I'm a long time green tea drinker. I recently visited a tea shop and
the owner talked me into trying a Jade Oolong. It had such an intense
floral flavor (reminiscent of a Jasmine tea-but more "orchid") that it
was hard for me to believe the owner when she said that the flavor was
not added or infused like Jasmine is--that it was straight from the
leaves and the processing. The owner seemed fairly knowlegable,
although her green selection was limited to the "standard" greens such
as sencha, dragonwell, etc.

So, experts of the tea newgroup--what is Jade Oolong and why is it so
flavorful?

I bought a package: 2 oz. for $7.00 (USA).

In article om>,
> wrote:
>I'm a long time green tea drinker. I recently visited a tea shop and
>the owner talked me into trying a Jade Oolong. It had such an intense
>floral flavor (reminiscent of a Jasmine tea-but more "orchid") that it
>was hard for me to believe the owner when she said that the flavor was
>not added or infused like Jasmine is--that it was straight from the
>leaves and the processing. The owner seemed fairly knowlegable,
>although her green selection was limited to the "standard" greens such
>as sencha, dragonwell, etc.
>
>So, experts of the tea newgroup--what is Jade Oolong and why is it so
>flavorful?

Ask if it's an osmanthus blossom tea.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

wrote:
> I'm a long time green tea drinker. I recently visited a tea shop and
> the owner talked me into trying a Jade Oolong. It had such an intense
> floral flavor (reminiscent of a Jasmine tea-but more "orchid") that it
> was hard for me to believe the owner when she said that the flavor was
> not added or infused like Jasmine is--that it was straight from the
> leaves and the processing. The owner seemed fairly knowlegable,
> although her green selection was limited to the "standard" greens such
> as sencha, dragonwell, etc.
>
> So, experts of the tea newgroup--what is Jade Oolong and why is it so
> flavorful?
>
> I bought a package: 2 oz. for $7.00 (USA).

It could be many things. Could you please describe the leaves or ask
about the Chinese name of the tea?

Jade oolong is a light roast floral green oolong from Taiwan. It is
from the NanTou mtn area. Another name for light roast green oolong is
pouchong. I pay about 2 bucks an oz. Floral is the natural taste.

Jim

wrote:
> I'm a long time green tea drinker. I recently visited a tea shop and
> the owner talked me into trying a Jade Oolong. It had such an intense
> floral flavor (reminiscent of a Jasmine tea-but more "orchid") that it
> was hard for me to believe the owner when she said that the flavor was
> not added or infused like Jasmine is--that it was straight from the
> leaves and the processing. The owner seemed fairly knowlegable,
> although her green selection was limited to the "standard" greens such
> as sencha, dragonwell, etc.
>
> So, experts of the tea newgroup--what is Jade Oolong and why is it so
> flavorful?
>
> I bought a package: 2 oz. for $7.00 (USA).

Space 8/14/06


> Jade oolong is a light roast floral green oolong from Taiwan. It is
> from the NanTou mtn area. Another name for light roast green oolong is
> pouchong. I pay about 2 bucks an oz. Floral is the natural taste.
>
> Jim

Jim, IMHE pouchong is quite different. It sports twisty long
beautiful green leaves, and brews a different taste that I call
cucumber flower because it differs considerably from Jade
Oolong, which I don't like quite as much. Too much florisity.
Have to admit though that pouchong is iffy. Sometimes it's
wonderful, and sometimes not.
Michael

I can't really disagree with you that the two are different. My Jade
is semi rolled and Pouchong long and twisted. However I can taste more
similarities than not once you get beyond the floral taste. I think
pouchong is a style from Nantou. However it could be from other areas
like DongDing or AliShan but I don't know.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote:
> Space 8/14/06
>
>
> > Jade oolong is a light roast floral green oolong from Taiwan. It is
> > from the NanTou mtn area. Another name for light roast green oolong is
> > pouchong. I pay about 2 bucks an oz. Floral is the natural taste.
> >
> > Jim
>
> Jim, IMHE pouchong is quite different. It sports twisty long
> beautiful green leaves, and brews a different taste that I call
> cucumber flower because it differs considerably from Jade
> Oolong, which I don't like quite as much. Too much florisity.
> Have to admit though that pouchong is iffy. Sometimes it's
> wonderful, and sometimes not.
> Michael

Space 8/14/06


> I can't really disagree with you that the two are different. My Jade
> is semi rolled and Pouchong long and twisted. However I can taste more
> similarities than not once you get beyond the floral taste. I think
> pouchong is a style from Nantou. However it could be from other areas
> like DongDing or AliShan but I don't know.

Jim, your point is well taken. I wonder though whether a super-super-fresh
Jade Oolong vis-a-vis a super-super-fresh Pouchong wouldn't show more
dramatic differences.
Michael

I looked at Stephane's blog and she has no notes for Jade oolong. I
looked at her notes for Baozhong. If I read between the lines maybe
some Baozhong can match the Jade in fragrance like intensity. I notice
the similarites after the first pot once the fragrance has receded.
According to her the two cultivars are different, elevation, and
location. Darwin says they should taste different from geographical
isolation. I was surprised that the Jade oolong is mass produced. I
pay more for it than the Pouchong. All of a sudden my Pouchong taste
better. You can't go wrong if you are drinking the two jade
characters, the single commercial Pouchong character, or the twin
baozhong characters. I've never tasted a bad Taiwan tea. If it says
Taiwan I buy it with no hesitation even Assam packaged in Taiwan.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote:
> Space 8/14/06
>
>
> > I can't really disagree with you that the two are different. My Jade
> > is semi rolled and Pouchong long and twisted. However I can taste more
> > similarities than not once you get beyond the floral taste. I think
> > pouchong is a style from Nantou. However it could be from other areas
> > like DongDing or AliShan but I don't know.
>
> Jim, your point is well taken. I wonder though whether a super-super-fresh
> Jade Oolong vis-a-vis a super-super-fresh Pouchong wouldn't show more
> dramatic differences.
> Michael

Space Cowboy wrote:
> Jade oolong is a light roast floral green oolong from Taiwan. It is
> from the NanTou mtn area. Another name for light roast green oolong is
> pouchong. I pay about 2 bucks an oz. Floral is the natural taste.
>
> Jim


I am simply unfamilar with the English tea terminology with tea, I
find. What is the Chinese name for jade wulong?

Pouchong = qing xiang?

We had a previous discussion on the character(s) for Pouchong. Given
the transliteration I was assuming two. On the commercial packaging
you'll see that character with the word. It is only one character:

http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=51CA

The are the two characters for 'jade' oolong:
http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=7FE0
http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=7389

Jim

Mydnight wrote:
> Space Cowboy wrote:
> > Jade oolong is a light roast floral green oolong from Taiwan. It is
> > from the NanTou mtn area. Another name for light roast green oolong is
> > pouchong. I pay about 2 bucks an oz. Floral is the natural taste.
> >
> > Jim
>
>
> I am simply unfamilar with the English tea terminology with tea, I
> find. What is the Chinese name for jade wulong?
>
> Pouchong = qing xiang?

Mydnight, you are possibly unlikely to encounter Jade oolong on the
Mainland because it's one of the new Taiwanese cultivars, like Si Ji
Chun (å››å*£æ˜¥) and Jinxuan (金è�±).

Actually, it would be interesting to know more about how Taiwanese tea
is doing on the Mainland market. I understand it's getting more
popular.

Space Cowboy wrote:
> We had a previous discussion on the character(s) for Pouchong. Given
> the transliteration I was assuming two. On the commercial packaging
> you'll see that character with the word. It is only one character:
>
> http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=51CA
>
> The are the two characters for 'jade' oolong:
> http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=7FE0
> http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=7389
>
> Jim
>
> Mydnight wrote:
> > Space Cowboy wrote:
> > > Jade oolong is a light roast floral green oolong from Taiwan. It is
> > > from the NanTou mtn area. Another name for light roast green oolong is
> > > pouchong. I pay about 2 bucks an oz. Floral is the natural taste.
> > >
> > > Jim
> >
> >
> > I am simply unfamilar with the English tea terminology with tea, I
> > find. What is the Chinese name for jade wulong?
> >
> > Pouchong = qing xiang?

> Actually, it would be interesting to know more about how Taiwanese tea
> is doing on the Mainland market. I understand it's getting more
> popular.

Ok, thanks, I got it now. I know a few vendors that sell low quality
productions of those teas; more than likely fake, doctored, or
nonsense.

As for Taiwan tea in the market, really high quality stuff is hard to
come by. A student of mine brought me back some A Li Shan he got in
the supermarket in Taiwan and it was leaps and bounds better than some
of the "'real' Gao Shan shops" that had been suggested to me by my tea
drinking friends here on the mainland. I have also been lucky to meet
several Taiwanese, pretty old guys, that are really into tea. They
have basically "shown me the light" so to speak. You simply cannot
acquire a really high grade of this tea on the mainland, even if you
pay like 1500RMB.

Down at Fangcun, you will find a slew of different shops that sell "gao
shan" teas and "Taiwan" teas. They mostly do business by selling the
teas that supposedly come from Taiwan in packages, but that doesn't
explain the boxes and boxes of loose tea in their backrooms. They
markup the prices insanely and mostly do business with the
money-laundering types that can get "fa piao" invoices to get money
back from their companies. I've sampled several different grades,
supposedly, at those shops and it sorta all tasted the same: slightly
floral with the astringent finish that can be found in most low grade
Wulongs. Ali Shan...Dongding Wulong...Li Shan...basically the same.

There isn't much of a trend with the Taiwanese tea as it is with the
Taiwanese tea stuff. Pots, cups, tools, trays: It's all so much better
quality than the mainland stuff. You can so easily see it. I have a
pot that was given to me by my Taiwanese tea pal...leaps and
bounds...leaps and bounds.

Pouchong = baozhong = 包� (simplified characters) = traditional ie.
not high mountain Taiwanese oolong. Not tightly rolled, but long leaf
form like a Wuyi oolong. I don't think they are as roasted, but I
don't actually know very much about them.

The character you posted is 清 (simplified) and means 'pure'. I don't
know why it would be on a tea package, but you might be confusing it
with � which means 'green' (really, blue-green) and is used to
describe lightly fermented teas like oolongs, certainly including
baozhong. They are pronounced the same - 'qing'.

ç¿*玉 is jade as in jade oolong, pronounced cuiyu. It's a cultivar,
so it could in theory be grown anywhere in Taiwan. It is totally
possible that baozhong style oolong could be made out of the jade
cultivar, although baozhong may also indicate the type of cultivar that
is used. We're in really confusing territory here though because most
people are not clear about the cultivar, just the style.

Space Cowboy wrote:
> We had a previous discussion on the character(s) for Pouchong. Given
> the transliteration I was assuming two. On the commercial packaging
> you'll see that character with the word. It is only one character:
>
> http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=51CA
>
> The are the two characters for 'jade' oolong:
> http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=7FE0
> http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=7389
>
> Jim
>
> Mydnight wrote:
> > Space Cowboy wrote:
> > > Jade oolong is a light roast floral green oolong from Taiwan. It is
> > > from the NanTou mtn area. Another name for light roast green oolong is
> > > pouchong. I pay about 2 bucks an oz. Floral is the natural taste.
> > >
> > > Jim
> >
> >
> > I am simply unfamilar with the English tea terminology with tea, I
> > find. What is the Chinese name for jade wulong?
> >
> > Pouchong = qing xiang?

The single character you see for Pouchong is what I stated. It is used
on every commercial package I have which is at least five. The
Taiwanese spelling I see for baozhong is paochung. On the surface I
would say PaoChung and PouChong are both Wade-Giles equivalent but
maybe not. Only the characters count.

Jim

Alex wrote:
> Pouchong = baozhong = °üÖÖ (simplified characters) = traditional ie.
> not high mountain Taiwanese oolong. Not tightly rolled, but long leaf
> form like a Wuyi oolong. I don't think they are as roasted, but I
> don't actually know very much about them.
>
> The character you posted is Çå (simplified) and means 'pure'. I don't
> know why it would be on a tea package, but you might be confusing it
> with Çà which means 'green' (really, blue-green) and is used to
> describe lightly fermented teas like oolongs, certainly including
> baozhong. They are pronounced the same - 'qing'.
>
> ´äÓñ is jade as in jade oolong, pronounced cuiyu. It's a cultivar,
> so it could in theory be grown anywhere in Taiwan. It is totally
> possible that baozhong style oolong could be made out of the jade
> cultivar, although baozhong may also indicate the type of cultivar that
> is used. We're in really confusing territory here though because most
> people are not clear about the cultivar, just the style.
>
> Space Cowboy wrote:
> > We had a previous discussion on the character(s) for Pouchong. Given
> > the transliteration I was assuming two. On the commercial packaging
> > you'll see that character with the word. It is only one character:
> >
> > http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=51CA
> >
> > The are the two characters for 'jade' oolong:
> > http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=7FE0
> > http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUn...codepoint=7389
> >
> > Jim
> >
> > Mydnight wrote:
> > > Space Cowboy wrote:
> > > > Jade oolong is a light roast floral green oolong from Taiwan. It is
> > > > from the NanTou mtn area. Another name for light roast green oolong is
> > > > pouchong. I pay about 2 bucks an oz. Floral is the natural taste.
> > > >
> > > > Jim
> > >
> > >
> > > I am simply unfamilar with the English tea terminology with tea, I
> > > find. What is the Chinese name for jade wulong?
> > >
> > > Pouchong = qing xiang?

> The character you posted is 清 (simplified) and means 'pure'. I don't
> know why it would be on a tea package, but you might be confusing it
> with � which means 'green' (really, blue-green) and is used to
> describe lightly fermented teas like oolongs, certainly including
> baozhong. They are pronounced the same - 'qing'.

We've gone over this before in detail. They use it for advertisement
mostly; not saying anything about the tea specifically. Another friend
of mine told me that it could have been a mistake made at the factory
when they were producing the packages. Factory workers have been known
to make mistakes in lettering. Another example of this is the "Cinese
Hotel" here in the Houjie district...they tried to play it off by
saying they meant to mean it as like Sino or something.

> ç¿*玉 is jade as in jade oolong, pronounced cuiyu. It's a cultivar,
> so it could in theory be grown anywhere in Taiwan. It is totally
> possible that baozhong style oolong could be made out of the jade
> cultivar, although baozhong may also indicate the type of cultivar that
> is used. We're in really confusing territory here though because most
> people are not clear about the cultivar, just the style.

My Taiwanese pals tell me that Baozhong tea is the most low quality tea
that they produce in Taiwan. Not sure if this is true or not. They
also said it was mostly meant for export. heh.

8/14/06


>
> Space Cowboy wrote:
>> Jade oolong is a light roast floral green oolong from Taiwan. It is
>> from the NanTou mtn area. Another name for light roast green oolong is
>> pouchong. I pay about 2 bucks an oz. Floral is the natural taste.
>>
>> Jim
>
>
> I am simply unfamilar with the English tea terminology with tea, I
> find. What is the Chinese name for jade wulong?
>
> Pouchong = qing xiang?

Pouchong = Bao Zhong, but greater lights
will help you here. This tea is so lightly
oxidized that most refer to it as something
other than Oolong. Babelcarp says quing
xiang means "clear fragrance" in an Oolong
sort of a way.
Michael