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What is Cui Yu Taiwan Jade Oolong Tea?

What is Cui Yu Taiwan Jade Oolong Tea?

Tea is a part of our daily life. You can taste the variations in tea because of different types of tea, such as green tea, Puerh tea, white tea,and Chinese kung fu tea, and many more. The Cui Yu Taiwan Jade Oolong Tea (翠玉烏龍茶) is one of them. Cui Yu Taiwan Jade Oolong Tea, a fine tea grown in Mingjian Township in Nantou County of central Taiwan, was picked in March 2021.

The best of both worlds is when we talk about the great Taiwanese oolong tea flavors; it shows a lovely light floral and a somewhat creamy buttery profile. Jade Oolong is a generic term for light green oolongs from Taiwan, so you will often see Jade Oolong being marketed without any mention of cultivars used in making it. But the Jade Oolong, however, is made only using plants of the Cui Yu "Green Jade" (翠玉) cultivar. It is the only cultivar that should be used in Jade Oolong tea.

What Is Taiwan Jade Oolong?

Jade Oolong is a lovely buttery oolong from Nantou County in Taiwan. The green leaves that are tightly rolled produce a fragrant light-yellow liquor. Its fresh taste is smooth and balanced with floral, creamy, and nutty notes and a tangy, fruity aftertaste. Fancy and sweet, the tea is sourced directly from the Tung Ting Mountains in Taiwan.

 The word Jade Oolong completely describes the vivid color of the tightly hand-rolled leaves. In Chinese, oolong teas are known as Tsinghua (Chinese: 青茶; pinyin: qīngchá) or "dark green teas." The term "blue tea" in French is synonymous with oolong. The Cui Yu cultivar was created in 1981 by the Tea Research and Extension Station of Taiwan ( TRES) at the same time as the cultivar used to make the very popular Milk Oolong. Both of these cultivars were well acquired and are credited with the resurgence and the resulting rise in popularity of Taiwanese oolong tea in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Jin Xuan cultivar, with its unique milky flavors and a lot of consumers following and demand, Cui Yu has lost popularity among farmers. Because Cui Yu needs so much care and growth, that is not easy for the farmers. The cultivars of other plants left it behind, most notably the much hardier Si Ji Chun' Four Seasons' (四季春). At the same time, Si Ji Chun is more exuberantly floral in taste for consumers and easier to grow for farmers. But it does not have the refinement and balance of flavors found in the great Jade Oolong from a Cui Yu cultivar.

Where Does Cui Yu Taiwan Jade Oolong Tea Name Come From?

The "three daughters" of Taiwan, along with Jin Xuan, Si Ji Chun, and Cui Yu. Cui Yu is famous for having the strongest floral notes. This cultivar was developed by the Tea Research and Extension Station (TRES) in 1981 and is classified as Tai Cha #13. But in the current years, however, Cui Yu has become losing difficult to find in Taiwan as local farmers can not give it proper care, so the start Si Ji Chun, which is said to require less care and maintenance. Another reason for its fading popularity is that Cui Yu is the most vulnerable to cold weather and, therefore, the least suitable for high-mountain cultivation. But it finds a new home among Taiwanese tea farmers in Southeast Asia.

Who Was The Founder Or Cultivator Of Cui Yu Taiwan Jade Oolong Tea?

TRES developed Cui Yu in the 1980s, and it is usually referred to by its cultivar name, although it was also named #13 or 2029. While it is slightly more difficult to find Four Seasons or Jin Xuan amongst western-facing merchants, it is hugely famous in Taiwan and Asia and ranks as the third most consumed fragrant oolong. Cui Yu is only grown at lower elevations and offers significantly better yields than Chin-Hsin. Compared with Jin Xuan, Cui Yu has a more floral and less creamy flavor profile.

Taste And Aroma Of Cui Yu Taiwan Jade Oolong Tea

The aroma is a compound of fresh spring vegetation and sweet spring flowers. Like a spring garden, the floral notes offer the tea a longtime sweetness. The steeps are best as buttery in texture and floral in taste. Notes of pollen, lilies, lilac, and hyacinth harmonize well with the green note of vegetation. The taste of the tea is especially smooth and satisfying. The flavor notes have dried fruit, like plum and apricot, over a smoky, slow-roasted base.

Preparation method of Cui Yu Taiwan Jade Oolong Tea

It is best brewed at 90°C for 3-4 minutes and should be brewed multiple times to enjoy the different flavors from each brew. Jin Xuan Oolong Tea is lightly oxidized and is lighter in color. Red Jade Black Tea is heavily oxidized and has a much darker hue.

Preparation method of the tea

  • Cultivating tea leaves
  • Harvesting tea leaves
  • Timing
  • Hand and machine harvesting
  • Withering and Oxidation
  • Tea drying process
  • Roasting and Packaging

For the preparation of the tea, the stems optimize roasting results and its appearance, that it heavily roasts fewer leaves necessary in brewing a proportion of about 1:24, and leaves to the water. If 6-7 grams of tea leaves give you the deep amber, orange color and vibrant transparency of the brewed tea tells that the leaves were well-roasted. The tea leaves pass carefully over several long slow roasting sessions.

 When it is complete, tea leaves that undergo heavy roasting brew a rich, smooth, smoky flavored tea. The hybrid strain of Cui Yu (翠玉), a.k.a. Tsui Yu, or Jade Oolong, can withstand traditional processing methods of heavier oxidation and roast with good results. This hybrid strain became popular in the late 1980s and 1990s along with Jin Xuan and is now relatively rare. It is because it produces less yield than Jin Xuan and Four Seasons Spring, and it is a bit less hardy and versatile in its growing conditions than these other two hybrid strains.

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