WuYi Rock Tea Making

Since we have already introduced two kinds of Wuyi Rock tea, one of the most famous Oolong teas, it is time to talk about the Oolong tea handicraft. There are four main Oolong tea areas, Northern Fujian, Southern Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan. They follow very similar procedure but the slight difference determines their flavor difference. 

Step One: Leaf Pickup 

There are three pickup seasons in one year: spring, summer and fall. Timing is important because leaves too tender will be over-cooked in the "roast" and "bake" step. 

Step Two: Green-making (ZuoQing, 做青)

Green-making, sometimes translated as "fine manipulation of green leaves" is one of the most important steps in the oolong tea handicraft. Craftsmen first dehydrate fresh green leaves under the sun. Next, they shake the dehydrated tea-leaves with controlled speed/rhythm, literally translated as "green-shaking"(YaoQing,摇青). In the ancient times, craftsmen shake by hands, but now machines are more commonly used. The green-shaking step is to help the aromatic substances in the stalk to go into the leaves. This unique technique makes the oolong tea intensively-aromatic. After the green-shaking step, the green leaves will be spread and cooled by air. This is called "cool green"(LiangQing, 凉青) . It is important to keep the leaves spread, so they could keep on losing water. 

Shake green by hand

Shake green by machine

Step Three: Green Roasted (chaoqing, 炒青) & Rolling (Rounian,揉捻)

During the "green-making" step, leaves have already been fermented. When temperate goes up in the step, it stops the tea from further fermentation. That's why oolong tea is called "half-fermented" tea. Usually, craftsmen put the "post green-making" leaves into a big iron pot to roast them. The tea will keep on fermenting until 80C. After that, the enzyme stops oxidation. With continuous rolling, leaves will turn into green and yellow. The green color comes from the chlorophyll left, while the yellow color comes from the result of the initial oxidation--theaflavin. As the fermentation/initial oxidation proceeds, the thearubigins increase and the theaflavins decrease. That makes the unique feature of oolong tea "green leaf with red trim". In another word, the red trim comes from the complete oxidation. 

Roast Green

Step Four: Bake tea leaves(HongBei, 烘焙）

This step is to get rid of the unclean flavor of the tea leaves. First, spread the tea leaves evenly on different layers of bake basket; Light the charcoal in the bake-hole. The bake process is like when you stew a soup. You have to keep the fire very light, so it lasts really long. The longest bake process takes 12 hours. Maybe that's why the rock tea is so precious. If we know the whole process of the rock tea making, we may respect and enjoy every sip of it! 

Bake Basket

Bake Hole and Charcoal