To understand Oolong tea (2)

(Continued from here)

6. Mention of special growing methods

'Organic tea' is heavily advertised nowadays. This is an information that sellers are eager to share if the plants are grown organically.
However, the concept of 'organic' is quite wide. We can distinguish between:
- Normal management of the field, but the farmer will use no pesticides and only natural fertilizer,
- Abandoned plantations which are still harvested. I call this semi-wild. An example is this 2007 Spring Wenshan Baozhong
- Wild grown trees. Extremely rare for Oolong (but less rare for puerh).

A word of caution: organic growth is just one of the many parameters that affects tea. It is, by far, not the only indicator of the quality of a tea. Proven organic Oolong often comes at a much higher cost than regular Oolong. In a large number of cases, I don't find that the taste/fragrance of Oolong is improved sufficiently to justify the higher cost. However, there are some teas like Oriental Beauty or the red tea based on Da Yeh Oolong that need to be grown without pesticides so that their leaves will be bitten by tea jassids. For them, organic growth is a necessity.

7. Harvesting methods

High quality Oolong is picked by hand. This way, the leaf is picked at the stem and not cut in pieces. Gao Shan Oolong plantations are mostly located on slopes of mountains and these places can't be accessed by mechanical cutting machines. So the only practical way to harvest the leaves is by hand. This increases the cost and also takes more time.

Mechanical harvesting takes place in the plains, where tea fields are large and located on flat land. It also has some advantages -besides a lower cost-: it can shorten the harvesting time to the best time of the day (around noon), when the leaves are the driest, which is also when it's hottest and the most difficult for people to work. This can make up for some of the quality lost due to the mechanical cut, so that mechanical harvesting does not have such a bad impact on teas that are of low/medium quality to begin with.

The way to recognize that a leaf has been picked by hand: the stem doesn't have a clear cut, but is like torn (See picture below).

On the other hand, a mechanically harvested leaf is cut by a blade. This leaves a red oxidation mark at the place where the metal cut the leaf. Also, you will notice that many leaves are cut in pieces instead of being whole.

8. Transformation process

After the leaves have been harvested, they go through a series of processes. The major decision of the farmers will be how strong to push the oxidation. What he will do with his tea leaves depend on several factors (customer demand, tea tree variety, season, humidity level during the harvesting...). One interesting example of how versatile tea can be: in Hsin Chu County, with Qingxin Da Pa, farmers make green tea (0% oxidation) in spring, then Oriental Beauty (50-70% oxidation) in June and red tea (100% oxidation) in summer. This changes the fragrance of the tea quite drastically.
How to recognize the oxidation level: the more red the open leaves, the stronger the oxidation. (picture shows a 100% oxidized tea).
A good description of an Oolong would try to characterize its oxidation level.

9. Roasting

This is the last transformation stage of Oolong. It is not necessarily made by the farmer. Traditionally, it is done by the tea merchants. They perform a light roasting to dry the leaves so that they keep their freshness longer or to refresh unsold leaves after one year. Slow and long roasting will also give Oolong more fruity and dark scents, as well as more body. A fully roasted Oolong is then called Shou (cooked) as opposed to 'green' Oolong, which is called Sheng (raw).
Good old Oolongs have necessarily gone through sufficient roasting to withstand years of storage.

(To learn more about the impact of roasting on Oolongs, you can order the following roasted Baozhongs and compare them to regular Baozhong:
- Qizhong Oolong, a medium roasted (30%) top grade Wenshan Baozhong of Spring 2006.
- Shou Cha, a strongly roasted (50%) top grade Wenshan Baozhong of Spring 2006.
Both are available in 50 gr packs

And to understand the impact of age on roasted Oolongs, you can check the old Taiwan Teas in my selection or you can come back to check on my blog as I plan to explore these teas in greater depth in the coming weeks.)

Conclusion: To make the most of the experience of drinking Oolong, you will need accurate data about its characteristics. And little by little you will be able to distinguish between Oolong varieties, between plantation locations, between seasons, between oxidation and roasting levels... But why bother learning? Because the more precisely you can describe the Oolong you love, the likelier you are to get it!

Chinese Tea Culture Online Museum

I added this new link to a Chinese Tea Museum. It features -among other things- some very nice old Chinese paintings about tea like the one below. And the good thing about the museum is that it's neither located in Taipei nor in Beijing, but online, just a mouse click away! Strolling through the different pages, and you will see that the passion for making tea, tea ware and enjoying life dates back a long, long time.

Théières classiques en zisha d'Yixing

En mai dernier, j'avais trouvé deux jolies Nanfang Zhuni Xiao Pin. Une de forme Si Ting et l'autre de forme Li Xin. Vous aviez été nombreux à me demander des théières semblables. J'ai donc rendu une nouvelle visite à l'ami collectionneur d'où elles viennent. Ci-dessous, voilà 5 théières en zisha du même potier. Elles sont dans le même style classique et sobre que j'apprécie pour le gongfu cha. Leurs tailles varient de 9 cl à 15 cl.

宜興紫砂孟臣梨型壺
Yixing Zisha Mengchen Li Xin Hu (Forme de poire de Mengchen)

宜興紫砂甕型壺
Yixing Zisha Wong Xin Hu (Forme de jarre)

宜興紫砂仿思亭葫蘆型壺
Yixing Zisha Fang Si Ting Hu Lu Xin Hu

宜興紫砂孟臣小神燈壺
Yixing Zisha Xiao Shen Deng Hu (Forme de lampe à huile ou d'Aladin!)

宜興紫砂仿君德型壺
Yixing Zisha Fang Jun De Xin Hu

Petite précision: elles sont déjà toutes vendues ou réservées à des lecteurs qui m'avaient contacté en mai pour leur en trouver dans ce genre.

To understand Oolong tea

(Note: this article follows Jim's comment asking me which Oolong varieties have which characteristics)

Many parameters influence the taste and smell of Oolong tea. Let's try to make a comprehensive list of all the information a drinker should have to understand exactly what Oolong he's drinking. (Also valid for other tea categories).

1. The tree variety
The first information an Oolong tea drinker needs is the name of the tea tree from which the leaves were harvested. Different tree varieties have different characteristics:
- luanze Oolong, also called Qingxin Oolong is the traditional 'soft stem' Oolong. Its emphasis is more on the yun, the aftertaste than on the fragrance.
- Si Ji Chun, Tsui Yu (Jade) Oolong, and Jinxuan Oolong are of a very fragrant type and have less aftertaste.
- Qingxin Da Pa is between these 2 groups with a balance of fragrance and aftertaste.

For the above teas, the fragrance itself will depend a lot on the process of the leaves, so it's difficult to make any general remarks in this regard. There are, however, Oolong varieties that have very distinctive fragrances:
- Tie Guan Yin, the iron goddess, comes to mind, or
- Bai Ji Guan as well as most varieties from Wu Yi.

Knowing the Oolong tree variety is the first step to understand your tea.

2. Where does it come from?

2 very common names around here in Taiwan are: Dong Ding Oolong or Gao Shan Cha (High Mountain tea). Such names don't mean very much if you can't get more precise information. Dong Ding Oolong has become a generic term for any kind of rolled Oolong that has been roasted. And Gao Shan Cha is a generic term for high mountain tea, because high altitude produces fresher and lighter Oolongs. But each mountain has a different soil and its own character. It even makes sense to know what part of the mountain the tea comes from and the elevation of the plantation.

For instance, my fresh Dong Ding Oolongs come from Feng Huang, one of the few locations close to the Dong Ding village that qualify as Dong Ding Oolong. And my Shan Lin Shi high mountain Oolong comes from the Long Feng Hsia district, the highest part of the mountain.

3. The season of the harvest

Each season has a different climate (temperature and sun/rain). This has an influence on the taste and smell of Oolong tea.
- Spring is more flowery and fragrant
- Summer has a cereal fragrance. Fragrances are often heavier (temperatures are higher),
- Winter season gives more dryness and long aftertaste to the tea. (It's the driest season)
- Fall is somewhere between winter and summer.


4. The year of the harvest

In the wine industry, this is one of the most basic information. Usually it stands right in the middle of the label. For Oolong, on the other hand, it is not always easy to get this information. The general assumption is that an Oolong needs to be young and fresh to be good. This is only true for low oxidation Oolongs, though, and those that are not (or just a little) roasted. Because they have a higher water content, these teas will deteriorate over time. However, thanks to modern air removing sealers, such Oolongs can be kept fresh for over 12 months if storage conditions are right.

Roasted Oolongs, on the other hand, need a few weeks or months (depends on the degree of roasting) of rest to taste very good again. Such Oolongs can make very good candidates for long term aging. After 20 years of right storage, they will evolve and gain new, complex fragrances.


5. Leaf grade

Sometimes, farmers harvest only a particular grade of leaves (the best or the rest) to make tea of different qualities. This can be the case when they prepare to attend a tea competition. Good teas will then also be processed manually to take away the stems. There is more grading going on for Baozhong than for rolled Oolong. This information is not critical as the leaves will speak for themselves once you make them.
(Article continued here)

Enjoying tea

I may not always have the time for a new article on the blog...but I try to always find some time for tea!And when light illuminates the tea set, it's just too beautiful not to share with you!
So I wish you all the best while drinking excellent Chinese tea!

Oolong torréfiés traditionnels

La semaine dernière, j'ai fait une petite dégustation de 3 de mes Oolongs torréfiés du centre de Taiwan. Je voulais les comparer au Oolong torréfié, 7ème place de la compétition de Lugu (parmi près de 5000 participants). - Si vous ne savez pas de quel thé je parle, envoyez-moi un e-mail à stephane_erler at yahoo.com pour recevoir la petite lettre dans laquelle je décris cette compétition et ce thé.-
Ce thé, placé à droite, peut être considéré comme un standard, un étalon pour le Oolong traditionnel du centre de Taiwan, dit Dong Ding en référence à la petite localité située à 2 km de Lugu. Ces Oolongs (généralement des luanze Oolong) ont la particularité d'être torréfiés, c'est à dire séchés au four (ou bien au-dessus de braises) afin de développer d'autres saveurs plus mures et moelleuses que celles qu'on trouve dans les Oolongs verts et frais qui sont en vogue actuellement.

Paradoxalement, les meilleurs Oolongs torréfiés ne sont plus récoltés à Dong Ding, mais dans les hautes montagnes (Shan Lin Shi, Ali Shan, Li Shan). Ainsi, ce thé de 7e place vient de Li Shan (tout comme le no 1 de ce printemps, d'ailleurs.)
Les autres thés, de gauche à droite, sont:
- le Feng Huang Dong Ding 'classique' du printemps 2007,
- le Shan Lin Shi torréfié du printemps 2004,
- le Feng Huang Dong Ding 'haute torréfaction' du printemps 2007.

Les couleurs de l'infusion sur la photo ci-dessous nous renseignent sur le degré de torréfaction des Oolongs respectifs:

1. le Feng Huang Dong Ding 'classique' est un plus léger que notre étalon. C'est celui chez qui on sent le moins la torréfaction. Je le trouve très féminin. Ses odeurs se font un peu penser à la Beauté Orientale de Hsin Chu.

2. Le Shan Lin Shi de 2004 est, lui, un peu plus fortement torréfié que l'étalon. Ses feuilles sont grandes et fortes. En jouant un peu avec les temps d'infusion (en réduisant), j'ai pu obtenir des résultats proches du Li Shan de 2007. Il profite, lui, du fait d'avoir eu le temps de se reposer 3 ans depuis sa torréfaction. Il a une belle plénitude et de l'"épaisseur" en bouche. On sent que son origine de haute altitude apporte un plus en concentration de saveurs au thé.

3. Le Feng Huang Dong Ding 'haute torréfaction' mérite complètement son nom. Sa robe brun sombre montre bien la force de la torréfactin qu'il a subi. On va encore plus loin dans les saveurs mures, mais cela a aussi pour effet de donner au thé un peu d'amertume sèche. C'est comme un jeune Bordeaux si tannique que de nombreuses fragrances sont encore prisonnières. Il a donc encore besoin de repos et fera un bon Oolong à vieillir.

4. Le Li Shan de compétition est superbe. Il ne m'en reste pas assez pour l'inclure dans ma sélection, mais je ferai de mon possible pour en chercher d'autres de ce genre. Ce n'est pas évident, car la grande majorité des Oolongs de haute montagne n'est pas torréfiée. C'est le genre de mission que j'aime: visiter les fermiers à la recherche de leurs meilleurs thés!...

Moon Festival - Fête de la lune d'automne

We're in the middle of this festival. As you can see, one of the main activity is to eat Moon (round) cakes and to drink tea!


Je vous souhaite une bonne fête d'automne! C'est une de mes fêtes chinoises préférée, car on la passe à manger des friandises chinoises traditionnelles et boire du thé!

Hsin Chu county Oriental Beauty

The following is a translation of recent important articles on Oriental Beauty. My apologies for using the same pictures again.

To understand why I chose to select an Oriental Beauty from the Hsin Chu county, you may want to read my Study of Oriental Beauty. Over the years, I had the chance to try Oriental Beauties from Wenshan, Nantou, Hsin Chu county and even China. I came to the conclusion that the best, most authentic Oriental Beauty Oolong comes from Hsin Chu County. This doesn't mean that they are all good in Hsin Chu. Bai Hao Oolong comes in many grade levels and a high grade Wenshan OB is most likely to smell better than a lower grade Hsin Chu OB. But at similar levels, I find the Hsin Chu Pong Fong Cha has its own character (the others often smell like imitations) and a wonderful balance between a sweet, fruity fragrance and a smooth and long aftertaste.
Above are a few pictures from a small town in the county where Dong Fang Mei Ren comes from.
This is the tea with the many names:
- Oriental Beauty, the name given by the queen of England
- Dong Fang Mei Ren, the translation back into Chinese,
- Bai Hao Oolong, Oolong with white hair/fur because of the white hairy tips of the dry leaves,
- Wu Si Cha, 5 colors tea, another reference to the many colors of the dry leaves,
- Pong Fong Cha, braggart's tea, because the first farmer who sold his 'damaged' tea leaves got such a high price for them that people back home said he was bragging.


Description of this Oriental Beauty:
This plantation uses the Oolong Da Pa tree, harvests the leaves manually in June, the best time for this tea. This Oolong is semi-oxidized, over 50%. But it has also been roasted mildly. This way it can be stored easier and longer.
Standard brew: 3 grams for 5 minutes in a white competition tasting set with just boiled water.

The color of the tea brew is a dark gold/orange. It has a nice transparency and shine. This is the mark of a well done tea. Fragrances: Fruity, sweet and honey. Besides, they are very pure and natural. There are no off or 'funny' smells. This is indeed the kind of beautiful classic Oriental Beauty I was after. (There's much more to say beyond these obvious observations. But I want to give everybody the chance to make his own discoveries).
Taste: A good balance and a hint of acidity. It's mellow and just a litlle astringency on the tongue. It slips very well down the throat. And then, this little astringency on the tongue seems to help retain the fragrances so that the aftertaste is long like a Marathon. The open leaves show the degree of their semi-oxidation Below, the arrows show where the leaves have been bitten by the tea jassids. This bites start the oxidation of the leaf and give Oriental Beauty its special fragrance.

This June, I had the chance to see the harvest on this plantation. The following pictures were taken back then:

These leaves have been damaged by the jassids. We can see it at the brown marks and by the shape of the leaves. Most tea farmers would be furious and use pesticides. But for Oriental Beauty, the farmers need the insects to achieve their distinctive, natural flavor. That's why they don't use any pesticides here. Usually, you need 3 elements to make tea: heaven (weather), earth (soil) and men (skilled farmers). This is not sufficient for Oriental Beauty. We also need the Jacobiasca formosana Paoli for their precious bites! That's also what makes this tea more special (and more expensive) than most other teas. These insects are (luckily) quite common during the warm months of summer. Insects like the warm and humid climate. That's why you find many more of them in the plains than in the (Wenshan) mountain or at high altitude. And that's probably the reason why Hsin Chu Oriental Beauty is the best.

(On the picture below, you can see 2 such tea jassids)

Despite a flat plantation, the harvests for this tea are made by hand, not mechanically. This is better for the taste of the tea and lets the farmer select the grade of leaves he wants to harvest.

Beautiful skilled hands in action!

These women on the fields are almost all over 50 years old. With their smiles, they are the other Oriental Beauties we need to make this tea!


This moment of rest is well deserved.

Remark: For your orders, this Oriental Beauty is packaged and priced the same way as the Spring 2007 luanze Oolong from Shan Lin Shi.



If you are still reading this long article, I will now consider that you are indeed very patient and interested in understanding and appreciating Oriental Beauty. I think you deserve to read and see this following Oriental Beauty, which I call 'perfect'.
These few leaves are the best Oolong I have in my selection. They come from the same plantation, the same trees and the same time as above. The tea in the cup is of a light golden color. The fragrance is so pure and concentrated that I prefer to brew it very light, using just a few grams and minute(s) long infusions. The result is this light and transparent color. The fragrance is beyond flowers or fruits: we enter the realm of perfume! And the taste is so sweet and mellow that all I start making the same noises as Meg Ryan in this scene of 'When Harry met Sally'. Humm, hummm, hummmm...
To understand why this Oriental Beauty is of such exceptional quality, you have to look at the open leaves: it includes only the most tender buds that have been bitten by the Jacobiasca formosana Paoli, the tea jassid. The touch of these leaves is so strong and elastic.

Such an incredible tea is not made by chance. This tea comes from a 3 jin (4 pounds only!) batch where only the best leaves on the field were selected. That's why the cost making this tea is so high. Only this kind of leaves were picked:
When the farmer showed me this tea and told me its (high) price, it was more to show me what he is capable of and make me tea happy than for business. With such confidential volumes, this is the essence of guanxi cha, a tea that you share with people close to you. So, he was really surprised when I told him I wanted to buy all of it! He looked at me with a concern he had trouble to articulate. Embarassed, he used a very polite and soft voice to ask if it were OK if I left him with 150 grams of this tea. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to drink such a beautiful Oriental Beauty until next summer! Of course, I said!

This is really the kind of tea that one should save for a special occasion (birthday, Chrismas...) So, to give more people a chance to drink it, I have decided to package it using only 12 grams per pack. It is a good way to encounter tea excellence and have a glimpse at what angels must be drinking...