I recently spoke with Adrienne Ann Etkin of Admari Tea about her milk oolong. I also had a chance to try this milk oolong, and it was wonderful. It was easily the most powerful milk oolong I’ve ever tasted. This is what Adrienne has to say: “Any High Mountain Taiwanese (or Chinese) Oolong that has a milky, creamy characteristic. Our Milk Oolong as it has been told to me by my vendor who deals directly with the farmer, has this characteristic due to the harvest time and growing conditions.”
“There is so much debate about this tea that sometimes I doubt my own knowledge but there is so much crossed and contradictory information out there about tea that we just have to be diligent in our studies and our search for the truths. “
“I have a family friend who travels to Taiwan often and he was just here in town last week. Months ago, I had asked him to ask his business associates in Taiwan about Milk Oolong on his next trip… His report back was that the majority of milk oolong that Americans have access to is a scented tea. It is cheaper to produce and the majority of people cant taste a difference. That is why the ‘real’ milk oolongs are priced much higher. I used to carry a Milk Oolong form Anxi, China – but there was something ‘off’ about it.. even though I was told it was a straight tea.. something didn’t sit right with me. We ceased carrying it. This Formosa milk oolong is delicious and a best seller. Steep it several times and that creaminess comes through each time.”
So, while Adrienne believes her milk oolong is pure, as do I – I haven’t had one better, we should start to wonder how many of the teas we drink have been “scented” — I’ve had TGY oolongs that smell unbelievably powerful. It just makes me wonder. And if people are adding “scent” to our teas – is this healthy or even safe? Do some leg work when you buy a nice tea to be sure that your tea is pure. I’ve heard of some milk oolongs steamed over hot milk to impart flavor, but I assume that this initial scent would go away after a steeping or two. Admari’s milk oolong imparted a great flavor for 7 steepings, which to me — is quite impressive.
I agree with wholeheartedly with Adrienne’s comment that we have to “be diligent in our studies and our search for the truths.” My contribution is that I have heard from several of my Taiwanese sources that the term “milk oolong” was first used by the developer of the Qingxin Wulong (“green heart wulong”) tea cultivar to describe exactly the quality that Adrienne mentions. In essence, it’s a marketing term for a particular cultivar–or it used to be.
However, because that particular quality is in part dependent on climate, soil, weather, and processing, it’s not always possible to meet demand for that milky quality. So the way tea companies can meet demand is by going the “artificial” route, by which, I mean adding any kind of flavoring–natural or not.
This, however, creates a vicious circle. Artificially flavored teas then become cheaper and more appealing to more people, who may not know the original it’s supposed to be representing. And suddenly, the term that once referred to something very specific and unique is being used for often uninformed consumers to demand poor knock-offs of something that was once rare and unique…and thinking that they’re getting the “real thing.”
It’s akin to someone drinking sparkling cider and insisting that they are drinking some of the finest champagne they’d ever tasted. It might resemble champagne in certain aspects–color, bubbles, etc.–but if they’d never had the real thing from the original region, made in the traditional style, how could they know that they’re not really using the term incorrectly?
So your advice is sage: do some legwork. If possible, go to the country of origin and talk to multiple makers of your favorite tea. While some might try to trick foreigners, and others may themselves believe inaccurate things, you’ll at least get a sense of what the tea is really like at a point BEFORE all the marketers, hucksters, importers, brokers, and tea shops add their own mistakes and tea-selling stories in the mix.
Thanks for taking some steps in finding out the truth about this unique and interesting Milk Oolong. In this case it looks like you’re going to get what you pay for.
Well said and good point! You are correct in your assumption: an artificially flavored tea will quickly loose the added “scent” or flavoring with subsequent steepings. If it’s an authentic Milk Oolong, the milkyness will remain.
What’s really scary is that many milk oolongs are flavored with chemicals that are not safe for human consumption. So this is definitely one category where you want to be extra careful.
Look into high elevation production of the tea cultivar Jin Xuan if you want the buttery flavor without adulterants.
I did not know about the chemicals…great comment by Charles, ,
Interesting post — you’re a great writer.
I’m a tea drinking novice and need to get a holiday gift for a tea connoisseur friend. Do you have any plans in the works for a tea gift guide blog post? If not, can you direct me to one?
Lindsey Goodwin wrote up a gift guide here: http://coffeetea.about.com/b/2009/11/25/gift-guide-tea-tisanes.htm check it out!