November 28th, 2009
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.
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Tags: oolong, tea
Posted in Oolong Tea | 7 Comments »
November 15th, 2009
I’ve read a lot on Milk Oolong, this type of Oolong naturally imparts a creamy, milk-like aftertaste. While many fakes have appeared on the market – having been steamed over milk, Nav from thepuriTea personally travels to the country of origin to seek out the teas to be sold — which means that the milk oolong they sell – is authentic.
It looks like Oolong, it smells a bit sweeter than your TGY, and it brews up identical. I was very very skeptical about this tea. I was first concerned about its authenticity, then I wondered how it was possible that a clear liquid could impart a creamy mouth-feel. Well — this tea did just that. I brewed this Gongfu Style, 30 second increments. The milk-like texture of this tea remained strong until about the 6th steeping.
I had several friends try it just to be sure my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me, but its true – this tea definitely will throw you off track if you are used to drinking Oolong. There isn’t much information regarding the location this tea is grown, or why it tastes like milk, but as this tea grows in popularity, more information is sure to come out.
Here is the description from thepuritea.com: A one of a kind tea, let alone Oolong. That’s how we sum up our Milk Oolong. The aroma is mind boggling, the taste unexpectedly amazing and you’ll be asking yourself “How is this tea?”. This very special Taiwanese Oolong is produced from tea leaves picked at a certain temperature, altitude, soil conditions and time which creates it’s uniquely milky and silky texture. The light yellow liquid creates a sweet smooth milk aroma and will leave a taste in your mouth that makes you yearning for more.
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Tags: china, milk oolong, oolong, tea
Posted in Oolong Tea | 3 Comments »
April 18th, 2009
So I’ve spent a lot of time researching Oolong lately, reading books, websites, and talking with tea farmers in China. I have the beginnings of an Oolong Tea Chart. I’ve received a lot of help from Daniel Hong on the project as well, be sure to check out his blog and follow him on Twitter, he works for a tea farm in Anxi, China.
Click on the image above to download the beginnings of the chart. If anyone has anything to add or change, please comment on this post and it will be added and you will be given credit. Once it is complete, I hope to webify the chart and host it on the site.
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Tags: chart, oolong, tea
Posted in Oolong Tea | 3 Comments »
March 15th, 2009
Tea bags are a product of convenience; they are easy, cheap, and clean. But if you’ve only ever drank tea that was a product of a tea-bag, you are missing out. Tea-bags used to only be filled with dust and fannings which are all the little pieces leftover from different processing methods. Through the years, tea companies have been putting higher and higher quality tea in bags. But no matter how nice the tea, or how innovative the bag is (see nylon bag below), they fail for one fundamental reason: tea leaves must be allowed to flow freely within the brewing vessel. Tea leaves expand while brewing, and being stuffed in a bag only allows them to expand a small amount.
 Tea bag before steeping |
 Same tea bag after steeping |
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The same rules apply for tea balls and fancy tea infusers: if the tea cannot flow freely in the steeping vessel, you are not enjoying the tea at its full potential. |
We’ve seen how much the high quality black tea expanded in the above tea bag image, now lets take a look at what happens to loose leaf oolong when it is allowed to flow freely in a glass tea-cup.
 Teaspoon of oolong before steeping |
 Same teaspoon after steeping |
If the leaves are able to flow freely, we allow for more of the leaves to be in contact with water-and the more contact the leaves have with the water – the better chance we have to extract the full flavor of the tea.
If the above oolong leaves were stuck in a bag or in an infuser, they would not have the chance to expand the way they do when allowed to flow freely. Steeping tea doesn’t have to be difficult, achieving great tea can be simple if you have the right equipment.
What the Twitterverse had to say about Tea Bags:
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Tags: oolong, steeping methods, tea-bags, tea-infusers
Posted in Steeping Methods | 11 Comments »
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!