Tagged: metabolomics

The Grade on the Bag Predicts Less Than the Season Does

A December 2025 study built the first flavor wheel ever made for Yongchun Foshou oolong and found season, not the printed grade, decides most of its aroma and polyphenol chemistry. Grade's real, narrower job is deciding how much umami survives into the cup.

Tieguanyin Means Two Things, and Chemistry Now Tells Which

Tieguanyin can mean a specific tea plant or any oolong roasted in its style, so a bag labeled that way answers nothing on its own. A new metabolomics study puts an exact chemical number on five Minnan cultivars instead, down to the microgram, and one of them turns out to carry three compounds none of the other four have at all.