Brewing Oolong Tea

Video Transcript

"In this clip I will prepare Oolong tea for you. And I have some delicious oolong from Taiwan right in front of me. And I will get started preparing it. And while it is brewing I'll tell you what makes this tea so special. Oolong teas originally come from China. Oolong teas are partially oxidized. What this means is that the leaves have been slightly dried. They are bruised in order to start an oxidation process. Now this process is precisely timed to produce specific oolongs. They have a wide range of flavor. Oolongs can be, they're typically oxidized between 20 and 70 percent. And that means that an oolong that's lightly oxidized will be more on the greener side, fresher tasting. And an oolong that is on the 70% oxidation side will have a more woodsy, earthy flavor and will be darker. Almost like a black tea but without the astringent finish. Now the oolong teas are the champagne of teas. My favorite especially but they are extremely smooth, have an exquisite floral bouquet and what's best you can re-steep them 6-8 times no problems. Unbelievable but these two teaspoons of tightly curled leaves after about 4 steepings will actually turn into what you see here. This heap of leaves. And we can even unfurl some of those and still discover a tea leaf in it's original form. Here's our tea ready. The oolong teas we have to steep anywhere between two and four minutes. I would say with a fourth, fifth stepping you're always going to add a little bit more time in the water. Unlike the green teas, it's now a little bit hotter. We typically use 185 to 195 degree water. And that is right below the boiling tea. Because this is a lightly oxidized oolong the color is still very pale. The aroma very floral and the taste absolutely fantastic."