More oxidixed oolong advice

[balmung135]

After sampling some oolong tea's i have come to the conclusion that I enjoy darker, more oxidized teas. How can you tell what variety an oolong is? and if anyone has some picks or recommendations that would be helpful too

[Herb_Master]

Oolong is not in itself a variety. Oolong is a production method, which in it's conversion of the freshly picked leaf tea, through the Partially finished product "Mao Cha", to the finished Oolong tea goes through several stages of processing. There may be as few as 6 stages or in the Case of Tie Kuan Yin as many as 18 stages. Different areas, and different Oolong teas within each area use different varietals (sometimes called cultivars) of the 1 botanical variety 'Camelia Sinensis var Sinensis'. Within this variety there are thousands of varietals.

For the purposes for which you are asking, neither the varietal, nor the number of stages to the tea production are important. But some of those stages allow the leaf to undergo chemical changes converting converting some of the constituent elements of the leaf. It is the length of time that a particular teamaker allows those relevant stages to continue before halting them that is important.

An Oolong can be a tea that has allowed 20% of those changes, or more, up to 80%. Less than 20% it is likely to be classified as Green Tea, more than 80% it is likely to be classified as Black tea [unless the tea falls into a different Category, White, Yellow, Pu Erh]

These changes are often referred to as fermented, but as with your use of the word most people prefer the word Oxidised.

The majority of well known and well appreciated Oolong comes from 1 of 4 places - North Fujian including "Wuyi", South Fujian including Anxi and "Tie Kuan Yin", Guangdong including FengHuang DanCong and Taiwan which has many areas.

The only sure way to know the level of Oxidisation is to find a reputable vendor whose descriptions that you trust and whose descriptions include the level of Oxidisation.

That said as a general rule the North Fujian Wuyis tend to have the highest levels of Oxidisation, followed by FengHuang Dancongs and then Anxi and Taiwan. A recent trend towards less oxidised Oolong has seen reputable vendors providing lightly oxidised and lightly roasted versions of Wuyi and danCong but these are usually highlighted in the product description.

A few decades ago Anxi oolongs had a much higher level of Oxidisation and Roast than they do now, some vendors still offer this style for sale, it is usually called Classic or Traditional.

But to put it simply start by looking at Wuyi.

[Salsero]

Also more oxidized is the variously denominated: Oriental Beauty, Bai Hao, Dong Fang Mei Ren, or White/Silver Tip oolong. Under all names it is one of the most oxidized of the oolongs, though it is not as likely to be roasted dark as much as are some of the Wuyi oolongs.

[gingkoseto]

Some oolongs are dark roast only, like Mu Zha TGY and bai hao oolong. Some oolongs are green roast only, like most un-aged bao zhong. But generally for most oolongs, the only way to tell is from the product description, or ask the vendor to specify the roast level.

An Oolong can be a tea that has allowed 20% of those changes, or more, up to 80%. Less than 20% it is likely to be classified as Green Tea, more than 80% it is likely to be classified as Black tea [unless the tea falls into a different Category, White, Yellow, Pu Erh]

This is very interesting comment and this was actually the way some people used to categorize oolong. I've noticed from some pre-1950 essays written by northern Chinese writers that they just categorize tea into "green tea", "red tea (black tea)" and "flower tea (mainly jasmine)". Back then puerh was not popular yet, and oolong was mostly dark roast, so many northerners would just regard it as another black tea, although it's not at all the same as the real black/red teas.