Roasting?

[Poseidon]

Hello tea friends! Ive been interested in trying to learn how to roast some of my greener oolongs so I can age them/have them keep longer. When I did a search on the forums, I didn't see a tutorial but lots of mentions of self roasting. A search of youtube brings up tea farmers with large woks tossing the days pickings. Does anyone have/seen/read a tutorial that can guide me through the process of "firing" some of my tea? Any help is greatly appreciated!

[debunix]

I used a very low heat (150°F) setting on my oven to experiment on some inexpensive green oolong that had lost it's freshness--using the low temp to keep things slow while I felt my way through the process. Results were drinkable, though not stellar.

[Pig Hog]

Stick some leaf in a frying pan (or wok, I guess) and gently roast it over the hob.

Keep the leaves moving and try not to burn them. I would suggest doing a little at a time and testing as you go, to find your preferred 'strength'.

Easy as...

[Poseidon]

Is that really a good way to do it? An oven? I guess the temperature is controlled so you wouldnt have an uneven "roast". Do you think this will work for green oolongs to give them a roast or does this only work for re-roasting?

[debunix]

I can only tell you that it is how I did it in my first attempt.

[miig]

There are also small clay pans specially designed to to this:

http://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php? ... anguage=en

I haven't tried yet, but if I were to rost any tea, I'd be using one of these.

[Poseidon]

There are also small clay pans specially designed to to this:

http://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php? ... anguage=en

I haven't tried yet, but if I were to rost any tea, I'd be using one of these.

Thats very cool. Im going to have to bookmark that for the future! good find Miig!

[BW85]

I've heard of people using rice cookers to add roast to teas. It would be similar to personal home tea roasters you can buy.

Woks are really only used for the killing the green step in processing the leaves. Roasting is done in some kind of oven type environment, whether charcoal or electric

[miig]

Thats very cool. Im going to have to bookmark that for the future! good find Miig!

Hi Poseidon, i'm happy you like it! Should it be gone, don't worry, its not the only one. I first read about those here:

http://ancientteahorseroad.blogspot.sg/ ... esher.html

[tinols]

How about an air popcorn popper? I used to use it to roast coffee. Mine broke, so I can't really test it out for anyone.

[kyarazen]

There are also small clay pans specially designed to to this:

http://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php? ... anguage=en

I haven't tried yet, but if I were to rost any tea, I'd be using one of these.

these are good for sencha as the leaves are thin and flat.. but for rolled teas its not easy

its possible to find more information online, traditional roasters often use red hot charcoal, buried in an ash bed to roast the tea, you get good infrared radiation, light convection that goes through the mesh supporting the tea.. and through the tea pile. some really expensive oolongs in taiwan are roasted about 150 hours.. very slow roasted, not too hot, so no burning nor toasty notes.

[Poseidon]

Something like this would be ideal but alas, Im not in Taiwan.

http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2007/ ... -here.html

Or this little guy would be nice to have around...
http://www.cart100.com/Product/19325769 ... roasting_/
Also, saw this today too.
http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2008/ ... -fire.html

[Poseidon]

http://www.cart100.com/Product/36050216 ... tea_divis/

Also found this little guy on Cart100 too. Has anyone ordered from cart100 in the US?

[Risdt]

Roasting tea yourself will always be inferior to someone who roasting teas is their job with decades of experience. I would suggest drink your green oolong asap and buy some good roasted teas. Less hassle.

[debunix]

I only tried roasting because I'd let a very green oolong sit open too long and it was try roasting or feed it to the worms.