How to brew oolong tea

Oolong brewing chart

A quick 5-second rinse helps rolled and roasted oolongs open; Shui Xian takes about 8 seconds. 100 ml is about 3.4 fl oz.

Rolled or strip-style: why it matters

Rolled oolongs come as tight green or dark balls: Tie Guan Yin, Dong Ding, Jin Xuan milk oolong, GABA and most Taiwanese high-mountain teas. They unfurl to several times their size, so a gaiwan that looks one-third full of dry balls is full of leaf by the third steep. The first steep is often light because the balls are still closed.

Strip-style oolongs are long, twisted dark leaves: Da Hong Pao, Rou Gui and Shui Xian from the Wuyi mountains, and Dan Cong from Phoenix Mountain. They look bulky, so 7 g fills a gaiwan almost to the lid. They release flavour fast, which is why the first steeps are only 5 seconds.

Roast level also guides the water. Heavily roasted rock oolongs handle boiling water. Green, floral and milky oolongs turn sharp or lose their aroma above 92 °C (198 °F).

How to brew oolong in a gaiwan, step by step

1. Pick the size. A 100–150 ml gaiwan suits one to three people. For 120 ml, weigh 8.4 g of Tie Guan Yin, or 6 g of Dan Cong.
2. Heat the water to the temperature in the chart. Pour some into the empty gaiwan and the cups to warm them, then discard.
3. Add the leaf and rinse. Cover with water and pour it off after about 5 seconds. Lift the lid and smell it: the aroma tells you what the tea will do.
4. First steep. Fill to just below the rim, put the lid on and decant at 10 seconds (5 seconds for Rou Gui or Dan Cong). Tilt the lid to leave a small gap and pour everything into a pitcher or straight into cups.
5. Drain completely. Shake out the last drops. Water left on the leaf keeps brewing and makes the next cup bitter.
6. Follow the schedule. Add 5–15 seconds per steep at first, longer near the end. The later steeps are sweeter and smoother.

If holding a hot gaiwan is new to you, see how to use a gaiwan for the grip that keeps your fingers cool.

How to brew oolong in a teapot or mug

Western style uses far less leaf and one long steep. For Tie Guan Yin or Da Hong Pao, use 1.5 g per 100 ml at 90 °C (194 °F) for 3 minutes. A 500 ml (17 oz) teapot takes 7.5 g. Weigh it: a spoonful of rolled balls and a spoonful of long strips differ a lot.

• Milk oolong: 1.4 g per 100 ml, 90 °C (194 °F), 2–3 minutes.
• Dong Ding: 1.8 g per 100 ml, 92 °C (198 °F), 3–4 minutes.
• Dan Cong: 1.8 g per 100 ml, 92 °C (198 °F), 2–4 minutes.
• GABA: 1.5 g per 100 ml, 90 °C (194 °F), 3–4 minutes.
• Rou Gui: 2 g per 100 ml, 100 °C (212 °F), 5–8 minutes.

Give rolled oolong room in a large infuser basket or loose in the pot; a small tea ball crushes the leaves as they open. Strain everything out at the end of the steep. Most oolongs give a second and often a third western pot with a minute added each time.

Oolong tea bags hold broken leaf. Use 90 °C (194 °F) water and start tasting at 2 minutes.

For milk tea, brew the oolong roughly twice as strong as usual, for example double the leaf at the same time, so the flavour holds up against milk and ice. Roasted oolongs such as Da Hong Pao work best.

Common oolong mistakes

• One temperature for all oolongs. Boiling water flattens milk oolong; 85 °C water leaves Rou Gui thin. Use the chart, or see the full tea water temperature chart.
• Too little leaf in a gaiwan. With 2–3 g you have to steep for minutes, and the short-steep method stops working.
• Judging by the first cup. Rolled oolong often peaks at steeps three to five, once the leaves are fully open.
• Leaving water on the leaf. Drain each steep fully.
• Long early steeps for Dan Cong. It turns sharp and bitter quickly. Keep the first pours to 5–10 seconds.

How many times can you steep oolong

In a gaiwan, Tie Guan Yin and Da Hong Pao give 7 steeps on the schedule above, Dong Ding 8, Dan Cong and Shui Xian 9, and Rou Gui 11. Good leaf often keeps going if you lengthen the times. Western style gives 2–3 pots, sometimes up to 4 for rock oolongs.

Stop when a long steep tastes thin and woody. Compare other teas in how many times you can steep tea, and read gongfu tea brewing for the method behind these short-steep schedules.

Questions