> In the ever-lightening tastes of the Chinese consumer market for tea,
> every kind of oolong has been made lighter and lighter. I have some 06
> Shuixian sitting on my desk right now that I tried a few days ago,
> which brews a golden yellow colour (orange if you put lots of leaves
> in) and is quite light in taste. No roasting was done, or at least
> none that is obvious. The leaves range from oxidized bronze to a
> darker green/black.
>
> So.... it really depends on what the OP drank. I am going by the
> "twisted long leaves" shape that he described.
>
>

I have tasted many Wuyi processed to attract the tastebuds of the younger
generation in China; most of these range from the sea level plantations to
machine harvested leaves.

The dried leaves are dark in appearance, but once brewed, the green showed
through. Bronzed leaves? None at all. The colour bronze indicates the
result of one of several processes, and high heat roasting is one of them -
which in this case from the appearance of the brew as described by the OP,
didn't appear to be the case. the other possibility is that the leaves have
undergone post production high heat treatment to breakdown more thoroughly
the chlorophyll groups a & b and chlorophyllin into xanthophyll groups and
carotene.

The "rock-green" bruising period for oolongs would largely increase enzyme
activity and change the chlorophyll into chlorophyllin, and in the drying
process, chlorophyllin changes into phrophorbide, the leaves at this stage
is a colour between dark green and yellow, and the liquors yellow with a
green tinge, or green with a yellow tinge, depending on the length of period
for the bruising and the drying. Roasting the leaves will alter the
chemicals in the leaves further and present us with a brew of darker colour
leaning towards yolky yellow and brownish red.

But seriously, who cares for such jargon?

What is interesting is that the OP mentioned the lack of floral notes.
Light fermented unroasted oolongs might process a yellow liquor, but lack of
floral note? This is almost unlike light fermented unroasted oolong.

Danny