Tagged: hongbei

A charcoal roast is a sequence of fires, rested months apart

Charcoal roasting is a sequence of separate fires, not one step, and each fire does distinct, measurable chemistry to the leaf. The practice also varies more across oolong styles than most tea copy admits.

Oolong Oxidation and Roast

The two axes that define an oolong. What enzymatic oxidation is and how it is arrested by kill-green, why oolong sits partly oxidized between green and black, and how roasting is a separate step applied afterward.