The Art of Tea Making.
What is oolong tea (烏龍茶)? The best explanation would be oolong is neither a green tea (completely unoxidized) or a black tea (fully oxidized) but somewhere in between (semi-oxidized).
The flavour profiles of an oolong tea can vary widely across a spectrum of characteristics being closer to a delicate green tea (eg. less oxidized high mountain oolongs or gaoshancha like Dayuling) or closer to a robust black tea (eg. more oxidized oolongs like Eastern Beauty Oolong). The tea master, or the artisan creator of the teas, fine-tunes processing techniques using different oxidation (typically anywhere ranging from 12%-80%), roasting levels and shaping of teas. Oolong teas are known for their distinct look of “green leaves with red edges” (綠葉鑲紅邊).
Wenshan Baozhong 12-15% oxidation, 0% roasting
High Mountain Oolongs (Dayuling, Lishan, Shanlinxi) 15-20% oxidation, 0% roasting
Dongding or Dongding Red Oolong 25-30% oxidation, 60-80% roasting
Tieguanyin 35-40% oxidation, 60-80% roasting
Eastern Beauty Oolong 60% oxidation, 0% roasting
Taiwanese oolong teas are commonly differentiated from oolong teas made in other parts of the world like China and India by their tightly curled-up ball shape. Some can also appear in long and thin leafy strands. Rolling is a crucial step involved in Taiwanese oolong tea processing that alters the physical shape, colour and aroma of the final tea leaves.
The making of oolong teas is truly an art of craftsmanship (製茶工藝). It requires gongfu (功夫) or immense skills and practice that takes many years to master. Like a movie or music production, there is a team of many hard-working folks behind-the-scene who deserve credits for what they do to enhance the flavour and aromas of teas. Without them, we would not have flavourful teas that “perform” well in our cups. We will begin to showcase and walk you through each step of this tedious and labour-intensive process.
1) Garden-to-processing （採茶箐）
Harvesting happens only early in the morning (start at 6am). Tea pickers hand pick tea shoots that have one bud with two or three leaves on them using small blades wrapped around their forefingers. Freshly-plucked tea leaves or chaching (茶箐) are collected in bamboo barrels and later transported to our tea-making facility.
2) Solar Withering （日光萎凋）
Tea makers start by tossing or shaking our plucked tea leaves with hands to facilitate bruising so that it initiates the oxidation process. They lay out tea leaves evenly outdoors to ensure even exposure to the sun. This way, circulation in the leaves begin and this helps induce uniform dehydration or zoushui （走水）.
3) Indoor Withering （室內萎凋）
Tea makers transport the sun-dried tea leaves indoors to continue withering in an air-conditioned space. They spread them out evenly on stainless steel racks and let them cool for about 3 to 4 hours time. This gives tea leaves the time to rest and cool down from the heat of the sun withering. Through cooling, tea leaves begin to wilt and soften.
4) Tossing （攪拌浪箐）
Tea leaves are tumbled in long woven bamboo cylinders or langqingji (浪箐機） to facilitate friction between each leaf. The physical agitation breaks down cell walls of the leaves, releasing enzymes and essential oils. With depleted moisture and exposure to air or oxygen, active oxidation occurs.
* Oxidation （發酵）is the crucial step in altering the flavour, colour and appearance of the tea leaves. Depending on how long the oxidation process lasts, tea makers determine the type of tea they will create.
5) Setting （靜置）
Tea leaves are then placed evenly on round bamboo trays to continue oxidation. The primary goal here is to deplete about 1/3 of the moisture to prepare for the next step.
6) Fixing or Kill Green （殺箐）
Partially-oxidized tea leaves are put into heated tumble dryers to stop the oxidation process. By using high temperatures, enzymes responsible for the oxidation process would be deactivated. This step has to be repeated many times intermittently until the leaves are shriveled and partially dry.
7) Shaping (定型)
Tea leaves are shaped into blocks using a “tofu” machine (豆腐機) to start the initial shaping process. This step alternates with deblocking many times.
8) Rolling （揉捻）
Later, they are tightly bundled up in cloth sacks to be placed on a machine that shapes like a lotus or lianhuaji （蓮花機). The lotus machine rolls these cloth sacks in a circular motion, rolling up the tea leaves into round, curled up balls.
9) Drying （乾燥）
After short intervals of rolling, tea leaves are then put onto low-heat conveyor belt machines that dry the leaves slowly. They will then be placed into heat tumblers repeatedly to set them apart again.
*Note that Steps 6-9 are repeated intermittently at least 20 times. Meanwhile, tea makers do intermittent tea tastings to ensure they are satisfied with the oxidation level and quality.
*Drying is important for complete depletion of moisture in the tea leaves so they will stay fresh and flavourful for storage. This increases the final tea’s shelf life.
*Roasting （焙火）is an added final step for adding a smoky flavour to roasted oolongs such as Dongding and Tieguanyin.
10) Sorting, Grading and Packaging （分類，等級，包裝）
Once the tea leaves are fully dried, tea makers will sort out tea leaves into different groups by hands according to their size and colour. Sorted tea leaves will then be categorized into different lots of teas and receive an industry grading. The grading depends on the proportion of whole leaf, broken leaf or unopened tea buds in each lot. Lots containing higher proportions of whole leaf will be packaged as looseleaf teas while lots containing more broken leaf and crumbs will be packaged as tea bags.
* For each batch of teas, our team of tea makers go through a sleepless night of hard work and effort. We split the work among two groups of tea makers, one for the late night while the other group takes over in the early morning. We can’t thank them enough for the many hours they dedicate to the teas they make. Therefore, every cup of tea you taste in your hands come through a lot of hands and sweat! Let’s cherish every sip of it.
Happy Brewing!
