Re: The greening of gongfu

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Re: The greening of gongfu

Group: rec.food.drink.tea · Group Profile
Author: Dominic T.
Date: Jun 27, 2008 12:15

On Jun 27, 2:03 pm, Lewis Perin panix.com> wrote:

> For quite a while I've noticed that for lots of teas (e.g. young raw
> Pu'er, most oolong, first flush Darjeeling) the color of the leaves
> changes radically over the course of multiple steeps. Leaves that
> when dry are some shade of brown (most of the above) or multicolored
> (FFDJ, Oriental Beauty, some young shengs) gradually reach a uniform
> shade of green. This shade of green differs from tea to tea, but the
> direction of change over many steeps is the same.
>
> I've never read anything about this, let alone an explanation. Is
> there a clue, someone?
>
> /Lew
> ---
> Lew Perin / pe...@acm.orghttp://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html
> recent addition (thanks, corax): tianxia chacang

It's a really good question, one I've thought about too. Although I
don't drink many green oolongs there have been times when an oolong I
thought to be medium roasted and quite brown comes out a fairly
verdant green at the end. The only two theories I had ever come up
with in my mind were that either the oxidation/roasting was just very
superficial and "wore off" during the repeated brewings or that the
heating of the leaf somehow rejuvenates the leaf to become slightly
green again.

Those two theories are about as scientific as my socks, though, so I'm
sure one of the proper scientists will have the real story... I hope,
because I'd like to know too.

- Dominic

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