Tasting Notes
Sweet and grassy with soft floral notes leading to a deep verdant finish. Crafted from a rare cultivar renown for it’s succulent, milky texture.
TAIWAN
Milk Oolong
Sourced from the rolling mountains of Taitung province, Southern Taiwan. This Oolong is from a rare varietal that is renowned for its unique, creamy softness and milky aromas. It is this characteristic that gives this tea the name Milk Oolong.
Origin & Craft
Oolongs lie in a category between green and black teas, occasionally called a blue tea. They are delicately crafted to the point where they reflect these two very different categories of tea and reveal their hidden subtleties.
According to legend, this oolong’s milkiness is the result of a sudden change in temperature during harvest time that occurs very infrequently. The first time this temperature shift occurred was hundreds of years ago at a time when the moon fell in love with a comet as it was passing through the night sky. The comet passed by and then burned out and disappeared. The moon, in her sorrow, caused a great wind to blow through the valleys and hills, creating a sudden drop in temperature. The following morning, the tea harvesters went out to collect the fresh leaves and when the tea was processed, to their surprise, it had developed a unique milky characteristic, which they attributed to the motherly nature of the moon.
Quantity
Use 2 - 4g of tea per 150ml of water.
Temperature
For the optimum infusion wash the leaf with 100°C (212°F) water, then use the same (slightly cooled) water to infuse.
Time
Infuse for 1 - 2 minutes, tasting regularly.
The tea can be infused several times to reveal incredible subtleties of flavour. We recommend infusing the leaf in small amounts of hot water with a high leaf to water ratio, and infusing many times rather than making one large pot. In this way you will uncover countless flavours.
Use an inch of hot water at 100 degrees to rapidly “wash” the leaf for a few seconds. You can discard this first brew. This opens out the rolled leaf and allows the water to penetrate.
Subsequent infusions are best made at high temperature but rapidly - just 20 - 30 seconds. You don’t need to reheat the water as you go – the softened leaf will require lower temperatures. In all we recommend at least six steps to allow the leaf to completely open out and reveal all its beauty.
You can also enjoy one teaspoon of leaves all day- coming back to the same pot and re-infusing it – but in this instance re-heat the water to 90°C (194°F).
