Oolong tea vs. Wu-Long tea vs. 烏龍茶

Hello guys,

Good to see you again.



light baked golden oolong tea

 After I watched the video which explained that Oolong tea is Wu-Long tea actually, I figured out that the better way to recognize Oolong tea or Chinese tea is to have some concepts of Chinese language and culture which are related to tea first. It will be more simple, easy, and interesting.

First of all, let us obtain Oolong tea's Chinese name, 烏龍茶. It has three Chinese characters. If we translate it into English word by word, it will be "Black Dragon Tea"!!??
For most people, it is clear that 茶 is tea, but 烏龍 is perplexed to connect with tea. In the Orient, dragon is a mythical Chinese animal which is not as similar to the dragon of the West. It has a very long body, like snakes but much longer and bigger, four short claws, scales cover body entirely, and a majestic head with two horns. It means honorable and auspicious in the Orient.

When Chinese dragon flies high up in the air, it looks like this symbol, ~. Here is an interesting story. In the early days, tea farmers would rub and twist tea leaves lightly to lead out beautiful smells and tastes after tea leaves were stopped fermenting. Then the shape of tea leaves would turn -(straight) to ~(curved). !!! Doesn't it look like the shape of a flying mythical Chinese dragon? :) The color of tea leaves is dark green and the shape is curved, so some smart tea farmers gave these tea leaves a beautiful and auspicious name, 烏龍.

heavy baked oolong tea



Nowadays, 烏龍茶 becomes the most well-known Chinese tea around the world. It also  means this kind of tea has been fermented a little bit in the progress of making tea specifically. The most difficult section in the process of making tea is how to control the fermentation degree.



Later we are going to talk about the magical influence of fermentation in the process of making tea. I hope you will like it.



See you soon.

Brian 04.27.2011