Roast Oolong Tea At Home

by John
(New York)

My question: is it possible to roast one's own Tieguanyin or other oolong tea at home? I love to experiment with younger oolongs, but don't have an knowledge on secondary baking or pan roasting. Thanks for your reply!

Thanks for your excellent site! It is really a great resource for English-language speakers!

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Roast Oolong Tea At Home

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Oct 06, 2007

Julian's reply
by: Julian

There are 3 types of oolong tea roastings. I am not entirely sure which one you are talking about.

1. Pan-frying aims to kill enzymes and stop oxidation process.

2. Oven-baking aims to improve the favours.

This baking stage is a formative stage, its importance comes after leaf selection and brusing.

Too high a temparature causes too much low boiling favours to dissipate.

Too low temperature causes grassy favours to stay put and hide away the high boiling favours.

So it is usually done at low temperature for an extended period of time.

Both pan-frying and oven-baking require technical skills and are seldom DIY.

3. Then the third which is DIY is re-roasting.

It is done when after storing oolong tea or red tea for a long time, after its taste and has gone stale or flat.

Some people oven their teas at 100 to 150 degree Celsius (200 to 300 Farenheits) until the tea aroma re-emerges ... it is said to improve favours.

If you are aging an oolong tea (such as a Wuyi or Tieguanyin), it is a good idea to re-roast from time to time.

It does improve its quality.

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Roast Oolong Tea At Home

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Roast Oolong Tea At Home