A Basic Introduction to Taiwanese Oolong Tea
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A Basic Introduction to Taiwanese Oolong Tea We’d like to start with a special thanks to Li Guang Chung, whose research was invaluable in creating this introduction. 烏 Taiwan is truly a tea paradise, full of bountiful tea varieties, tea culture and events, teaware artisans and masters. A Chajin can turn any corner and find another tea lover to share another perspective over a cup or two. The island’s wealth of tea is way beyond the scope of even an extended issue of Global Tea Hut. There is more oolong variety than we can explore, let alone all the other kinds of red and green tea the island offers. If you look 龍 at it, the island itself is shaped like a tea leaf! Our journey through Taiwanese oolong will be geographical. Like all true Zen masters, Tea has always been known by the mountain She comes from, since She is one with Her terroir. A few of the teas shown on the map to the right are varietals/ processing methods—Baozhong, GABA, Eastern Beauty and Tieguanyin—but the rest are locations. We will move from the general to the specific, starting with an overview in this article and then moving into the history of Taiwanese tea, changes over time, varietals and then some informative articles on specific oolong regions and farmers. So let Guanyin flick her magic waters on us and let’s climb up on this black dragon. He’s gentle, and will guide us well... Wen Shan 文山 / Pinglin 坪林 Baozhong (包種) GABA (佳龍) Muzha 木柵 Tieguanyin (鐵觀音) * Beipu 北埔 Eastern Beauty (東方美人) *also found in Miaoli (苗栗) Taichung 台中 Li Shan (梨山) Da Yu Ling (大禹嶺) Nantou 南投 Mingjian (名間) Dong Ding (凍頂) Shan Lin Xi (衫林溪) Yu Shan (玉山) Chiayi 嘉義 Ali Shan (阿里山) Taiwan Oolong olong is the richest and most leaves from Wuyi mountain like a 1. The trees and the environ- refined of tea chests, filled green tea or an artificially fermented ment/terroir. with so many varieties and black tea (not red!), they would not Okinds of tea that you couldn’t explore be nearly as good as green tea from a 2. The farming methods, viz., them all in a lifetime. It is technically green tea varietal or Liu Bao black tea. organic or not, fertilized or not, defined by the fact that it is semi-ox- Furthermore, they wouldn’t be as nice irrigated or not, etc. idized, but that barely sketches an as the oolong made from the same 3. The processing/drying of the outline of this huge genre of tea— leaves! tea leaves. especially since “semi-oxidized” can And this evolution continues on in mean everything from ten to seventy every tea-growing season, even now. If percent. When you add to that all the you travel to Wuyi, for example, and With puerh tea, for example, the different mountains oolong tea comes watch a true master make oolong tea quality is almost exclusively in the first from, the varietals of trees and varia- each year, you will see a lot of varia- of these—the trees and the environ- tions in processing, you have a huge tion from year to year. The overall ment. When producing a fine oolong, map, spanning Taiwan, Chaozhou methodology used to describe oolong however, all three are equally import- and Fujian mostly. We’d truly need the production is as general and rough a ant. It’s not enough to have great tea “black dragon” this tea is named after sketch for what actually happens as in a nice environment, since the com- to fly through the rich heritage, history any basic understanding of an artis- plicated processing will have as much and variety of oolong. But what a jour- tic process is. In any art, the basic to say as Nature. This is true of all tea, ney that would be! formula is always a very abstract and as a manifestation of Heaven, Earth When talking about genres of tea, simplified explanation of what the and Human energies, but none as it is always important to remember practitioner knows much more inti- profoundly as oolong tea. that the popular statement “all tea is mately, subtly and with complex dis- The basic steps that make up all one plant and the differences are in crepancies. Similarly, when a beginner oolong production are harvesting, the processing” can be very mislead- watches a master brew gongfu tea, he withering, de-enzyming, rolling and ing indeed. There is some truth in or she tries to grasp the basic steps roasting. But these steps are a part that statement, but authors who use of pre-warming the cups, showering of almost all tea production. What it rarely qualify it as much as they the pot, steeping the tea, showering really sets oolong apart is the with- should. the pot again, and so forth. But to ering/shaking. Because oolong is a Different processing methodolo- the master, there are great and very semi-oxidized tea, it is withered in a gies were developed locally over time important subtleties that change these very particular way—both indoors and are as much a part of the terroir steps from tea to tea, like the height and outdoors. Oolong is traditionally as the rain, sun or soil composition. from which you pour water into the withered on big, round bamboo trays And these regional variations in pro- pot, for example. that are stacked on shelves, allowing cessing grew alongside certain vari- The master farmers are chang- for airflow underneath. (Though pro- etals of tea. The masters who lived ing the way they make tea each and duction in larger quantities as well as and worked with these leaves were every season. Everything from when more modern, mechanized processing, listening to them, and that conver- they pick—which day and what time means that it is also often withered on sation was often responsible for the of day—to how long they fry the tea large tarps outside on the ground.) As evolution of any given processing to de-enzyme it will change based we discussed earlier, there are infinite methodology. In other words, oolong on the weather and season and how subtle variables in the withering of processing was developed over time the tea looks and feels to them. This fine oolong tea. We have even seen to suit certain varietals of tea because means that their processing must suit a master lick his thumb to feel the that is what brought out their greatest their trees and terroir, and not as some humidity during indoor withering, potential. The farmers mastered their fixed methodology, but rather as a and then ask his sons to bring a can craft by processing the tea the way it changing and adaptable process that, full of charcoal to place in the back “wanted” to be—for lack of a better like any skill, requires them to intuit right corner of the room where he felt word, we use “want” to describe the and then modify their processing to the humidity was too high. nature of the tea. Just as water “wants” suit the current leaves. In that way, During the withering, oolong to flow downhill, these leaves wanted oolong is as much the terroir and trees tea is also shaken. This shaking is the to be oolong. In that way, oolong is as it is the processing methods. most distinctive feature of oolong as much in the varietals of tea as it Oolong tea is the most refined tea processing. It helps to bruise the is in the processing. And that is true and complicated of all tea production, cells and further the oxidation of for most of the other seven genres requiring the greatest skill to make. the tea. When you see a master pick of tea as well (red and black tea can The processing can refine or ruin a up one of the big round trays and be exceptions to this rule, but not tea. Each kind of tea finds its quality dance the leaves around with grace, always). While you could process tea in a ratio between these three things: you may think that it looks easy— 17/ Basic Introduction to Taiwanese Oolong Tea until you try it and toss all the leaves machine-processed tea will be much Taiwan in the late 1970s and became onto the ground (or in your face). more uniform. predominant in the 1980s. And the Like all stages of fine tea, this too After withering/shaking, the sec- shift toward greener oolong also had takes great skill. The best shaking ond most important part of oolong to do with terroir and varietal. will just bruise the cells at the edges processing is the roast. If a farmer As we have discussed in previ- of the leaf, which will be apparent is roasting their tea themselves (as ous issues, the majority of Taiwanese when you brew the tea. When the opposed to selling maocha to a shop), oolong tea is produced from Ching shaking is done masterfully, there is they will usually just roast the tea shin trees, which were brought to a redness only at the edges of the tea, dry—to arrest oxidation and stop Taiwan from Wuyi. They are very all around each leaf. Nowadays, in a the processing—until all the tea is sensitive trees, which get sick easily. world of quantity over quality, most finished that year. They don’t have As Taiwan started to develop infra- stages of tea processing are done with the time to keep up with all the tea structure and prosper in the 1970s, machines.