Awesome picture, will have to download and try to decipher with my awful Mandarin skills.
It is difficult to decipher what is going on in a puer production, because the word fermentation is so often mistakenly used in place of oxidation, when translating from the Chinese.
A few years back a subversive Chinese blogger, a biochemist in training, came out and said drinking puer is the fastest way to get cancer. 
Does anyone remember that one? China inc wanted to sue him for everything he had.
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One thing that fascinates me about tea is how traditional it is. The tea artisans have perfected their techniques over hundreds of years, barely changing beyond moving from charcoal and hand picking and rolling to gas heaters and machine cutting and rolling.
Almost everything relies on the nose of the tea producer and their knowledge of the tea cultivar and the quality of the tea leaves . It’s very much an artisan ‘single origin, single batch’ product’ worthy of admiration in that regard. They can smell the ‘turning of the tea’ at various fermentation (oxidation) stages,.That is the secret of the best tea producers (they still rest the tea in ovens for days and weeks doing further roasts periodically to change the flavour profile over up to a month time period, but like wine you can’t rescue a bad barrell). Farmers who don’t have this ability may ask contractors (folks who don’t farm tea but process tea as their business ) or other farmers to do it for them for a fee.
There are specialist guys that do this as their full time job too, travelling to tea farms to take care of just the fermentation step for them.
It could take up to one month from picking to when the tea is ready for sale.
One of the few modern innovations I have seen has been GABA oolong where the Japanese discovered a process to increase GABA in tea. Oh and Japanese Matcha tea and the ultra fine processed powder that they achieve (nobody can match their Matcha Taiwanese can’t even come close) . And Taiwan with its mixianghongcha and wild teas now .
I feel there could be a lot of cool stuff left to experiment with tea fermentation and roasting and processing still to get different flavours out of it.
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What are people’s thoughts on washing oolong tea? By that I mean the practice of throwing out the first brew. Is that still done or is it old school to do this now?
Ah great question.
So when I asked some tea people about this , many said it was due to sanitation and deadly diseases being big issues in the old days. Some do it to hopefully remove pesticide residues . Others do it to cleanse the tea of particles and tiny twigs and bits of leaves.
If the tea has been tested for pesticide , its probably not necessary and I’m not sure how much pesticide is removed anyway.
The farmer I know said it’s not necessary but everybody will have different opinions on that. It could help warm the tea pot I think. Having seen how tea is produced there is absolutely no final washing or cleaning step (just some sorting on the tea roasting machine) the tea may be packed in very basic conditions so take that into consideration . There can be be pesticide use obviously (not supposed to be recent use and if it is for export they will test it for sure ) but I would like to understand how much could be washed off just in case.
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I seem to remember some tea guy on TV saying the class of pesticides they use are not water soluble, and washing is pointless.
It wouldn’t surprise me one iota if this was some pointless activity passed along that no one has questioned.
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I also heard it allows the tea to open up a bit so as to provide a better subsequent infusion. I think I remember the first infusion you toss out is the “foot tea” or some such thing. Sounds kind of odd.
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Normally you chuck the first tea out because the factories are dusty as hell and you want the stuff off the leaves, also helps wash off any pesticide residue left on the leaves.
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Totally agree, seems any meaningful answer is related to cleanliness. If just warming the pot, they would just use the hot water.
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The tea factories I’ve seen are seriously dirty, one time I saw a gecko fall off the ceiling because there was so much dust that it couldn’t stick anymore.
Maybe you could help me find some thing I’ve been looking for since actually before I even came to Taiwan.
In other countries, I have been able to find a tea that they call “milk oolong”. I am attracted to it because of it milky taste, as the name suggests.
Upon googling it, Wikipedia says it originates in Taiwan, so I was very excited to find some while here.
I asked some locals and got the understanding that there’s actually a different kind that’s supposed to taste even milkier than the milk oolong I had tried abroad and referenced to them.
However, when I tried that tea here, I found that the milky taste was exceptionally subtle to the point where I could barely tell if or whether it was there. In contrast, the milk oolong I have had abroad in multiple countries has always had quite a pronounced milk taste.
Everywhere I’ve had it, I have bought it in loose leaf (curled ip “pearls”) form, from both supermarkets and specialty tea shops.
Here is what I’ve been told to look for, and I have had the friends who have given me this information also recommend me more than one place for more than one friendWhich they have confirmed for me by calling and asking that they have this varietal.
金萱茶（不是牛奶+金萱）- Which is different from what it says on wikipedia: 行政院農業委員會茶業改良場) “#12” (or as “Milk Oolong” (Nai Xiang)) - the latter being the apparently weaker one.
But it’s just not the same. So what is going on? Can I find some super milky milk Oolong like I have tried while outside the country, or is that shit fake, and I have to put up with barely milky milk oolong?
If such a thing exists, can you recommend me where to go get it? I am in Kaohsiung.
Yes I believe its usually 金萱茶 in Taiwan. I will ask my friend is there anything ‘milkier’. Overseas they may add some essence to the tea to make it taste milkier.
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Agree that some black hearted vendors add milk flavor to subpar tea. The milk oolong I’ve had in Taiwan was more subtle than some I’ve had from random tea shops in the US. We picked up some 金萱茶 near Alishan that was quite nice. This was some years ago and while we were tasting the tea a tour bus of Chinese tourists rolled up and found the tea wasn’t milky enough for them. They were probably used to the adulterated version
If I want milky oolong I add fresh milk.
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I really liked the idea of getting a calorie-free milky taste in my tea.
Well ‘e number take your pick’ and it can be done.
I brewed some semi oxidised oolong today, straight after decanting it didn’t taste that great. Not horrible, just okay. I got distracted with something else, came back to my cup after 20 minutes or so. I thought it tasted much better. Anyone feel some oolong tea likes to be allowed to ‘open up’ a bit after brewing?
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With some good teas you can let them sit and they could taste better but for most I don’t think it works.
Longer steeping causes them to become more astringent, bitter.
Somewhat similar idea with adding boiling water to tea. Generally that don’t recommend it for brewing but when tasting tea and checking quality they use boiling water to extract as much as possible from the leaf.(the good stuff and also the chemicals that cause astringency ). It if can withstand boiling water better they rate it higher and that it can be steeped longer.
Any good sources for some of this local, loose-leaf black tea? I normally get bags of Asaam etc. at Bee Coffee on Fuxing.
I came across a sampler pack of “Done Sheng” tea bags, Hualian. I particularly liked one of the bags in there which was “Honey black chrysanthemum”. I found this company on yahoo shopping, however it did not seem I could order the Honey black chrysanthemum loose. So I just went ahead and ordered some of their “Honey black tea”. I am drinking it now, it is quite malty, reminds me a little of a high quality Assam, but milder. It’s probably not would I want to drink every morning though. It has a strong fruity fragrance. Cold brewed in the fridge, the bouquet you get off it is quite amazing.
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