High Mountain Oolong Tea Processing Explained

Here is how High Mountain Oolong tea (Gao Shan Cha) is made. This type of tea is traditionally made in Taiwan.
Today, we're in Ailao Mountain, Yunnan. Mr Huang is working in his tea factory on the final day of the Spring 2021 Harvest. We go through each step of the process that leads to a highly fragrant and sweet tea.
Oolong tea is the hardest tea to make. It requires a good amount of focus and a lot of work. After harvest, the leaves are brought back to the factory and laid on the roof for a short sun-withering. They are then taken to the ground floor where they are laid on mats for the shade withering. The leaves are shaken on flat bamboo basket and withered again, this process is repeated multiple times. After a final shaking in a tumbler, the leaves are oxidized in a dedicated room. Once the leaves reach their proper level of oxidation, the process is stopped by a fixation process which destroys the enzymes responsible for oxidation. Subsequently, the leaves are packed into a piece of cloth, which is tightened and rolled in a dedicated machine, then the leaves are untied and left to rest. This process is repeated 24 times, after which the leaves have the shape of tiny pearls. Finally, the tea leaves are dried with hot air.
You can find the tea made in this factory on our website:
www.farmer-lea...

[@MrRunchSlam]

I'd love to see a physics paper written describing how the geometry of those machines and the process creates "ball" rolled oolong. I have a hard time understanding how all of what you showed in the video creates such well formed single leaf balls of tea. Pretty amazing nonetheless.

[@aoehtns7133]

Seeing these videos about tea processing makes me appreciate tea and the price of a good tea even more. Thanks!

[@EMC608]

Great video as always! Appreciate you posting these.

[@suyapajimenez516]

I enjoy your presentation very much

[@greg9938]

Loved this! Hope to learn more from you.

[@Charlotte-lx1yl]

Such a great video! Thank you.

[@aiwendilciunio]

Thank you William for another great video! This factory looks very well designed and, frankly, not very Chinese :). It's so clean and organized. By the way, I bought their Eastern Beauty and it's amazing!

[@boiscontrebois-lefilm4541]

Dear William, once again a very exciting video. Do you know how long they heat (or keep warm) the leaves before each start of the 24 ball shape rolling cycle (團 揉)?

[@farmerleaf61]

It should be only a few minutes, they need to be maintained at 50-60 degrees celsius.

[@808stevan]

Wonderful peek behind the curtain Eric! Many thanks for explaining it so well. Can you comment what added / different steps there are to producing Tie Guan Yin?

[@farmerleaf61]

I've never visited a Tie Guan Yin making factory. The processing of Tie Guan Yin is different in Taiwan and Fujian. It's mainly a varietal name and you could argue that you can process it in different way (high mountain oolong style, dong ding style, even black tea!)

[@808stevan]

@@farmerleaf61 Mahalo! Looking forward to adding some of your teas to our menu here on the island of Maui...