Wednesday, May 22, 2013
What Everyone Ought To Know About Oolong Tea
I bet you've probably heard oolong tea before, from a friend, TV show or newspaper, and you may somehow know that oolong tea may benefit your health, but you're not that sure about it. So that, if you're new at all to oolong, this article is just for you.
What Exactly Is Oolong Tea?
Tea is getting considerable traction recently beyond the borders of China, specifically in western nations. It includes 3 popular classes: green tea, oolong tea, and black tea. And oolong tea is really special, which is a semi-fermented tea.
However, you may ask, what exactly is semi-fermented tea? Since the production procedure is sort of sophisticated, I would like to put in a way that you may comprehend quite easily (I'm going to cover more information later in the following paragraphs):
You must try green tea before, which is intensely well-liked all across the globe, an excellent option for weight reduction. This green tea isn't fermented in any way, which implies after the tea leaves are reaped, they are simply roasted without delay, preserving the elements of tea the way it is.
The black tea is quite the opposite, fully fermented, which means that chemical changes have taken place for an extended period, then the initial substances have already been become another form so that the quality of black tea is utterly distinctive from green tea. However, the oolong tea doesn't go that far. It is somewhere between green tea and black tea, with highly distinct tastes plus some other benefits.
Etymology for Oolong Tea
This Chinese tea was primarily called Beiyuan Tea, which was a tribute tea. What was a tribute tea? This was a specific tea presented to royalty or an emperor, like a tribute to them.
In fact, Beiyuan is a place at the north area of Fujian province (home of oolong tea). After that, the tea farmers of Anxi county, south area of Fujian, considerably improved the conventional tea making procedures; therefore, the Beiyuan Tea was developed into a new category. It is known that the name of first person who accidentally acquired this specific tea producing skill was pronounced as "oolong", and so in order to remember him, this later popular tea was termed as "oolong tea".
Essentially, that's the origin of the unique tea. But I will not stop here simply because when I first heard of the name, it didn't make sense if you ask me, so I will dig a little further in the following.
Oolong is directly interpreted from the Chinese enunciation as mentioned above. Nevertheless, you might or might not know the Chinese characters of oolong is ??(in simplified Chinese)?or ??(in traditional Chinese)? Ah eh, foreign language form you may say. But hey, don be turned off, a native speaker is here to help. Just take it easy and learn the information, allowing you to brag to your friends in the future.
You can see, there are 2 characters (????or ???? and the meaning of ??or ??is bony? which sounds like oo?in Chinese, and that of ??or ??is ragon?in English, but sound like ong?in Chinese. Actually, the dragon in Chinese myth is very long, making perfect sense coincidently.
In many other places, oolong tea also happens to be translated as "Wu long", the same enunciation, having said that I need to explain here mainly because it confuses lots of people. The real reason for the various spelling is a result of 2 distinctive transliteration methods: the Wades Giles system gives us Oolong, and the Chinese Pinyin system gives us Wu long. But occasionally(rarely), oolong tea has some other names, which include brown tea(named after its color) and rock tea(some types of premium oolong tea, actually grow on the rocks/cliffs).
So, when you read this far, you may get the picture of oolong tea at this point. But I am not going to stop here. Like I promised, I'll try to uncover the manufacturing routine, which will be more engaging and illuminating, so you're able to understand this tea much more deeply. So, bear with me.
The Producing Process In Detail
In short, this rather sophisticated producing routine has 7 key steps.
1. The Withering Step
Leaves are unfolded, normally on a sunny day, with the purpose of drawing out wetness, softening the leaf cell wall and starting natural enzymatic fermentation.
2. The Turning Over Step
Specifically designed equipments are used to disintegrate the leaves, further improving oxidation and allowing the chemical components, within the stems, to mix with the leaves. This step adds much for the stableness of flavor in the end product.
3. The Oxidization Step
The leaves are now given time to rest as all-natural fermentation process moves on. During this step, leaves will change colour, frequently into darker green because the cell structure further breaks down. And now the tea is establishing an intensive flavor.
4. The Kill Green Step
This step will stop natural fermentation process while allowing the leaves unchanged.
5. The Rolling Step
To improve the entire amazing flavour and give shape to the leaves, hot or cold rollers (at times both) are employed break down the leaves.
6. The Drying Step
Approaches such as hot air, sun or pan drying are being used at this stage. The flavor and scent are further increased, although the step also serves the purpose of avoiding the growth of mould and getting rid of any grassy taste that remains.
7. The Heating Step
And finally, to give the important smoky flavor the leaves is usually roasted.
Places Where Oolong Tea Thrives
Oolong tea grows primarily in northern Fujian Province, southern Fujian Province (the perfect place manufacturing the best oolong, i.e. Anxi county), Canton and Taiwan. The four major locations probably yield the most of oolong tea in China, if not in the entire world.
More than that, oolong tea has been discovered replanted outside of China, for instance Thailand and India.
How To Reap The Benefits Of Having Oolong Tea?
Maybe you are fed up with water (like me), you may be sick and tired of green tea (like me before fed up with water) or any other different types of tea, maybe your friend told you that oolong tea can be very good to your well being because of its significant polyphenol antioxidants, having said that you might still have doubts in your mind, that's ok.
It's not essential to push yourself, just click the links in the bottom of the post, go straight into the topic which ever causes you to wonder if you need to give oolong tea a go or not. For the time being, I will just list the benefits here. -Skyrocket Fat Burning
-Combat the Signs of Growing older -Lower Chance of Heart Disease -Prevent Most cancers
-Maintain Diabetes
-Lower Fatigue
-Relieve Painfulness
-Reduce Cholesterol levels
Final Thoughts
So, there it is. You can view this as a beginner's memo or something. Now you may grasp the basic idea of what is oolong tea, and if you want to discover more about oolong tea benefits, click on the links here or simply visit other posts on oolongteacommunity.com.
Have an awesome day and happy drinking!
Labels:
black tea,
green tea,
Oolong Tea
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