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What Is Wu Long Tea ?
Wu Long Tea or oolong tea is the one which is the fastest popular development in Vietnam nowaday. Wu long tea traditionally comes from China (Camellia sinensis). The tea maker produces oolong tea by special way like dry tea leaves under sunshine and oxidate strongly before dry. In the past, Vietnamese people usually drank Thai Nguyen green tea (another names: Bac tea, Thai tea, Tan Cuong tea, Moc Cau tea, fishook tea etc.), Lotus green tea or Jasmine tea, etc. Appearing wu long tea makes a strong impression and curiousities for people who have a passion for this tea. In this post, I would like to show for you what is Wu Long Tea?
In the perceptions of several Vietnamese people, Wu long tea has a circle shape which is completely different from another popular tea in Vietnam. They particularly has a curled leaves, strong smells, green yellow water, light taste and easy to drink. Moreover, it can help lose weigh effectively.
In other exact ways, it has the oxidation range from 8% to 80%.
In Vietnam, the majority of oolong tea is the green one.
Taiwan’s Wu Long Tea
As I mentioned, it is a group of tea (it’s like group of green tea or black tea, etc) which comprises of several different types. Any kind of teas that have the oxidation range from 8% to 80%, people usually arrange it into Wu Long Tea type.
However, almost 100% Wu Long in Vietnam is Gaoshan oolong tea. Qing Xin, Jin Xuan, Cuiyu and Si Ji Chun are the most popular cultivars of tea plant cultivated in the high mountain regions. in Vietnam, Jin Xuan is the most popular. Apart from Gaoshan oolong tea, Taiwan still has Bao Zhongwu long, Dong Ding wu long (oxidation from 20% to 30%), Bai Hao wu long (50%). In China, there is Anxi Tie Kuan Yin, Wu Yi Da Hong Pao etc.
Taiwan plays an important roles in Vietnam’s Wu Long Tea brand. From my knowledges, 90% oolong tea that factory produces in Vietnam are exported to Taiwan. Besides, 90% factories, and farms that produce this tea are invested by Taiwanese. Two main reasons why Taiwan chooses Vietnam as a destination are their high demands and their limited plantations in island. Moreover, they are the best people being good at tea in the world. Taiwanese people invest to Gaoshan wu long tea because of their needs and its good commercial value. That is the reason why Vietnamese uses only this type of this tea (Wu Long tea, Tra Viet is the same one).
Factors To Make The Qualites Of Wu Long Tea
People appreciate highly to its good quality. It has good smells, rich flavors, long lasted tastes, dense water, etc. People mixed them together to make a subtle liquid that can mix with water many times. It is used not only for new people who love drinking tea but also for people who accquainted with drinking tea everyday.
The good qualities of tea come from the following factors:
- Good tea’s cultivar and planing technique: Special cultivar, small leaves, and rich qualities make this tea. Especially, It is used for the original breeds then the new hybrid ones. At farmland, tea trees are farmed strickly. It begins from choosing breeds, cultivating, fertilizing, watering, etc. to picking leaves.
- Climate: This tea always grows in the high mountains with over 1000 meters (That is the reason why people normally call Gaoshan wu long), where have the cool green fog mountains. Weather is an important factor to decide to the quality of this tea.
- Processing techniques: After cropping, tea buds continuously go through 48 hours in the factory in order to be tea. It experiences the most subtle phases in all of tea types. It makes extremely abundant flavours of Wu Long Tea.
Vietnam’s Wu Long Tea
As I mentioned, Vietnam is like a farm to produce this tea for Taiwanese. Though, we need to be proud of that beacause it brings a lot of effective benefits and advantages for developing producing tea in Vietnam and for the benefits of the ones who drink tea as well. Generally, there are some characters of producing tea in Vietnam:
- We just produce Gaoshan oolong tea in several types of tea in the market.
- Vietnam’s Wu Long has good qualites and international standards.
- People usually call our production is “Green Wu Long Tea”. When factory export this tea to Taiwan, Taiwanese consumed immediately most of them. Besides, they roast the rest into types of blacker wu long teas depending on the flavors that they want.
- Bao Loc town (Lam Dong province) is traditionally the main area where produce oolong tea in Vietnam.
Green oolong tea is the most popular one type in Vietnam.
Some Misunderstanding About Oolong Tea
Because it is a new tea and quite popular nowaday, there are some miraculous benefits of this one make people feel confused and misunderstand.
- Wu Long helps lose weigh: It’s not only true for only this one but also for all teas in the tea market. But If you need to lose weigh, just finding other ways to do more effectively.
- People use fresh milk, honey and eggs to water oolong tea tree: It’s totally wrong. People use normal fertilizers to fertilize tea trees. If they use some sweet foods to do, sectors, flies, ants, etc. will appear in the farm.
- Just only pick 1 buds in 2 leaves: To make the best products, people need to pick the third or fourth leaves, and both the stems and tops. Therefore, picking 1 buds in 3 or 4 leaves is suitable.