Have done a bit of research, but found very little of substance. I was asked today about Milky Oolong, which I really like, and immediately answered that the better quality Milky Oolong is not artificially flavoured. But then I got to thinking about it and wondered how they make this tea. I'm going to open it up here, and ask you all if you know how this tea is made. Do you?
One site called enjoyingtea.com explained it this way:
Milk oolong tea, harvest in Taiwan, is also known as Jian Xuan. When brewed this tea produces a milky aroma and a creamy light sweet taste. The milk oolong is naturally processed with no artificial flavoring. The cream milky taste and aroma are produced by processing the tea leaves that endured a sudden change in weather during harvest at special conditions.
That's the most information I've unearthed. And it's not very specific. Another site that I won't mention said that the tea is rolled in milky water. Or watery milk. That makes no sense to me. Sounds like an answer a tea seller might come up with on the spot when he/she has no idea.
So I'm leaving it up to the scores of people who stumble by here. How does one make Milky Oolong milky?
Roy Fong did some investigation about this back in April and he turned up this information: http://camelliasinensisblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/roy-reports-from-taiwan-milk-oolong.html
ReplyDeleteI agree with you.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, I have no idea either.
Never seen it sold here in Adelaide.
I looked over on the Internet and I might not know the truth but I find the stories and explanations nice to read.
ReplyDeleteI've found inconsistent claims about milky oolong. I've been compiling the information into a single page: milky oolong, trying to cite as authoritative sources as I can find (and there's not much out there, honestly, it's mostly speculation or company sites, which in my opinion can't be fully trusted because they have an incentive to "talk up" their own product).
ReplyDeleteThe basic idea I found is that it seems there are at least three different approaches to creating Milky oolong: just harvesting/preparing tea in a special way, and then actually steaming the tea with milk (as a cheap substitute for the proper process), and lastly, using artificial flavoring as an even cheaper alternative to the milk steaming process. Check out my page for more detail...and if you have anything to contribute that's not listed there, please let me know so I can add it! Thanks!