About Oolong Tea

Oolong tea goes through a complex series of procedures, giving it rich, fragrant and subtle flavours. The teas (sometimes called Wu-long) is semi-oxidised and rests somewhere between unoxidised green tea and fully oxidised black tea. The leaves are withered like green tea, but are then shaken in bamboo baskets to encourage oxidation, then pan-fired at high temperature and hand-rolled. Low in caffeine, yet more stimulating than green or white tea, oolongs are the world’s most diverse and complex tasting teas.Oolongs range from light and fresh styles to dark and smoky you can find all varieties available here.

The origins of the Oolong name

The name oolong tea comes into the English language from the Chinese name (traditional Chinese: 烏龍茶), which is pronounced as O·-liông tê in the Min Nan spoken varient. The Chinese name means "black dragon tea".

There are three widely accepted explanations on how this Chinese name came about...

According to the "tribute tea" theory, oolong tea was a direct descendant of Dragon-Phoenix Tea Cake tribute tea. Oolong tea replaced it when loose tea came into fashion. Since it was dark, long and curly, it was called the Black Dragon tea.

According to the "Wuyi" theory, oolong tea first existed in Wuyi Mountain. This is evidenced by Qing dynasty poems such as Wuyi Tea Song (Wuyi Chage) and Tea Tale (Chashuo). It was said that oolong tea was named after the part of Wuyi mountain it was originally produced.

According to the "Anxi" theory, oolong tea had its origin in the Anxi oolong tea plant. A man named Sulong, Wulong or Wuliang discovered it.

Another tale tells of a man named Wu Liang (later corrupted to Wu Long, or Oolong) who discovered oolong tea by accident when he was distracted by a deer after a hard day's tea-picking, and by the time he remembered about the tea it had already started to oxidize.