Taiwanese Oolong: High Mountain, Dong Ding, Oriental Beauty and More

Taiwanese oolong covers a wide range of teas, from lightly oxidized, floral high mountain teas grown above 1,000 metres (Alishan, Lishan, Shan Lin Xi) to roasted Dong Ding, honey-scented Oriental Beauty and Gui Fei, creamy Jin Xuan "milk oolong" and twisted, fragrant Baozhong. What they share is careful processing and a clean, sweet cup. Most rolled Taiwanese oolongs brew best gongfu with about 6 g per 100 ml and water at 80–90 °C (90–95 °C for roasted ones); lighter, fluffier teas like Oriental Beauty prefer a little less leaf, about 4 g.

The first Taiwanese oolong that stopped me in my tracks was a Lishan a friend carried back from a trip to Taiwan. She handed me a small vacuum-sealed pack and said, "Brew this one when it's quiet." I did, on a Sunday morning, and the gaiwan lid smelled of lilac and fresh cream. By the fourth steep the tea had turned into something like pear juice, and the tightly rolled balls had opened into whole, glossy leaves the size of my thumb.

My everyday tea is still sheng pu-erh and Wuyi rock oolong, but Taiwan has a permanent place on my shelf. In summer, when it's too hot in Slovenia for gongfu in the afternoon, I cold-brew high mountain oolong in a bottle in the fridge, and it's the best iced tea I know.

The main Taiwanese oolongs#

High mountain oolong (gaoshan cha)#

This is what most people mean by "Taiwanese oolong" today. The tea grows in the island's central mountains, where cool nights, mist and slow growth give thick leaves full of aroma and sweetness. The leaves are lightly oxidized, rolled into tight balls and usually only lightly finished over heat, so the tea stays green-gold in the cup.

Names usually point to the mountain: Alishan is the most widely known, Lishan and Da Yu Ling are higher and prized for their clean, cooling sweetness, Shan Lin Xi sits in between. Don't treat those names as a guarantee: "Alishan" on a label can mean anything from a carefully made mountain tea to lowland leaf with a famous name attached. Taste is the only real test.

What good high mountain oolong feels like: thick and silky, sweet from the first sip, with a floral aroma that lingers in the empty cup and a cooling feeling in the throat. The leaves should open whole and bright green, with a slight reddening at the edges. If the tea is thin, grassy or sharp, it's either young lowland leaf or it has been stored badly.

Dong Ding: the roasted classic#

Before high mountain teas took over, Dong Ding was the Taiwanese oolong. It comes from Nantou, and a popular story says the first bushes were brought over from Wuyi in the mid-19th century. Traditional Dong Ding is rolled, medium oxidized and roasted over charcoal, which gives it a warm, nutty, toasty cup with caramel sweetness and a long finish.

Today you'll find both a greener, modern style and the traditional roasted one. If you like Wuyi rock tea, try the roasted version first. It's the most natural bridge between the two schools. More on the difference in roasted vs green oolong.

Oriental Beauty and Gui Fei: the honey teas#

These two teas are made from leaves bitten by a tiny green leafhopper (Jacobiasca formosana, about 3 mm long) that's active in the warm months. When the insect pierces the young shoots, the plant defends itself by producing aromatic compounds, including linalool and geraniol. Tea makers turn that stress into a natural honey and fruit aroma. Because the insect is the whole point, these gardens can't be sprayed with pesticides.

Oriental Beauty (Dongfang Meiren, also called Bai Hao or "white tip" oolong) comes from Hsinchu and Miaoli. It's heavily oxidized, around 60–80%, which puts it close to red tea. The dry leaf is a mix of white, silver, gold, red and brown. In the cup it's honey, muscat grape and ripe stone fruit, with a sweet, lingering finish. The story that a British queen gave the tea its name is a nice legend and probably no more than that.

Gui Fei is younger. It appeared in the Lugu area of Nantou after the 1999 earthquake, when farms were left unsprayed and the leafhoppers moved in. Farmers made the bitten leaf into rolled, roasted oolong, and the honey aroma turned into a new style.

Jin Xuan, the "milk oolong"#

Jin Xuan (金萱) is a cultivar, also known as Taiwan Tea No. 12 (台茶12号), bred in Taiwan by the tea researcher Wu Zhen-duo. It gives a naturally soft, creamy, buttery cup, which is why it's sold as milk oolong.

There's a catch: a lot of "milk oolong" on the market (sometimes labelled Nai Xiang) is flavoured with a milk or cream essence. Natural Jin Xuan smells gently creamy and floral; flavoured versions smell loudly of sweet milk, like candy, and the aroma fades quickly after the first steeps. Both can be pleasant, but they're different products. I go into this in my milk oolong guide.

Baozhong and GABA#

Baozhong (包種, also spelled Pouchong) comes from the Pinglin area near Taipei. It's the lightest Taiwanese oolong: very lightly oxidized and twisted into long dark-green strips instead of rolled balls. It smells of fresh flowers and lily and drinks almost like a cross between a green tea and an oolong.

GABA oolong isn't a variety but a processing method. Fresh leaf is kept in a nitrogen atmosphere without oxygen, which converts glutamic acid into GABA. The method was developed in Japan in the mid-1980s; Taiwan applied it to oolong and added roasting. Good GABA oolong smells of baked bread and gingerbread. A sour, "medicinal" taste is a bad sign. Many people drink it in the evening because it feels gentle, but treat any health claims around it with caution.

How to brew Taiwanese oolong#

Gongfu#

The full chart for every tea is in my gongfu brewing chart.

Western#

Use 3–4 g for a 300 ml teapot, water at 80–90 °C (90–95 °C for roasted teas), and steep 2–3 minutes. Rolled oolongs re-steep well, so keep the leaves and brew again.

Cold brew#

This is the Taiwanese summer method, and high mountain oolong and Oriental Beauty are perfect for it. Put about 2 teaspoons of leaf in 1 litre of cold water and leave it in the fridge for 8–12 hours. Strain and drink within a day. The result is sweet, floral and completely free of bitterness. More in cold brew tea.

How to store Taiwanese oolong#

Light oolongs are sensitive. Keep them airtight, dark and cool, and aim to drink them within about a year of harvest. In Taiwan, fresh oolong is often kept vacuum-packed in the cold. At home, if you keep it in the fridge, divide it into small sealed portions first and let each one come to room temperature before opening, so no condensation forms on the leaf.

Roasted teas like Dong Ding and Gui Fei are more stable and can sit at room temperature in a sealed porcelain or tin caddy. Some Taiwanese and southern Fujian tea makers even age roasted oolong for years, re-roasting it every so often. These aged oolongs (lao cha, or chen xiang, "aged aroma") are a world of their own.

How to choose a good Taiwanese oolong#

• Look for a harvest season and year. Spring and winter harvests are the most prized for high mountain teas.
• Check the leaf after brewing. Whole, thick, glossy leaves are a good sign. Lots of broken pieces and stems suggest lower-grade leaf.
• Taste for sweetness and texture. Good gaoshan oolong is thick and sweet; thin, grassy or sour tea is a warning.
• Be sceptical of big mountain names on low-cost tea. Mislabelled origin is common.
• For milk oolong, smell carefully. A gentle creaminess is natural; a sweet-candy smell usually means flavouring.

The vendors I trust for oolong are in best places to buy oolong online.