Ch-P-002 the Historical Background of Oolong Tea Origin
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~ 0'0 ==:::::======-The 3rd International Conference on O-CHA{Tea)IIIIIi Culture and Science.~00iA CH-P-002 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF OOLONG TEA ORIGIN [Author's name] Yokichi Matsui [Institution and address] Beverage Development Department, Beverage & Food Division, Suntory Limited Products Development Center 57, Imaikami-cho , Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki city, Kanagawa prefecture, 211-0067 Japan [Summary] Oolong tea is the famous Chinese tea. Now in China oolong tea is growing to be th popular tea. They said that it was invented during 16 _17'h century. At the Ming dynasty of China leaf styled tea was popularly used by teapot. The solid type tea of the Song dynasty was not good taste to drink. They wanted to make good tea that had good taste and flavor. After making tea by trial and error they discovered that tealeaves had flowery fragrance like orchid flowers. In the first period of tea export green tea was more than fermented tea. In the18 th century fermented tea increased more and more. European peoples were interested in fermented tea because it had natural flowery flavor. I hope to tell the history background ofoolong tea and the origins. [Key words] oolong tea, fermentation, Bohea, Congou, Singlo Introduction Now tea is one of the most drinking beverages in the world. Tea was discovered in China four or five thousand years ago and was invented to a sort of beverage. Tea was repeated a change for the better. In Japan they use 150 thousand tons tea per year. (about more than 20 thousand tons of oolong tea) Golong tea beverage have been in traction for the development of tea soft drinks and had big share in the tea soft drinks after canned oolong tea beverage put on sale in 1981. The characters of oolong tea are natural flavor and mild taste that tea farmers found and kept making. Result and Discussion In the period ofTang and Song dynasty the type of tea was solid type of green tea. They were made by steaming, grinding with pestle and mortar, molding and drying. In the Song dynasty Beiyuan (~t9b:) tea garden ofJian-an (~~) were important tea garden where the tributes oftea for the Imperials were made since 933 till 1391. The famous Imperial ofSong dynasty "Huizong (~*)" loved tea very much and had the knowledge about tea. In the book of"Daguan chalun (:*:tll.~gi1ll)" he wrote the true fragrance oftea. When they drank tea, they felt tea fragrance. It seemed to be peach kernel flavor. The most important points oftea taste was flowery fragrance in the 15 th _16 th century. In general the method to make rich fragrant tea was turning flower flavor to tealeaves. Yuan Zhang (Sft;m!) wrote his book "Cha Lu (~U)" and told his opinion that tea had three types offragrance. Tea had the true fragrance which were clear, pure and orchid like flowery fragrance. They could make true tea by even making Songluo (4111) Bohea (Q) Con",,,, (:uo> (ilt~) Longjing (1(*) process and roasting. Wuyi tea was Souchong (-I>It> made by manufacturing methods. Pekoe (st) 1'I~.1 Denloomen! oOea tn China But quality and fragrance was dependent on the condition of climate and various effects. At the roasting time good flavor was made with fire and techniques. They said that it was similar to fragrant of plum and orchid flower by roasting. Songluo and Longjing (il~*) were the center ofattention in the former ofthe 16th century in China. Caotang Wang (z1lt:*:) wrote "Chashuo (~851.)" about Wuyi tea making method. Songluo and Longjing were made by Chaoqing (~Yw) (enzyme reduction by high temperature), not made by Hongbei (~~) (drying and baking by heater). But wuyi tea was made by both Chaoqing and Hongbei. After extraction the color of Wuyi tea was green (roasting) and red (baking). It was made by spreading tealeaves under the sunshine, roastig, rolling and baking. Its smell was beyond description. The monks of Buddhism and Daojiao (~~) needed tea to use in training, they became to make tea themselves and sell tea. Since tea of Wuyishan was famous to Europe, Bohea became to typified Wuyi tea. "Pianke Yuxian Ji (fHIJ#<M~)" of Jingzai Liu (~II~w tE) introduced Jiangxi WU (jI~.\¥.;) that was made at the vicinity of Wuyishan and extracted liquid was black and red color. Many people in Wuyishan made various tea and invented new type of tea. In the case of oolong tea making there are semi-fermentation process. At first plucking tea leaves, the second is withering under the sunshine (Saiqing Bi1§1f) that activate hydrolyzed enzyme and oxidized enzyme, the third is cooling down temperature of tea leaves (Liangqing J*11f), the fourth is stirring leaves for making flowery flavor by hydrolyzed enzyme (Yaoqing tffiw) that makes main flavors and is made by the sharp sense of tea makers. The fifth is heating process that after much flavor coming out many parts of enzymes are reduced. Subsisted enzymes make fermentation slowly. The sixth is rolling that cell membrane is crushed by physical power and peculiar taste is made by oxidized enzyme. The last is drying process that puts a period to fermentation..