By Japanese Oolong, I mean this:AdmiralKelvinator wrote: EDIT: to xiaobai, what would you consider a "Japanese Oolong"? The oolong tea they sell here is very similar to yancha (tho quite watered down) but I believe most of it is made in china as it is. Haven't drank a true "Japanese Oolong" before.
http://www.yuuki-cha.com/japanese-oolon ... oolong-tea
"Kuchinashi". It reminds me of the Taiwanese Baozhong from Wenshan (Pinling) area. It is a lightly oxidized tea made with Japanese leaves from Miyazaki prefecture. Indeed, in Kyushu there is some tradition of making teas more the Chinese way. For instance, they pan fry many of their greens (Kamairicha) rather than steaming them (Sencha). However, to the best of my knowledge, this Kuchinashi Oolong is a fairly new thing and has nothing to do with yancha. My wife also tells me that lately some Japanese farmers are letting some of their crops to get bitten by jassids, perhaps trying to achieve a similar fisinish to Eastern beauty.
This type of sweet and fragrant (sometimes rather green) Oolongs, coming mostly from Taiwan, have been very popular with Japanese people for a long time. During the colonial rule, some Taiwanese tea merchants made a fortune selling Baozhong in Japan. Marshaln has also well documented in his blog the history of Eastern Beauty, which was first marketed during the colonial rule and offered to the Emperor (not to the Queen of England, as the story was later told). And in modern (bubble) times, High mountain Oolongs were a product that was created with the Japanese market of green-tea drinkers in mind.
