Taiwan High Mountain Oolong

Dong Ding Oolong                                   Taiwan High Mountain Oolong

                                                           Other Taiwan Oolong      

In Taiwan tea community, the term High Mountain Oolong is strictly defined as oolong grown at an elevation of 1000 meter (or 3000 ft.) or above. Our products named with High Mountain Oolong all follow this definition.

Habitats of such high elevation are featured with large day/night temperature difference,  high mountain mist (which results in less direct sunlight and high humidity), and overall lower annual average temperature. Such natural conditions enable the tea tree to grow slowly and accumulate extraordinary amount of fragrant biomolecules.

Dry leaves of high mountain oolong are usually tightly curled. Therefore a 1-2 minutes interval between the warm-up infusion and the first infusion helps allow the leaves to uncurl and release flavor more easily. Some high mountain oolongs are hand-harvested, some are machine-harvested. Either way, the spent leaves should be relatively in shape and have certain thickness (which is a result of slow growth at high elevation).

Taiwan high mountain oolong products are mostly green style oolong. This is largely because high mountain oolong has a natural fresh flavor that is found in no other tea. Green style oolong processing minimizes the oxidation level and retain such unique fresh flavor to the largest degree. Some renowned tea makers also make lightly roasted high mountain oolong. Lightly roasted high mountain oolong is usually a hit-or-miss, and not as commonly seen as green style high mountain oolong.