sjones12@cogeco.ca writes:
> With the milk oolong another poster said its' uniqueness was due to a
> specific cultivar being more 'sappy'.
> Would most milk/silk oolongs be made from this specific cultivar?
That's my understanding, but it's hard to be sure of this.
> Coming into work this morning I realized something, and yes, i am
> slow :)
>
> I always wondered how so many varieties of tea could be made from a
> "tea leaf", white, yellow, green, oolong, black, puerh. I always
> thought it was one "leaf" type and the processing was the key.
> Withering, roasting, etc were the reason for the differences.
>
> Now, after reading the post on milk oolong, and the reply from space
> cowboy and lew, and the mention of a cultivar, a light came on in my
> head. Yes, it took a day to come on.
>
> I now assume that like grapes varieties, where the tannin, aciditiy,
> aroma, sugar content etc are influenced by breeding, that tea leaf
> varieities over the thousands of years have been developed into leaf
> used for specific teas.
Exactly.
> Would a white tea leaf cultivar only be used for white teas ?
Not necessarily. There's a wonderful black/red tea called Zhenge or
Chingwo that's made from a cultivar mostly used for white tea.
Judging by the way it looks, I think Zhenghe is a spring tea.
> Harvested in the spring once then left alone?
White tea can be made later in the season, but as far as I know the
really good ones are made in the spring.
> Would/could the same bush be used later in the season for greens,
> oolongs and puerh's ?
Not Pu'ers, because Pu'er is made from a different cultivar. I don't
know to what extent the tea bushes that yield famous white teas are
plucked in the summer and fall and what gets manufactured from those
leaves. Interesting question!
> Is this milk/silk oolong cultivar mainly used for this specific tea
> type ? Or is it versatile and used for other types ?
I think Jin Xuan is very widely planted these days and used for
oolongs that aren't called Milk.
> How many cultivars are there ?
I've heard numbers in the thousands, but I don't think anyone really knows.
/Lew
