Wu Long tea, also known as oolong tea, is a Chinese tea that has been served for centuries. Most people who have frequently visited Chinese restaurants are familiar with its flavor, as it is one of the most popular choices of tea to be served in restaurants due to its pleasant flavor and aroma.
The flavor and aroma exist partway between that of green tea and black tea. The reason for this is that the green tea leaves do not go through the entire oxidation process necessary to process them into black tea. Instead, the oxidation level tends to run anywhere up to about 70%. The grassy tones that define green tea have been done away with, and its bitter flavor is followed by an aftertaste that is much sweeter than might be expected. Still, it has the fresh, strong punch that you would normally find in a black tea.
It is best procured in the whole leaf form, and the long, thin leaves tend to come in tight curls instead of the near-sawdust consistency that you find in tea bags. You will spend more money for the whole leaves than you would for the tea bags because of the higher quality intact leaves. The tea that goes into tea bags tends to be the broken remnants that are left over after sorting out the whole leaves. There is nothing wrong with using tea bags, per se, but you run the risk of over extracting during brewing, which brings out various unpleasant characteristics that would be left behind if the intact leaf had been brewed instead.
