Chinese Restaurant Oolong

[geeber1]

Since we've had several threads about the Oolong served at Chinese restaurants, I thought I'd post these pictures that I took last week at our local Chinese place. The box was sitting by the cash register so I surreptitiously took a couple of (bad quality, sorry!) camera phone pics.

Can anyone out there read the Chinese and solve the mystery

[Intuit]

ABC Tea Importers, Baldwin Park, CA

Formosa Oolong
http://www.abctea.com/formosaoolong.htm

Looks very much like the 'test' tea I roasted this morning.

[Victoria]

LOL @ you sneaking camera phone pics and reporting back.

[geeber1]

Intuit - Well, I KNOW part of it is in English - I was wondering about the Chinese part.

Victoria - I have always wanted to be a spy - Did you ever read Harriet the Spy? Loved that book when I was little!

[judyw]

Thinking of teas at Chinese restaurants...who can tell me how I can get the flavor of PF Chang's Citrus Spice tea at home? They don't sell it at the restaurant to take home and they serve it in a bag. I love that stuff! (Sorry, I know it belongs in the black tea category.)

[Komsip]

Since we've had several threads about the Oolong served at Chinese restaurants, I thought I'd post these pictures that I took last week at our local Chinese place. The box was sitting by the cash register so I surreptitiously took a couple of (bad quality, sorry!) camera phone pics.

Can anyone out there read the Chinese and solve the mystery

I‘m just some swedish forest guy I don't know almost any chinese but I can tell you what it means:
好生意餐館茶 "Good business restaurant tea"
烏龍茶 "Wu long tea"

Anyway typically as I understand north american chinese standard "restaurant tea" is usually some low grade Oriental beauty (東風美人 dongfeng meiren)

[wyardley]

Anyway typically as I understand north american chinese standard "restaurant tea" is usually some low grade Oriental beauty (東風美人 dongfeng meiren)

I don't think so. I don't think I've ever had anything that looked or tasted remotely like that in a US restaurant on either coast.

As I've mentioned in other threads, I eat frequently in the San Gabriel Valley area in LA County, which probably has some of the most authentic regional Chinese cuisine in North America (and serves a clientele that's primarily ethnic Chinese), and almost every place serves bad teabag tea of some sort (Jasmine tea, not sure what type of tea base, is the most common, followed by generic bad-quality roasted oolong, followed by pu'er, again, all teabags, and so unremarkable that I often can't tell the difference). Only a few places I've been (and I've been to quite a lot) have had loose-leaf tea of any sort... usually the places that will have loose-leaf tea are Cantonese style banquet places, or dim sum places. When I visited Vancouver, which is a little more heavily HK style, I found more restaurants tended to have loose-leaf tea of some sort, either a lighter style tieguanyin, or a cheap oolong or pu'er. I haven't been to any places in Flushing, but I would imagine that many restaurants there also serve teabag tea.

On the rare occasions where looseleaf tea has been served, it has generally been a greener style tieguanyin or tieguanyin style (i.e., low oxidation, little or no roast mainland oolong) tea, or else (at dim sum), shu pu'er.

When you do see the stereotypical "Chinese restaurant" oolong, the kind you find in the 5 or 10 lb bags, I think it would be more likely to be a high-fire, wire shaped oolong, probably from somewhere in or around Fujian province.

When I know the staff at a restaurant well enough, or when I'm not with anyone who will be embarrassed, I will sometimes bring my own tea leaf to a restaurant and ask for hot water. That's a little pretentious/obnoxious, but, as my friend put it, the restaurant knows they're not serving you good tea in the first place.

[interesting sidenote - the tea in the picture is packed in Baldwin Park, which is also in the SGV; pretty nearby here]

For those who missed the earlier threads on the topic, see also:
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8445
(which links to some older threads and a Chowhound thread)

[geeber1]

Not bad for a Swedish Forest Guy, Komsip! And Good Business Restaurant Tea is usually not too bad!

[gingkoseto]

Anyway typically as I understand north american chinese standard "restaurant tea" is usually some low grade Oriental beauty (東風美人 dongfeng meiren)

I don't think so. I don't think I've ever had anything that looked or tasted remotely like that in a US restaurant on either coast.

I've noticed some people recognize shou mei (or "sow mei") as "bai hao oolong" or "oriental beauty". I don't know if that's a common mis-translation. But lower grade show mei, being a white tea, looks and tastes somewhat similar to oolong (due to mild oxidation, besides it has "bai hao" on tea leaves). I was surprised it was a white tea when first time trying it.

Of course the real oriental beauty is not abundant enough to supply restaurants.

by geeber1 » Oct 27th 09 8:29 pm
Not bad for a Swedish Forest Guy, Komsip!

Yes very impressive!

[Komsip]

Anyway typically as I understand north american chinese standard "restaurant tea" is usually some low grade Oriental beauty (東風美人 dongfeng meiren)

I don't think so. I don't think I've ever had anything that looked or tasted remotely like that in a US restaurant on either coast.

As I've mentioned in other threads, I eat frequently in the San Gabriel Valley area in LA County, which probably has some of the most authentic regional Chinese cuisine in North America (and serves a clientele that's primarily ethnic Chinese), and almost every place serves bad teabag tea of some sort (Jasmine tea, not sure what type of tea base, is the most common, followed by generic bad-quality roasted oolong, followed by pu'er, again, all teabags, and so unremarkable that I often can't tell the difference). ...

I see, I don't think I've even actually had tea at any North American restaurant, so I shouldn't have said that I guess, but I just read someone else make that claim.

I've had tea at some Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants in Australia though, at the Vietnamese one it was certainly some highly roasted oolong of lower grade, with the typical Oriental Beauty aroma but not as good as something that would be sold as Oriental Beauty. At the chinese restaurants I visited in Australia (Melbourne), they had a choice of green tea, black tea, jasmine tea and oolong. I asked at one place what oolong tea it was, but they didn't know.

Here in Sweden, at least in my nearest city which has two chinese restaurants, they just have "tea" on the drinks menu, but it's just english black bag tea (yellow Lipton) you get in a cup of hot water.