Types of Oolong Tea: Tie Guan Yin, Da Hong Pao, Oriental Beauty and Darjeeling Oolong

It is made in many ways, from fresh, green and floral to darker and roasted, which is why tea lovers prize it for its range.

It comes from different areas of Anxi in Fujian. There the leaves are withered in the sun, then oxidized and roasted; how long each step runs decides whether the cup comes out green and flowery or dark and toasty.

Because it is ball-rolled, a spoonful of Tie Guan Yin looks like very little tea. The tight balls open a great deal in hot water, so give them room in a pot or a large infuser.

Our founder, Kausshal Dugarr, has called this rare oolong “often regarded as the most expensive in the world,” and credits the unique soil of Wuyishan with giving the leaves “a special mineral character.”

Its fame rests on a handful of old bushes. Our 2021 post on the world’s most expensive teas counts only six mother trees, insured by the Wuyi city government in 2006. It recommends a Yixing clay teapot and water at 100°C, and notes that the third and fourth steeps are considered the best. Peter Keen put the yield more simply: “You’ll get at least five cups out of a spoonful of Big Red Robe oolong.”

Narcissus and the other Wuyi rock teas

Another Wuyi oolong, Narcissus, is known for its orchid-like aroma. The vintage Narcissus we described in 2021 is oxidized to about 60% and fired once every two years as it ages. It gives 5 to 10 infusions: the first at 1 minute, then 30 seconds longer each time.

That slow refiring is the same baking step described in What is oolong tea?, and it is what gives the darker Wuyi oolongs their toasty notes.

Bai Hao is heavily oxidized and sun-dried. At the other end, Taiwan’s high-mountain (gao shan) oolongs, such as Dong Ding, Ali Shan and Li Shan, are grown above 1,000 m and ball-rolled, and they are greener, spicier and more complex, with a long aftertaste. Bao Jong (baozhong), from areas such as Pinglin near Taipei, is lighter still and intensely flowery, almost a bridge between green tea and oolong.

Frank Miller wrote that comparison for us just after a two-week tea tour of Taiwan, visiting the tea masters who make these teas. He traced their complexity to the island’s science: tea researchers in China and Taiwan have developed hundreds of cultivars bred for oolong, several ways of controlling oxidation and “killing green,” and various firing methods.

Oolong is still a small, specialist tea in the West. In 2016 Keen put oolongs at only 2% of the US tea market, yet he counted more than a thousand on sale on Amazon, including outstanding Alishan high-mountain milk oolongs.

India and Nepal now make oolongs too. They are usually strip-style, with long, slender leaves that tea writer Frank Miller compared to spider legs. Cupping five for our blog, he found them closest to Bai Hao and gave them a name of their own: “Darjeelongs.”

The five he cupped were highly oxidized for oolongs, at about 80%, and plucked to a high standard, very tippy. Others are much lighter: the Mim oolong we sold in 2018 was made from the famed AV2 clones, and the Singbulli spring oolong was only partly oxidized after a light roll.

The estates, the people and the first Darjeeling oolong are in Indian oolong tea.

China’s classic is osmanthus oolong. Zac O’Yeah tasted it for us at the Ji Gu Ge teahouse on Liulichang in Beijing, where he described it as “oolong perfumed with tiny leaves of a plant related to jasmine.”

We have made our own. Kewra Delight Oolong, a festive blend, paired a floral oolong with chocolate, cardamom and kewra, whose rose-like notes give the blend its name. Marigold Berry Muse blended strawberries and vanilla into a fragrant floral oolong. For more blends, see Flavored tea blends.