Empress Oolong

Empress oolong tea is beautifully complex tea, just as real empresses are usually complex people.

Here’s 8 steps that go into making our empress oolong:

1. Soft downy buds are plucked.
2. Plucked leaf is withered in the sun.
3. The leaf is cooled.
4. Tossed.
5. Withered. (This step turns the leaves slightly brown.)
6. Fixed. (The leaf is left to rest.)
7. Rolled. (In which the leaf receives its characteristic Ti Kuan Yin shape.)
8. The leaf is finally dried.