Tag Archives: antioxidents

Tea Types – Oolong Tea

Tea Types, ,

Oolong is a semi oxidised tea traditionally from south east China, though now some excellent oolongs are also produced in Taiwan (Formosa). Ooolong combines the clarity and fragrance of green tea with the refreshing strength of black tea, and has a natural lingering aroma of its own.

The process method can vary dramatically between different oolongs – just as with black teas. We describe here the production of premium Phoenix Oolong from the Phoenix Mountains of northern Guangdong in Fujian Province where the warm moist Pacific air and the high elevation combine to make ideal conditions for high quality tea plantations.

The tea bushes grow at around 1,300 to 1,500 metres in damp air and mist, in soil that rarely dries out. Many of the bushes are propagated from very old trees that have been famed over the years for producing high quality teas. Some even can be traced back to the Sung Dynasty of 600 years ago, when oolong was first manufactured.

The best Phoenix tea is made in small village factories by tea masters – traditionally skilled craftsmen, each of whom guards his secret methods. Bushes are plucked around mid day when the leaf surface has lost its dew coating, unlike premium green teas where cool damp early morning leaves are preferred. Plucking at noon allows a couple of afternoon hours for the harvested leaf to be spread in thin layers and withered in the sun – an essential step for developing oolong character. Leaves are turned several times during sun wither to ensure that all are equally exposed to the hot sun light. Then the leaves are collected and cooled, and spread in the shade. During that evening and through the night the tea master will fluff and rub the leaves briefly by hand for a five minute period every 1 to 2 hours. Each time the massaging is done with more vigour so that, by the end of fermentation each leaf margin is reddish, while the leaf centre is green. During this stage essential volatiles are produced that give the oolong liquor its characteristic taste and aroma. Judging the extent and timing of fermentation demands great skill as it is affected by weather conditions before and after plucking and by the plucked leaf quality. The fermentation is halted by roasting the leaf in a large wok, traditionally charcoal fired but now more often electrically heated. This end of this brief drying process is judged by smell and it makes the leaf soft and pliable, ready for twisting. Exceptional quality oolongs are still hand twisted, but many villages have introduced small rolling machines. Phoenix oolong is a hard twisted leaf that liquors slowly and retains is flavour through several brewings.

Final drying is done in baking basket over wood charcoal, for five to ten minutes with a rest time of one or two hours in-between when the tea master will check progress.

This long and painstaking manufacture is typical of the very best village manufactured oolongs, but many fine oolongs are also made in larger tea factories in Fujian. All are a living link with the Sung Dynasty.

Now is the time, if you haven’t tasted it yet, to try our Phoenix Dancong?

Tea Talk – Yerba Mate

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The natives of South America were drinking several caffeine containing beverages long before the Conquistadors came ashore. Chief of these was Mate, made from the leaves of a small evergreen tree, a species of Holly (Ilex paraguariensis) native to subtropical Argentina, eastern Paraguay, western Uruguay and southern Brazil. While maté is the common spelling in English and indicates the proper pronunciation, it should be remembered that in Spanish maté is the first person singular past tense of the verb matar = to kill, thus meaning [I] killed (!)

yerba mate

Huge amounts of mate are consumed in South America where communal mate drinking follows a traditional ritual just as complex as the Japanese Tea Ceremony; though modern pressures of life mean that city dwellers carry their mate with them to sip throughout the day, just as the Chinese do with their green tea.
Mate is infused by steeping the dry leaves (and twigs) in hot water, rather than in boiling water like black tea; as with green tea it is generally considered too bitter if steeped in water at boiling point. Traditionally, and when drinking with friends the infusion is made very strong in a hollow gourd – also called a mate in Spanish, thus Yerba mate literally means Gourd or Cup Herb. A metal straw (a bombilla) with a filter in the base is used to sip the infusion as the gourd is passed round the group. At frequent intervals the infusion is topped up with hot water by the appointed hostess. As well as in Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, South Brazil and parts of Chile you may find the mate ritual performed in Syria and Lebanon, both countries that import huge amounts of green mate leaf.
Much as with tea, one can purchase flavored mate in many varieties, and in Brazil green mate is toasted to produce a very popular milder beverage known as chá mate, sold in teabag and loose form, and served, sweetened, in specialized shops, either hot or iced with fruit juice or milk, and even as a soft drink. The toasted variety of mate has less of a bitter flavor and more of a spicy fragrance and is mostly consumed in the coastal cities of Brazil as opposed to the far southern states where green mate is preferred in the traditional way.

In Paraguay, green yerba mate is also drunk as a cold beverage. Usually drunk out of a cow’s horn in the countryside, tereré, as it is known in the Guaraní language, is served with cold or iced water. Medicinal herbs, known as “yuyos”, are mixed in a mortar and pestle and added to the water for flavouring or medicinal reasons.

Mate bushes are grown on plantations much as are tea bushes, very little is now collected from the wild. The plant is cultivated and processed mainly in northern Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and southern Brazil. World production is around 300,000 tonnes per annum, the largest exporter is Argentina, shipping around 60,000 tonnes to neighbouring countries and to the eastern Mediterranean. Mechanical harvesting is common and the 40 to 50 cm long branches are dried in a factory. Traditionally this was done over a wood fire, imparting a smoky flavor. When dried the leaves are stripped and twigs are broken up to form crude green mate which is stored for 12 months to mellow the taste. Before sale the crude raw material is sorted – there are many grades and types of yerba, with and without twigs, and with varying powder content – each type has its devotees. The sex of the mate bush can also determine strength of the leaf flavour, caffeine level and other nutrients, depending on whether it is a male or female plant. Female plants tend to be milder in flavour, and lower in caffeine, though on commercial plantations it is the male bush that is favoured for planting.

The caffeine content of mate is relatively low – from 0.3% to 1.9% of dry weight (compare this to 2.0–5.0% for tea leaves, and 2.0% for ground coffee). However, the custom of brewing mate very strong in the gourd and then progressively diluting the beverage as it is communally consumed makes actual caffeine intake difficult to estimate compared to a single cup of coffee or tea.

Yerba mate contains natural antioxidants and various studies are showing it to exhibit significant cancer-fighting activity. Researchers at the University of Illinois (2005) found yerba mate to be “rich in antioxidant phenolic constituents” and to “inhibit oral cancer cell proliferation”. Emerging research also shows that yerba mate preparations may be useful in treating heart disease.

In addition to the Green Mate, we also stock a range of flavoured Mates. Moroccan Mate, Magic Mate, Sweet Mate, Sunrise and the Punchy Devils Mate.