Had a very heavy Bavarian meal (a fried egg sitting atop a fry-up of different meats, vegetables and potatoes), and the only thing I wanted afterwards was to come home and brew up some tea. I'd already made one infusion of Formosa Oolong in the afternoon, so I brewed it again and only then was the evening complete.
Have been reading quite a lot about Oolong lately, and the thing that's almost always mentioned is that it's not bitter. That's certainly accurate. Seems that most of the ones my tea-seller offers are the more oxidised and at least closer to black tea.
When I read about others' experiences with Oolong, they sound (and the pictures appear) as if they're the less-oxidised variety. Closer to green tea. Am very curious to find more of these Oolongs.
The photos of these very green Oolongs on other blogs make it all the more obvious that I'm drinking another animal entirely. The leaves of mine after three or four infusions and very brown and tired looking. Off to do some online tea shopping.
Formosa Oolong is one of my favorites! Not cheap but lovely. It certainly doesn't look 'very green'..Anyone else got a comment about that?
ReplyDeleteWithin the Oolong tea category there are several categories of tea!
ReplyDeleteThe very lightly oxidized; (10%-30%)-pouchong
Mid oxidized (50%-60%)-DanCong or Yancha
High oxidized (75%+)-TieKuanYin or Aged oolong.
These are just from my personal observation.
I would think that (usually) Formosa oolongs fall under the mid oxidized category, even if the leaves look pretty brown!
My technical input.
=]
For sound "technical" comments, you can always ask Sir William of the Leaf :D
ReplyDeleteAnd what were your impressions on this tea?
I have nothing technical to add---what a surprise--- all I can say is that I like Formosa Oolong, very much and drink it regularly.
ReplyDeleteOolong teas are definitely on the top of my list. :3
ReplyDeleteI purchased this tea (http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2010/05/concept-tea-2-red-black-tea-dan-cong.html) a while ago, which Ginkgo talked about in his blog, and I did a review of it as well. No doubt you might remember it.
Oolongs are usually described as somewhere between Green and Black. This tea would be somewhere just above an Oolong and just below a black tea. The infusions are somewhat sweet, like most Oolong, but it has a very roasted (perhaps almost like coffee beans) taste to it as well.
Since you too seem to really enjoy Oolongs, perhaps you should try to get a hold of some of this. There might be some left on Gingko's site, Life in Teacup.
-Fox