are not used in Mandarin anymore. Chengdu language is easy to understand...find some old people and try to talk to them and see how easy you find that. Chongqing is also a bit more difficult if you can find some of the real locals.

Just like the Meizhou Kejia language. They call their language "standard" but it's so highly influenced by Cantonese and Mandarin that it's much easier to understand than, say, my friend from the North of Guangdong that grew up in an isolated mountain town.

Agree. But still not as "weird" as the mainstream guangdong and fujian.

I might have come across them in my younger days, although it is hard to hear that now. O you make me miss Asia so much!!!

I was surprised you haven't mentioned the staggering diversity of yunan and guizhou:)

Julian