I’m trying to introduce Harney & Sons
Fine Teas – Pomegranate Oolong today.
I think this is the first time introducing
oolong tea.
We have about 40 types of teas but this is
the only oolong tea we have.
Oolong tea is still not so much popular in
Korea and not so many customers order this tea.
Oolong tea is classified according to the
degree of fermentation.
If tea leaves are just dried, then they are
green teas.
If tea leaves are slightly fermented, then
they are white teas.
If tea leaves are fermented little more,
then they are oolong teas.
And if tea leaves are fully fermented, then
they are black teas.
The teas people enjoy vary on the
characteristic of the geographical location they are living in.
Teas used to be only well-known local specialty
produced in China.
Although Korea is located very close to
China, the tea culture is not well developed in Korea.
There seems to be many different reasons
but the biggest reason is because there are many mountains with plenty of clean
water in Korea so there was no need to develop tea culture that much.
On the other hand, Japan’s tea culture is
very well developed.
Along with green teas, oolong tea is one of
the most popular teas in Japan.
It is known that while Japanese were
transporting teas from China the tea leaves fermented little, which became
oolong tea and they loved the taste.
This story is quite similar to the story of
birth of cheese, isn’t it? J
Also, the reason people in England and
Europe started to enjoy fully fermented black tea is because it took long time
to transport tea leaves from China and fresh tea leaves were not avilable.
OK, let’s come back to today’s tea.
Please take a look at the tea bag. There is no need to pay attention to the
shape of the bag.
Although the shape or finishing touches of
the bag does make some differences on its quality, the effect is very minimal.
Please look inside the tea bag.
See if the leaves are in powered form or in
intact shape.
Any good quality teas would use the leaves
in intact shape instead of powdered or grinded form.
However, the leaves of black teas would
look different.
Their leaves would look
like twisted bread stick due to fermenting and drying process, but those
actually are intact leaves.
If cheaper or low quality tea leaves are
used, it would be mostly in powdered form.
I don’t know if you can see the leaves from
the above picture. The leaves are in
intact shape.
The sizes of the leaves are quite big.
The highest grade
leaves are known as “orange pekoe”.
They
are the first young leaves germinated.
Full
grown leaves or the second or third germinated leaves are known to have
relatively lower qualities.
I’m not an expert
in tea leaves, but it looks like the leaves used in this tea are medium grade.
I think the most
distinct characteristic of oolong tea is softness.
It’s not light as
green tea or heavy as black tea.
The taste is
relatively clean and soft.
This tea has the
name “pomegranate”, but I couldn’t really taste any pomegranate from it.
It may have left
me with very slight aftertaste of pomegranate, but virtually none existed.
Surprisingly, I
was able to taste strong sweetness and full of rich flavors.
It stayed clean
and fresh until the very end. So I
thought it will be best if you drink this tea after having something greasy
food.
Or it will also harmonize
well if you drink it on a raining day while looking out the window watch it
rains.
There are teas
that make you focus on the taste and the teas that make you focus on the scent.
I love this tea
for the scent that is left in my mouth.
Hope you have
refreshing day~ J
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