Oolong tea belongs to green tea and semi-fermented tea. It has the characteristics of black tea and green tea. The tea soup is mellow and the tea leaves are fragrant. The main varieties are Anxi Tieguanyin, Phoenix Narcissus and Oriental Beauty. Oolong tea is a high-quality dry tea. When planting, plants should be planted in ten kinds of soil with high organic matter content and rich minerals. Oolong tea is a kind of tea with good quality after picking, withering, shaking, frying, rolling and baking. Oolong tea evolved from Gongchalong Formation and Fengbing in Song Dynasty and was created around 1725 (Yongzheng period of Qing Dynasty). After tasting, the teeth and cheeks remain fragrant, and the aftertaste is sweet and fresh. The pharmacological effects of oolong tea are outstanding in decomposing fat, losing weight, bodybuilding and so on. It is called "beauty tea" and "bodybuilding tea" in Japan. Oolong tea is a unique tea in China, mainly produced in northern Fujian, southern Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan Province provinces. Sichuan, Hunan and other provinces also have a small amount of production. Oolong tea is mainly exported to Japan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Macao except Guangdong and Fujian provinces, and the main producing area is Anxi County, Fujian Province.
Oolong Tea History: The predecessor of Oolong Tea, Beiyuan Tea Oolong Tea, originated in Fujian with a history of 1000 years. The formation and development of oolong tea should first be traced back to Beiyuan tea. Beiyuan tea is the earliest tribute tea in Fujian and the most famous tea after the Song Dynasty. There are more than ten kinds of books on the production and boiling of Beiyuan tea in history. Beiyuan is located in the Phoenix Mountain area of Jian 'ou, Fujian Province, where tea was produced in the late Tang Dynasty.
According to Min Tong Zhi, Zhang Tinghui, a Jian 'an man in the late Tang Dynasty, planted tea in Fenghuang Mountain. At first, it was tea. In the second year of Song Taizong Taiping Xingguo (977), Longfeng Tea came out. After Song Zhenzong (998), it was transformed into a small group tea and became the world-famous Dragon Group Phoenix Cake. At that time, Cai Xiang, a transshipment officer and producer of tribute tea in Fujian, especially praised Beiyuan Tea. In the Book of Tea, written by 105 1, he said that "the taste of tea is mainly sweet and slippery, but the products continuously baked by Phoenix Mountain in Beiyuan are delicious." The important finished product of Beiyuan tea belongs to Longtuanfeng cake, and its processing technology is just like the tea-picking poem given to Lu Yu by Huang Furan: "Far from the cliff, the leaves are warm in spring, and the baskets are oblique in the daytime." It takes a day to harvest a basket of fresh leaves. The leaves are shaken in the basket and steamed at night. This backlog of raw materials will turn red unintentionally, and the part of the bud leaves after enzymatic oxidation will turn purple or brown, which is essentially semi-fermented, that is, the so-called oolong tea category. Therefore, there is a scientific basis for saying that Beiyuan tea is the predecessor of oolong tea. After Beiyuan Tea, Chaze in Wuyishan gained the status of tribute tea in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and developed. Oolong tea is a kind of tea made by Anxi people imitating Wuyishan tea-making method and improving the technology. Oolong tea was created around 1725 (Yongzheng period of Qing Dynasty). Fujian's "Anxi County Records" records: "Anxi people first invented oolong tea in the third year of Qing Yongzheng, and later it was introduced to northern Fujian and Taiwan Province Province." According to historical research, there was a tea warehouse in Fuzhou in 1862, dealing in oolong tea. 1866 oolong tea export in Taiwan Province province. At present, the largest producing area of oolong tea in China is Anxi, Fujian, which was named as "the hometown of oolong tea (famous tea) in China" by the Ministry of Agriculture and China Agricultural Association with 1995.
Main varieties of oolong tea:
1, Anxi Tieguanyin. Tieguanyin, produced in Anxi County, Fujian Province, is one of the top ten famous teas in China. Tieguanyin is the best oolong tea. Its quality characteristics are: the tea strips are curly, round, thick and even, sand-green, and the overall shape is like dragonfly head, snail body and frog leg. After brewing, the soup is golden and rich as amber, with natural and rich orchid fragrance, mellow and sweet taste, and has a long history of returning to Gansu, commonly known as "rhyme". Tieguanyin tea has a high and lasting aroma, which can be described as "seven bubbles are more fragrant".
The leaves are oval in shape, with sparse and dull marginal teeth, wavy leaves with obvious ribs, slightly rolled back, thick mesophyll, dark green and smooth leaves, slightly dull leaf base, slightly concave leaf tip, slightly inclined to the left, slightly drooping and purplish red buds, so it is called "red bud bent tail peach", which is one of the characteristics of purebred.
Its main characteristics are: the soup rhyme is rich but not too fragrant, the aroma is rich, the taste is sweet, and the soup color is relatively light, especially for the first and second teas. After soaking for three times, the soup is yellow-green, which can be slightly sour after careful stirring, and has a special taste. The acid is fragrant and contains acid. There is sweetness in acid and fragrance in sweetness, and the fragrance of water will flow forever.
Its tea quality mainly has three characteristics: "thick soup" means that the tea soup is golden yellow, bright and dark; "Yunming" means that the unique "Guanyin rhyme" of Anxi Tieguanyin is obvious, and the mouth and throat feel bright after drinking; "Slightly fragrant" means that, in comparison, its soup is fragrant but not strong.
2. Phoenix Narcissus. It is a strip oolong tea produced in Fenghuang Township, Chaoan, Guangdong Province, which is divided into three grades: Dan Cong, Bobie and Narcissus. It has natural floral fragrance, honey rhyme, strong taste, alcohol, refreshing and sweet taste, and is resistant to brewing. Mainly sold to Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and exported to Japan, Southeast Asia and the United States. Phoenix Narcissus enjoys the reputation of "beautiful shape, green color, fragrant taste and sweet taste". The tea strips are fat, the color is eel skin color, oily and shiny. Tea soup Huang Chengcheng, full of fragrance, refreshing and sweet, lasting fragrance, resistant to foam.
3. Oriental Beauty. It is a famous tea unique to Taiwan Province Province, also known as Pufeng Tea, and is also known as Bai Hao Oolong Tea because of its remarkable tea buds. Oriental Beauty tea is beautiful in appearance, with white, green, yellow, red and brown leaves, which are bright and lovely. The water color of tea soup is dark amber, and the taste is rich and mellow, with ripe fruit fragrance and honey fragrance.
4. Lohan agarwood. Produced in Mengding Mountain, Sichuan. Lohan Aquilaria sinensis has the advantages of black tea and white tea, unique "fruity camphor rhyme", fresh and mellow Gao Shuang flavor, sweet fruity aroma, long and rich camphor aroma and elegant and lasting fragrance. ?
5, red water oolong. Hongshui Oolong is an early frozen-topped oolong tea in three tea areas, that is, due to the factors of planting and climatic conditions, raw tea made by moderate and heavy fermentation and re-baking made Hongshui Oolong become a drink of the times. However, with the expansion of the planting area in the whole tea town and the popularity of competition tea, the reputation of (Frozen Top) has surpassed that of (Red Top), and the well-made Red Top Oolong has also entered the intermediate fermentation stage with the Frozen Top Oolong.
6. Oolong tea and black tea. Oolong tea and black tea are contemporary tea products. Black tea takes small oolong tea as raw material, resulting in honey-scented oolong black tea and honey-scented Jinxuan red tea. Different from the ruby black tea made by Taiwan tea in Wuhe tea area, the honey-flavored oolong tea (Jinxuan) black tea baked has a sweet taste without losing the sweetness of oolong tea's heavy throat rhyme.
7. Red oolong tea. Red oolong tea is a new characteristic tea created by combining the characteristics of oolong tea and black tea. It belongs to hemispherical oolong tea, which is fermented and baked again. The water color of tea soup is amber, orange and red like black tea, and the taste is like oolong tea. It has mature fruit fragrance, mellow and round, and is resistant to foaming. It is not only suitable for general hot water brewing, but also has its own characteristics in cold soaking.
The value and efficacy of oolong tea;
1, the main component.
Oolong tea contains more than 450 organic chemical components and more than 40 inorganic mineral elements. Organic chemical components and inorganic mineral elements in tea contain many nutrients and medicinal components. Organic chemical components mainly include tea polyphenols, plant alkaloids, protein, amino acids, vitamins, pectin, organic acids, lipopolysaccharides, sugars, enzymes and pigments.
Tieguanyin contains organic chemical components such as tea polyphenols, catechins and various amino acids, which are significantly higher than other teas. Inorganic mineral elements mainly include: potassium, calcium, magnesium, cobalt, iron, manganese, aluminum, sodium, zinc, copper, nitrogen, phosphorus, fluorine and so on. Tieguanyin contains more inorganic mineral elements such as manganese, iron, fluorine, potassium and sodium than other teas.
2. Health care function. Eliminate active oxygen that harms beauty and health; Drinking 1 l oolong tea every day can improve skin allergy; Drinking oolong tea can slim down; Anti-tumor and anti-aging effects.
3. Improve your listening. Oolong tea has the functions of beautifying face, expelling toxin, relaxing bowels, resisting chemical activity and removing reactive oxygen species in cells. Middle-aged and elderly people often drink oolong tea to help keep their hearing. The protective effect on male hearing is obviously greater than that on female hearing. Although drinking oolong tea is good for hearing, you should not drink too much. The daily tea consumption is 1~2 cups.
4, weight loss effect. Oolong tea has the effect of dissolving fat and losing weight. Because tannic acid, the main component of tea, is closely related to fat metabolism. Oolong tea can reduce the cholesterol content in the blood. Compared with black tea and green tea, oolong tea can not only stimulate the activity of lipolytic enzymes in pancreas, reduce the absorption of sugar and fatty foods, but also accelerate the increase of body heat production, promote fat burning and reduce the accumulation of abdominal fat.
5. The value of medication. Oolong tea, as a famous tea unique to China, not only has health care functions such as refreshing the brain, relieving fatigue, promoting fluid production and diuresis, relieving heatstroke, killing bacteria and diminishing inflammation, dispelling cold and relieving hangover, detoxifying and preventing diseases, helping digestion and relieving boredom, losing weight and keeping fit, but also has special functions such as preventing cancer, reducing blood fat and resisting aging.
(1) Cancer prevention. On June 5th, 1998, Han Chi, an associate researcher in Toxicology Laboratory of Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, and her assistant Xu Yong conducted an anti-cancer experiment of tea on animals. They fed mice five kinds of tea, such as Anxi Tieguanyin, and at the same time, they were fed methyl carbazide glue, a synthetic carcinogen with purity greater than 99.8%. After three months, the incidence of esophageal cancer in rats was 42-67%, and the average number of tumors in rats with cancer was 2.2-3. The incidence of esophageal cancer in rats who did not drink tea was 90%, and the average number of tumors in mice with cancer was 5.2. Five kinds of tea have the best anticancer effect in Anxi Tieguanyin. At the same time, they also conducted another experiment, that is, using sodium nitrite and methyl carrageenan as carcinogenic precursors. The results showed that none of the rats in the tea drinking group developed esophageal cancer, and the incidence rate was 100%. This result proves that tea can completely block the endogenous formation of nitrite nitrogen in the body.
(2) lowering blood fat. Oolong tea can prevent and alleviate atherosclerosis of aortic blood lipid. Drinking oolong tea can also reduce blood viscosity, prevent erythrocyte aggregation, improve blood hypercoagulability, increase blood fluidity and improve microcirculation. Thrombosis test in vitro also shows that oolong tea can inhibit thrombosis.
(3) Anti-aging oolong tea has the same anti-aging effect as vitamin E. Drinking oolong tea can keep the content of vitamin C in blood at a high level and reduce the excretion of vitamin C in urine, and vitamin C has anti-aging effect. Therefore, drinking oolong tea can enhance the anti-aging ability of human body in many ways.
6, drinking three bogeys. Drinking oolong tea is not only beneficial to human health, but also adds endless fun. But there are three taboos:
(1) Don't drink on an empty stomach, or you will feel hungry and dizzy, which is called "tea drunk".
(2) Don't drink before going to bed, otherwise it will be difficult to fall asleep.
(3) If you don't drink herbal tea, it will be cold after cooling, which is not good for your stomach.
These three taboos are especially important for people who are new to oolong tea, because oolong tea contains more tea polyphenols and caffeine than other teas.
Tea culture of oolong tea;
1, tea-making skills. Oolong tea has unique skills in soaking and drinking, and it also has some fun in the process of soaking and drinking. Its brewing technology has eight processes.
(1) The first thing is to boil water, and the water temperature should be "one boiled water" (that is, just boiled water). After the water boils, rinse the cover bowl (or teapot) and the teacup once, which is sanitary and warm, and then put the oolong tea into the cover bowl (or teapot). The amount of tea used to cover the bowl is 5- 10g, depending on the size of the teapot. Small teapot accounts for about four or five points of teapot capacity, medium teapot accounts for about three or four points, and large teapot accounts for about two or three points. These movements include three procedures: "boiling spring water", "white crane bathing" and "oolong entering the palace".
(2) Then lift the kettle and rush into the cover bowl or the mouth of the teapot from a height to make the tea in the bowl (kettle) rotate and make the tea smell fragrant; Immediately after the boiling water is filled, cover the bowl (pot), wait a moment, and gently scrape off the white foam floating on it with the bowl (pot) cover to make the tea fresh and clean. This is the fourth and fifth procedure, which is called "hanging pot high flush" and "spring breeze stroke"
(3) after soaking for one or two minutes (the soaking time should be appropriate, too short, and the color, fragrance and taste will not come out; Too long, it will produce bitterness. Cover the bowl with your thumb and middle finger, press the lid with your index finger, and pour the tea into the small cup in parallel. Pour the tea low, so as not to lose its fragrance and taste. Pour it to the thickest part at the bottom of the last bowl and drop it evenly into each teacup. In this way, a uniform color tone and consistent fragrance are achieved, which also contains the deep affection of the owner. These are the sixth and seventh procedures, which are called "Guan Gong patrolling the city" and "Han Xin ordering troops".
(4) Once the tea leaves are poured into the cup, they should be carefully absorbed while they are hot, so as not to affect the color, fragrance and taste. When drinking, smell it first, then taste it, and smell it while drinking. Although the amount of drinking is not much, it can leave a fragrance on the teeth and cheeks, and the bottom of the throat is sweet, refreshing and refreshing. This is the eighth procedure, called "Taste the Rain".
(5) When making tea for the second time, you should still use boiling water to make the cup, and pour the tea after soaking for two or three minutes. Next, the third time and the fourth time ... the process of making tea is basically the same, but the time of making tea is longer than one, but it depends on the quality of tea. Good oolong tea, such as Tieguanyin, still smells after being brewed for seven or eight times. ?
2. Name source. There are many legends about the origin of oolong tea. There are four possible sources: one is the theory of origin; The second is from tea varieties; Third, it comes from the name of the person who makes tea; Fourth, it comes from the shape and color of tea.
There is a story about a tea plantation owner who went to see instant tea and found an oolong there. He was so frightened that it took several days before he dared to come back to see it. Tea has been oxidized in the sun these days. It's not green tea anymore, but it's delicious and delicious. The shopkeeper called it "oolong tea" from now on. It is also said that the earliest inventor of oolong tea is called Su Long (because he is black, it is called Oolong), so tea is named after people. In fact, the name of oolong tea should still come from the form of tea. After drying, frying and baking, tea is black, like a fish (compared with a dragon). Soak in the water, the leaves are curled and bent, and the color is Qing Wu, like an oolong entering the water. Hence the name. Oolong tea, whether it comes from a place name or is named after a tea tree variety, is generally called oolong tea as long as the method is the same, including oolong tea varieties and other famous varieties, such as Tieguanyin and Dahongpao.
3. Stories and legends.
Oolong tea is very legendary. According to Fujian Tea and the folklore of Fujian Tea, during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a retired general and an expert hunter in Nanyan Village, Changkeng Township, Anxi County, Fujian Province. His family name is Sue. Because he is black and strong, the villagers call him "Oolong". One spring, Oolong hung a tea basket around his waist and carried a shotgun up the mountain to pick tea. At noon, a landscape deer suddenly slipped over. Oolong shot but the injured landscape deer desperately fled to the mountains. Oolong followed closely and finally caught the prey. When it's time to carry the landscape deer home, Wulong and his family are busy slaughtering and tasting game. They have already made tea. The next morning, the whole family was busy frying the "tea green" collected yesterday. Unexpectedly, the fresh leaves that have been left overnight have been inlaid with red edges, emitting a fragrance. Tea leaves are particularly fragrant when they are brewed, and there is no bitter taste in the past. After careful consideration and repeated experiments, after withering, shaking, semi-fermentation, baking and other processes. Finally, a new tea product with good quality-oolong tea was made. Anxi has therefore become the hometown of oolong tea.