Oolong gives oo-short infusions?

[Doc4]

Is it just me, or does a session of oolong last for fewer infusions than a session of pu-erh? Or white/yellow tea? I find I can just keep going and going with the latter two, and keep getting interesting stuff from a well-used pile of leaves, but oolong ... not so much.

 

[Drybonz]

Yeah, they don't seem to last many infusions. Some last a bit longer than others.

 

[ouch]

Pu'ers can go for days, but some of those whites and yellows are so subtle it's hard to tell when they give out.

Oolong has such a big range- some can be one brew wonders, while others can yield upwards of ten infusions.

 

[netsurfr]

An oolong tea may actually have an oxidation level that ranges from 10% to 80%. The lower oxidized teas can be almost like a green tea in terms of the infusion color. However, I find them to be smoother and more fragrant. The more highly oxidized oolongs have a darker liquor color. The more highly oxidized teas are often more highly roasted too. I find that these oolongs seem to last considerably longer and may even go 9-10 infusions while the lighter oxidized oolongs may only last 3-5 infusions. Don't know if that is the experience of anyone else but that is what I have noticed.

 

[SiBurning]

There's often a toasty flavor that only comes out in the first infusion. After that, it might as well be a mellow green tea. Some seem to be more deeply roasted than others, quite apart from how oxidized it is. Maybe a faster roast doesn't penetrate as deep, so the toasty flavor diffuses into the water more quickly. Another tea with a deeper roast might keep that toasty flavor longer. But I've had lighter ones that keep that toasty flavor longer than darker ones, so this seems to be separate from the normal oxidation level. This shows up in the color of the leaf, too, where it might go green after the first infusion... or not. Maybe I'm more comparing a 10% to a 20% than between 20% and 80% because I haven't seem any heavily oxidized ones go green, though even the 80s have that first-infusion taste. It's one reason I tend to do a single longer infusion with oolongs--to get that nice flavor that mostly comes out in the first infusion. Either that, or I use a lot of tea and do a very quick first infusion to get mostly the toasty flavor, then settle down to a few mellower infusions. But oolongs are all over the place, from nearly green to nearly black, so they all reward a bit of experiment.

Good Darjeeling tea is very similar, oxidized anywhere from green to black. I think my whole hypothesis is even more true for these Darjeelings. Other regions are also starting to experiment along these lines.

 

[Doc4]

There's often a toasty flavor that only comes out in the first infusion. After that, it might as well be a mellow green tea.

I had one tea ... a little more "generic" oolong, purchased at a local shop ... that I'd often have on a weekend morning. I'd have a few infusions watching tv, and then it'd seem to run out of flavour. Then I'd go have breakfast and try to squeeze out a couple more infusions, and ... lo and behold ... when taken with food, there seemed to be flavour noticeable again.