Oooooo-long!

I have only recently been treated to my first cup of oolong tea.

I have to admit, I wasn't even sure what oolong tea was but I now regret the many years I spent bypassing it in favour of other teas.

Oolong is not a mix of green and black tea or something else altogether.  It is in fact somewhere between green and black tea.  Confused?

What makes the difference between green, black and oolong teas is purely oxidisation.  Green tea is only oxidised very slightly whereas black tea is left to oxidise for a long time, hence it ends up black.  So all tea starts off green and then it is how long it oxidises that determines its type.  Oolong tea is oxidised longer than green tea but not as long as black tea.

So that's the science bit, now for the taste and smell.

I tried the Formosa Dung Ti Oolong from The Tea Centre.  It smelled smokey and chocolatey, rich and deep.

The taste was very different to the smell.  It was soft and tasted subtly of fruit and grass.

The smell was reminiscent of black tea but the taste more like green tea.  It was perfectly balanced and deliciously different.

The look of the tea was also different.  Each tiny tea leaf was carefully rolled up so that it unfurled in the hot water.  Not just a delicious taste, but also a relaxing sight to watch as it brews.

In future I won't wait s-oolong to try out new teas!

Formosa Dung Ti: