Oolong Tea

The type that lives in the middle

Oolong is partially oxidised — anywhere from around a tenth to most of the way to black tea — and then usually rolled and roasted. That range is why the category refuses to sit still: a lightly oxidised, tightly rolled Taiwanese high-mountain tea is creamy, floral and almost green, while a heavily roasted Wuyi rock oolong is dark, mineral and closer to coffee in weight.

Two traditions dominate the 29 teas here. Fujian and Guangdong give us Tie Guan Yin and the Dan Cong family, prized for aromatics so specific they are named after fruits and flowers. Taiwan gives us Ali Shan, Dong Ding and Jin Xuan, grown high enough that the leaf thickens and turns buttery.

How to brew oolong tea

Western brewing works: a median 90 °C (195 °F) for 2 minutes at 4 g per 250 ml, with roasted oolongs taking the hotter end and green oolongs the cooler. But oolong is the type that most rewards abandoning the mug. All 29 teas here carry a Gong Fu ladder — 7 g per 100 ml, a twenty-second first infusion, a median of eight steeps — and rolled oolongs genuinely need the first two infusions just to open.

Follow the ladder rather than a stopwatch of your own: each infusion adds a few seconds to the last, and the peak is usually the third or fourth, not the first. A rolled ball of Tie Guan Yin that looked spent after one Western steep will still be giving flavour on infusion eight.

Caffeine and when to drink it

The median oolong here carries 39 mg of caffeine per cup, between green and black, though a Gong Fu session front-loads a good deal more because the leaf ratio is nearly three times higher. Roasting does not remove caffeine — it changes aroma, not chemistry — so a dark Wuyi tea is not the decaffeinated option it tastes like.

Two of these teas are free in the app. Each entry below opens its own page with the full infusion ladder, temperature in °C and °F, ratio and tasting notes.